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Aristide Briand

(1862-1932)

trade unions and, at a workers' congress Catholic parties upon whose support
in Nantes, succeeded in getting the he relied. When the Vatican objected to
sharply divided French socialists to certain measures, Briand showed great
adopt the general strike as a political political astuteness in giving the Roman
tactic. Following this, Briand became Catholic Church the liberty to conduct
secretary-general of the French Socialist its own affairs.
Party in igoi. In 1902 at the age of 4o he
found his true calling when, affer three Throughout the early decades of the
unsuccessful attempts, he was elected twentieth century the fates of Briand
to the French Chamber of Deputies (or and Clemenceau would be entangled.
parliament) as a revolutionary socialist. Clemenceau would play a leading role
He remained a member of parliament in French politics for over fifty years.
5' 4 ' a=& until his death although, as we shall Briand was promoted by Clemenceau to
see, he did not remain a "revolutionary become Minister of Justice. When Cle-
socialist" for very long. In igo4 he joi- menceau was defeated in 1909, Briand
ned Jean Jaures, another French social became Prime Ministerfor the firsttime,
Aristide Briand was a democratic leader (who would be assas- much to the former's chagrin. In this
French statesman and one sinated in 1914), to establish the left- position, he broke the railway workers'
wing newspaper, L'Humanit6. However, strike in 1910 by the novel expedient of
of the pillars of the League of
he was then invited to take up a post ordering the military mobilization of the
Nations during the 1920s. in a coalition government. In fact, the railway workers, dismissed those who
Socialist Party had decided that its disobeyed and arrested the strike com-
members would not participate in such mittee. This episode marked a complete
a coalition government. So when Briand rupture with the political left.
moral force in post-First World accepted a governmental post, there was
War politics, his main objective a rupture with Jaures and the socialists; His shift to the right was confirmed
in public life was the abolition of he was expelled from the party. when he accepted the post of Prime
war as an instrument of national policy. Minister for Raymond Poincare, the
He sought to substitute trust for sus- The significance of tliis was that Briand conservative Republican who became
picion, law for international disorder, had begun to abandon his links with so- French president in igi:. Briand further
and manl6nd's betterment for militaiy cialism and, from then on, was not ali- upset the left-wing by supporting the
Armageddon. Briand was among the gned with any particular political party. extension of compulsory military ser-
first to propose a union of European na- He was considered as one of the most vice to three years in the face of rising
tions. He was also opposed to the death advanced political thinkers of his time, German militarism.
sentence for criminals, altliough he did surviving through his power of imagina-
not achieve its abolition in his lifetime. tion, liis talent for oratory and his un- Between igi5 and igi7, Briand, tlie en-
derstanding of what the common man emy of war, was forced by the irony of
Throughout its seventy-year history wanted. He employed personal diplo- events to lead his nation for eighteen cri-
from i87o to ig4o, the Third French macy and persuasiveness, compromise tical months duringtlie FirstWorldWar.
Republic stumbled from crisis to crisis, and manoeuvre, which would become In October 1915, President Poincar6 ap-
with fragile governments following each his trademarks. Witli liis overflowing pointed Briand as Prime Minister again
other in quick succession. No French moustache, his unkempt hair, open col- and, for the first time, made him res-
politician has led his country more lar and tie hanging loose, he deliberately ponsible for foreign affairs. Briand's at-
times than Aristide Briand - - between cultivated a "bohemian" air. tempts to establish political control over
1909 and 1929, he was prime minister the military high command ended in
of France on eleven separate occasions, Upon entering the French Chamber failure when he was unable to persuade

altogether holding a total of twenty- of Deputies in 1902, he immediately the French Army to change its tactics of

six ministerial posts of various kinds achieved recognition as the moving attrition on the Western Front. Howe-
between igo6 and ig3:. Briand occu- force beliind the new law that would se- ver, afterhuge Frenchlosses atthe Battle
pied the post of French foreign minister parate Church and State. It was he who of Verdun Briand was able to remove
longer than any person since Talley- wrote the law and was at once marked General Joffre from power and replace
rand in the eighteenth and nineteenth out as a future minister. Indeed, in igo6, him with General Nivelle. Although a
centuries. as the Minister of Public Instruction and powerful cabinet figure, his tenure as
Worship in the coalition government wartime Prime Minister was not par-
Originating in Nantes, Brittany, Briand headed by Georges Clemenceau, he ticularly successful since he advoca-
studied law and established a legal prac- brought the separation of Church and ted French intervention on the Balkan
tice, but it was drawn to the profession State into reality by guiding the legisla- Front, leading to two further military re-
of journalism. He became associated tion through parliament. He succeeded versals. The French had encouraged the
with political innovation, writing ar- in getting this law adopted with only Romanians to attackAustria, butthe for-
ticles for various magazines. In i8g4 slight modifications, and yet without lo- mer's armywas rapidly and comprehen-
he flirted with the far left, defended the sing the support of the anticlerical and sively defeated with the Romanian oil

I 44 History