good French, or males anyway, by forcing them to speak French;

虽然只教男性强制他们说法语
and third, schools;

第三个动力是学校
that is,

也就是
the increase in literacy in France, dramatic.

法国人的文化水平大幅度提高
In the course of the nineteenth century

19世纪期间
there was always a big gap between male literacy and female literacy,

男性的文化水平曾远远高于女性
and this gap is closed,

而这个差距在19世纪期间消失了
such as by 1900 the vast majority of people in France

到了1900年法国大部分人
can read and write.

都会读书写字
How do we know that, by the way?

那么我们从何而知呢
Well one of the ways that historians have tried to assess

其中一种方法是历史学家尝试通过
those things in the past is looking at military conscription records or,

看征兵记录来衡量过去人的文化水平