Adolphe Thiers

Louis Adolphe Thiers (April 16, 1797–September 3 1877) was a French statesman and historian. Thiers was a prime minister under King Louis-Philippe of France. Following the overthrow of the Second Empire he again came to prominence as the French leader who suppressed the revolutionary Paris Commune of 1871. From 1871 to 1873 he served initially as Chief of State (effectively a provisional President of France, then a full provisional President. When following a vote of no confidence in the National Assembly his offer of resignation was accepted (he had expected another rejection) and he was forced to vacate office. He was replaced as Provisional President by Patrice MacMahon, duc de Magenta, who became full President of the Third Republic, a post Thiers had coveted, in 1875 when a series of Organic Laws officially creating the Third Republic were enacted.

The Second Republic and the Second Empire

Under the Republic he took up the position of conservative republican, which he ever afterwards maintained, and he never took office. But the consistency of his conduct, especially in voting for Louis Napoleon as president, was often and sharply criticized, one of the criticisms leading to a duel with a fellow-deputy, Bixio. He was arrested at the coup d'etat, was sent to Mazas, and then escorted out of France. But in the following summer he was allowed to return. For the next decade his history was almost a blank, his time being occupied for the most part on The Consulate and the Empire. It was not till 1863 that he re-entered political life, being elected by a Parisian constituency. For the seven years following he was the chief speaker among the small band of anti-Imperialists in the French chamber, and was regarded generally as the most formidable enemy of the Empire. While protesting against its foreign enterprises, he also harped on French loss of prestige, and so helped contribute to stir up the fatal spirit which brought on the war of 1870.

Related Topics:
Louis Napoleon - Bixio - Coup d'etat - Mazas - 1863 - 1870

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