Raymond Poincaré

Lore & Background

Trained in law, Poincaré was elected as a Deputy in 1887 and served in the cabinets of Dupuy and Ribot. He became a leading figure in the Democratic Republican Alliance, the most important centre-right party under the Third Republic, though he was not among its co-founders in 1901. He became prime minister in 1912 and served as President of the Republic for 1913–1920. Attempting to exercise influence from a traditionally figurehead role, he visited Russia in 1912 and 1914 to repair relations with Russia which had been strained by the Bosnian Crisis of 1908 and the Agadir Crisis of 1911. He likewise played an important role during the July Crisis of 1914 which ultimately led to France's participation in World War I. From 1917 onward, he exercised less influence after his political rival Georges Clemenceau had become prime minister. At the Paris Peace Conference, he favoured Allied occupation of the Rhineland. In 1922 Poincaré returned to power as prime minister. In 1923 he ordered the Occupation of the Ruhr to enforce payment of German reparations. By this time Poincaré was seen, especially in the English-speaking world, as an aggressive figure (Poincaré-la-Guerre) who had helped to cause the war in 1914 and who now favoured punitive anti-German policies. His government was defeated by the Cartel des Gauches at the elections of 1924. He served a third term as prime minister in 1926–1929.

Reader's Guide

Poincaré was an International Member of both the American Philosophical Society and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Nicknamed Le Lion ('the Lion'), Poincaré is honored as a victorious wartime leader in France. Born in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, France, Raymond Poincaré was the son of Nanine Marie Ficatier, who was deeply religious and Nicolas Antonin Hélène Poincaré, a distinguished civil servant and meteorologist. Raymond was also the cousin of Henri Poincaré, the famous mathematician. Educated at the University of Paris, Raymond was called to the Paris Bar, and was for some time law editor of the Voltaire. He became at the age of 20 the youngest lawyer in France and was appointed Secrétaire de la Conférence du Barreau de Paris. As a lawyer, he successfully defended Jules Verne in a libel suit presented against the famous author by the chemist, Eugène Turpin, inventor of the explosive melinite, who claimed that the 'mad scientist' character in Verne's book Facing the Flag was based on him. At the age of 26, Poincaré was elected to the Chamber of Deputies, making him the youngest deputy in the chamber. Poincaré had served for over a year in the Department of Agriculture when in 1887 he was elected deputy for the Meuse département. He made a great reputation in the Chamber as an economist, and sat on the budget commissions of 1890–1891 and 1892. He was minister of education, fine arts and religion in the first cabinet (April–November 1893) of Charles Dupuy, and minister of finance in the second and third (May 1894–January 1895). In Alexandre Ribot's cabinet, Poincaré became minister of public instruction. Although he was excluded from the Radical cabinet which followed, the revised scheme of death duties proposed by the new ministry was based upon his proposals of the previous year. He became vice-president of the chamber in the autumn of 1895 and, in spite of the bitter hostility of the Radicals, retained his position in 1896 and 1897. Along with other followers of 'Opportunist' Léon Gambetta, Poincaré founded the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) in 1902, which became the most important centre-right party under the Third Republic. In 1906, he returned to the ministry of finance in the short-lived Sarrien ministry. Poincaré had retained his practice at the Bar during his political career, and he published several volumes of essays on literary and polit

Did You Know?

• Poincaré was the cousin of the famous mathematician Henri Poincaré.
• He became the youngest lawyer in France at age 20.
• He was nicknamed 'Le Lion' ('the Lion').