Adolphe Thiers

Adolphe Thiers
Name	Adolphe Thiers
Caption	Thiers c. 1870s
Office	President of France
Term start	31 August 1871
Term end	24 May 1873
Predecessor	Louis Jules Trochu (as President of the Government of National Defense)
Successor	Patrice de MacMahon
Office2	Prime Minister of France
Term start2	22 February 1836
Term end2	6 September 1836
Predecessor2	Victor de Broglie
Successor2	Louis-Mathieu Molé
Term start3	1 March 1840
Term end3	29 October 1840
Predecessor3	Nicolas Soult
Successor3	Nicolas Soult
Birth date	15 April 1797
Birth place	Marseille, French First Republic
Death date	3 September 1877 (aged 80)
Death place	Saint-Germain-en-Laye, French Third Republic
Party	Orléanist , Party of Order , Conservative Republican
Spouse	Élise Dosne
Profession	Historian, Journalist, Politician

Adolphe Thiers was a dominant French statesman, historian, and journalist whose political career spanned five tumultuous regimes in 19th-century France. He is best known for his foundational role in establishing the French Third Republic, his ruthless suppression of the Paris Commune, and his negotiation of the peace terms following the Franco-Prussian War. A complex figure, Thiers was both a liberal Orléanist monarchist and a pragmatic republican, whose leadership was characterized by a fierce defense of order, property, and a centralized state.

Early life and career

Born in Marseille to a modest family, Thiers studied law at the University of Aix-en-Provence before moving to Paris in 1821. He quickly gained prominence as a journalist, co-founding the opposition newspaper Le National in 1830, which championed liberalism and criticized the Bourbon Restoration under Charles X. His major early work, the multi-volume History of the French Revolution, established his reputation as a historian and articulated a bourgeois, liberal interpretation of the revolution, celebrating its principles while condemning the excesses of the Reign of Terror.

Role in the July Monarchy

Thiers played a pivotal role in the July Revolution of 1830 that overthrew Charles X and brought Louis Philippe I to power, establishing the July Monarchy. He served as a deputy and held several ministerial portfolios, including the interior, before becoming Prime Minister of France in 1836 and again in 1840. His second ministry was marked by a bellicose foreign policy, including the decision to return Napoleon's remains to France for entombment at the Les Invalides and a tense diplomatic confrontation with the United Kingdom known as the Oriental Crisis of 1840.

The Second Republic and Second Empire

After the fall of the July Monarchy during the French Revolution of 1848, Thiers initially supported the French Second Republic but was an outspoken conservative within the Constituent Assembly. He backed the Cavaignac government's suppression of the June Days uprising and later supported the presidential candidacy of Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. However, he broke with Bonaparte after the French coup of 1851 that established the Second French Empire, spending much of the Second Empire in opposition, writing his History of the Consulate and the Empire, and waiting for a political return.

Leadership during the Franco-Prussian War

Following the French defeat at the Battle of Sedan and the collapse of the Second Empire in September 1870, Thiers emerged as a key figure. Although not part of the Government of National Defense in Paris, he embarked on a diplomatic tour of European capitals, including London, Saint Petersburg, and Vienna, seeking intervention in the Franco-Prussian War. In February 1871, he was elected head of the new provisional government and was charged with negotiating peace with Otto von Bismarck. The resulting Treaty of Frankfurt (1871) was harsh, ceding Alsace-Lorraine to the new German Empire and imposing a massive war indemnity.

Suppression of the Paris Commune

Thiers's government, based at Versailles, faced immediate rebellion from the radical socialist government in Paris, the Paris Commune. In what became known as the Bloody Week (21–28 May 1871), Thiers ordered the regular French Army, under generals like Patrice de MacMahon, to violently retake the capital. The suppression was exceptionally brutal, resulting in thousands of executions and deportations, an action that cemented Thiers's reputation among the French left as a ruthless enemy of the working class.

Presidency and later life

In August 1871, the National Assembly elected Thiers as the first President of France under the nascent French Third Republic. His presidency focused on national recovery, successfully paying off the war indemnity ahead of schedule to end the German occupation of north-eastern France. However, his increasingly clear advocacy for a "conservative republic" alienated the monarchist majority in the Assembly. After a vote of no confidence, he resigned on 24 May 1873, succeeded by Marshal MacMahon. Thiers remained a deputy until his death in Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1877, a staunch defender of the republican constitution against monarchist revivals.

Category:1797 births Category:1877 deaths Category:Presidents of France Category:Prime Ministers of France Category:French historians Category:Members of the Académie française