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Jules François Camille Ferry (5 April 1832 – 17 March 1893) was a French statesman, republican. Was a promoter of laicism and among others, supported colonial expansion. Born in Saint-Dié, in the Vosges département, France, he studied law, and was called to the bar at Paris, but soon went into politics, contributing to various newspapers, particularly to Le Temps. He attacked the Second French Empire with great violence, directing his opposition especially against Baron Haussmann, prefect of the Seine département. Elected republican deputy for Paris in 1869, he protested against the declaration of war with Germany, and on 6 September 1870 was appointed prefect of the Seine by the Government of National Defense. In this
position he had the difficult task of administering Paris during the
siege, and after the Paris
Commune was obliged
to resign (5 June 1871). From 1872 to 1873 he was sent by Adolphe
Thiers as minister
to Athens, but returned to the chamber as deputy for the Vosges, and
became one of the leaders of the republican party. When the first
republican ministry was formed under WH
Waddington on 4
February 1879, he was one of its members, and continued in the ministry
until 30 March 1885, except for two short interruptions (from 10
November 1881 to 30 January 1882, and from 29 July 1882 to 21 February
1883), first as minister of education and then as minister of foreign
affairs. A leader of the Opportunist
Republicans faction,
he
was twice premier (1880 - 1881 and 1883 - 1885). Two
important works are associated with his administration, the
non-clerical organization of public education, and the beginning of the colonial expansion
of France. Following the republican programme he proposed
to destroy the influence of the clergy in the university and found his
own system of republican schooling. He reorganized the committee of
public education (law of 27 February 1880), and proposed a regulation
for the conferring of university degrees, which, though rejected,
aroused violent polemics because the 7th article took away from the
unauthorized religious orders the right to teach. He finally succeeded
in passing his eponymous
laws of 16 June
1881 and 28 March 1882, which made primary education
in
France free, non-clerical (laïque)
and
mandatory. In higher education, the number of professors, called
the "hussards noirs de la République" ("Republic's black
hussars") because
of their Republican support, doubled under his ministry. The education
policies
establishing French language as
the language of the
Republic have been contested in the second half of the 20th century
insofar as, if they played an important role in unifying the French nation-state and the Third
Republic, they also nearly provoked the extinction of several
regional languages. After the military
defeat
of France by Germany in
1870,
Ferry formed the idea of acquiring a great colonial empire,
principally for the sake of economic exploitation. In a speech before
the Chamber of
Deputies on 28 July 1885, he declared that "the superior races have a
right because they have a duty: it is their duty to civilize the
inferior races." Ferry directed the negotiations which led to the
establishment of a French protectorate in Tunis (1881), prepared the treaty
of 17 December 1885 for the occupation of Madagascar;
directed the exploration of the Congo and of the Niger region; and above all, he
organized the conquest of Annam and Tonkin in what became Indochina. The last
endeavor led to a war with the Manchu
Empire, whose Qing
Dynasty had a claim
of suzerainty over the two provinces. The excitement caused in Paris by
the sudden retreat
of
the French troops from Lang
Son during this war
led to the Tonkin Affair: his violent denunciation by Clemenceau and other radicals, and his
downfall on 30 March 1885. Although the treaty
of
peace with the Manchu Empire (9
June
1885), in which the Qing Dynasty ceded suzerainty of Annam and
Tonkin to France, was the work of his ministry, he would never again
serve as premier. The
desire for a monarchy was still strong in France even under the Third
Republic — the comte
de
Chambord having
made a bid early in its history. A committed republican, Ferry
proceeded to a wide-scale "purge" by dismissing many known monarchists
from top positions in the magistrature,
army
and civil and diplomatic service. The key
to understanding Ferry's unique position in Third Republic history is
that until his political critic, Georges
Clemenceau became
Prime Minister twice in the 20th Century Ferry has the longest tenure
as Prime Minister under that regime. He also played with political
dynamite that eventually destroyed his success. Ferry (like his 20th
Century equivalent Joseph
Caillaux) believed in not confronting Wilhelmine Germany by threats
of a future war of revenge. Most French politicians in the middle and
right saw it as a sacred duty to one day lead France again against
Germany to reclaim Alsace-Lorraine,
and
avenge the awful defeat of 1870. But Ferry realized that Germany
was too powerful, and it made more sense to cooperate with Otto
von
Bismarck and
avoid trouble. A sensible policy - but hardly popular. Bismarck
was constantly nervous about the situation with France. Although he had
despised the ineptness of the French under Napoleon III and the
government of Adolphe
Thiers and Jules
Favre, he had not planned for all the demands he presented the
French in 1870. He only wished to temporarily cripple France by the
billion franc reparation, but suddenly he was confronted by the demands
of Marshals Albrecht
von
Roon and Helmut
von
Moltke (backed
by Emperor Wilhelm
I) to annex the two French provinces as further payment. Bismarck,
for all his abilities regarding manipulating events, could not afford
to anger the Prussian military. He got the two provinces, but he
realized it would eventually have severe future repercussions. Bismarck
was able to ignore the French for most of the 1870s and early 1880s,
but as he found problems with his three erstwhile allies (Austria,
Russia, and Italy) he realized France might one day take advantage of
this (as it did with Russia in 1894). When Ferry came up with a
radically different approach to the situation and offered an olive
branch Bismarck reciprocated. A Franco-German friendship would
alleviate problems of siding with either Austria or Russia, or Austria
and Italy. Bismarck approved of the colonial expansion that France
pursued under Ferry. He only had some problems with local German
imperialists who were critical that Germany lacked colonies, so he
found a few in the 1880s, making certain he did not confront French
interests. But he also suggested Franco-German cooperation on the
imperial front against the British Empire, thus hoping to create a
wedge between the two Western European great powers. It did as a
result, leading to a major race for influence across Africa that nearly
culminated in war in the next decade, at Fashoda in the Sudan in
1898. But by then both
Bismarck and Ferry were dead, and the rapproachment policy died when
Ferry lost office. As for Fashoda, while it was a confrontation, it led
to Britain and France eventually discussing their rival colonial goals,
and agreeing to support each other's sphere of influence - the first
step to the Entente
Cordiale between
the countries in 1904. Ferry
remained an influential member of the moderate republican party, and
directed the opposition to General
Boulanger. After the resignation of Jules
Grévy (2
December 1887), he was a candidate for the presidency of the republic,
but the radicals refused to support him, and he withdrew in favour of Sadi
Carnot. In 1887,
a man named Aubertin attempted to assassinate Jules Ferry, who later
died from complications attributed to this wound on 17 March 1893. The Chamber
of
Deputies gave
him a state funeral. |