What did the French Law of Associations of 1901 do to religious orders?

The French Law of Associations of 1901 was a significant piece of anticlerical legislation enacted during the Third Republic. It functioned to suppress nearly all religious orders in France and mandated the confiscation of their property.1

This measure was part of a broader effort by the republican-anticlerical bloc to remove clerical influence from public life, a conflict that intensified during the Alfred Dreyfus affair. The law preceded the 1905 separation law, which formally sundered the relationship between church and state in France.1