George Clemenceau

Résumé du document

George Clemenceau, and not 'Clémenceau' as many people use to write his name just to bother him, was born on the 28th September, 1841 in a modest house of a small Vendee village. But contrary to the appearances and to what he often claims, Clemenceau is not from a provincial background. He is the heritor of quite a wealthy family of doctors who were already rich before the revolution. He even has an ancestor who received a nobility title from Louis the XIII. Despite his vendean roots but like most of the republicans, Clemenceau has always showed a deep contempt for peasants since he was a young boy in his region. Nevertheless, Clemenceau has always seen himself as a vandean person and had a strong feeling of appurtenance to his native region. This matter can seem strange if we consider the political convictions of Clemenceau but also of his family and the political tradition of this region. Indeed, the vendee appears as one of the most traditionalist region of France, the symbol of the royalist resistance against the revolution. At the opposite we know now that Clemenceau went to republicanism and radicalism due to his family's influence. Truth is that republicans in the middle of the nineteenth century were quite rare in vendee. But the Clemenceau family was one of those exceptions. In fact, we can not really say that Clemenceau built his own strong and independent character because he always felt in opposition with his neighbours and comrades. It is partly true but there are also elements of Clemenceau's character that makes him a real vendean person. He said himself that he took the qualities of vendean spirit such as combativeness and courage against oppositions, criticisms, and attacks.

Extraits

[...] Conclusion Clemenceau remains as a major political figure in French minds. But contrary to other great figures of French history, such as Napoleon or Charles de Gaulle, he has never been a constructor, a fondant leader. So we can wonder why his influence is still visible if his acts did not let a real trace. Of course, he led France to the victory but most of all, he illustrated an instable but full of promises third republic. If Clemenceau is one of those men who built France, it is more because he is the incarnation of French values and even French contradictions. [...]

[...] Did this travel change him deeply? It does not seem so but he came back to France with a real knowledge of American culture and political life and with the reputation of being a good orator in English that he used to maîtriser perfectly. After his marriage, he decided to come back in his native country to start a political career in the camp of Napoleon the III's opposition The first steps in the French political life parallèelment to the complicated birth of the the third republic Already during his studies in Paris, Clemenceau had integrated the microcosm of Parisian opposition against the Empire. [...]

[...] Clemenceau was in fact much more open- minded that people used to believe. Finally, this period of disgrace brought a lot to the future man on power. It gave him a maturity, a real knowledge of the journalistic world and most of all, time to think about the main issues which contributed to the wealth and the originality of Clemenceau's political views. The Dreyfus Affair gave finally to Clemenceau the opportunity to come back on the front of the stage and more than that, to accede to the power. [...]

[...] Clemenceau is also fighting for a revision of the Consitution which is not adapted to republic and democracy. He critics the maintain of lois constitutionnelles”of 1875 which appears for him as the symbol of the compromising with the royalists. A real Republic has the duty to dote itself a real constitution and not some laws in which the word republic appears only one time. He also points the fact that the presidency of seven years is much more too long that it should be because it let the possibility for a king to come back and to restaure the monarchy. [...]

[...] But the main figure who influenced the Tiger during his youth was his father, a man with a strong character who decided to raise his children far from any religion and in the cult of the revolution and republican's history. Faithful to his convictions, Benjamin Clemenceau got involved in the resistance against Louis-Philippe and then against the emperor who arrested him and condemned him to deportation in Algeria. This political background gives a important key to catch the spirit of theTiger. [...]