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Aristide Briand

Aristide Briand (March 28, 1862 - March 7, 1932) was a French statesman.

He was born at Nantes, of a bourgeois family. He studied law, and soon went into politics, associating himself with the most advanced movements, writing articles for the anarchist journal Le Peuple, and directing the Lanterne for some time. From this he passed to the Petite Republique, leaving it to found L'Humanité, in collaboration with Jean Jaurès.

At the same time he was prominent in the movement for the formation of trade unions, and at the congress of working men at Nantes in 1894 he secured the adoption of the labour union idea against the adherents of Jules Guesde. From that time, Briand became one of the leaders of the French Socialist party. In 1902, after several unsuccessful attempts, he was elected deputy. He declared himself a strong partisan of the union of the Left in what is known as the Bloc, in order to check the reactionary deputies of the Right. From the beginning of his career in the chamber of deputies, Briand was occupied with the question of the separation of church and state. He was appointed reporter of the commission charged with the preparation of the law, and his masterly report at once marked him out as one of the coming headers. He succeeded in carrying his project through with but slight modifications, and without dividing the parties upon whose support he relied.

He was the principal author of the law of separation, but, not content with preparing it, he wished to apply it as well, especially as the existing ministry of Maurice Rouvier was allowing disturbances during the taking of inventories of church property, a clause of the law for which Briand was not responsible. Consequently he accepted the portfolio of public instruction and worship in the Sarrien ministry (1906). So far as the chamber was concerned his success was complete. But the acceptance of a portfolio in a bourgeois ministry led to his exclusion from the Unified Socialist party (March 1906). As opposed to Jaurès, he contended that the Socialists should co-operate actively with the Radicals in all matters of reform, and not stand aloof to await the complete fulfilment of their ideals.

Aristide Briand received the 1926 Nobel Peace Prize together with Gustav Stresemann (Germany), for the Locarno Treaties. A 1927 proposal by Briand and United States Secretary of State Frank B. Kellogg for a universal pact outlawing war led the following year to the Pact of Paris.

Preceded by:
Georges Clemenceau
1906-1909
Prime Minister of France
1909-1911
Followed by:
Ernest Monis
1911
Preceded by:
Raymond Poincaré
1912-1913
Prime Minister of France
1913
Followed by:
Louis Barthou
1913
Preceded by:
René Viviani
1914-1915
Prime Minister of France
1915-1917
Followed by:
Alexandre Ribot
1917
Preceded by:
Georges Leygues
1920-1921
Prime Minister of France
1921-1922
Followed by:
Raymond Poincaré
1922-1924
Preceded by:
Paul Painlevé
1925
Prime Minister of France
1925-1926
Followed by:
Edouard Herriot
1926
Preceded by:
Raymond Poincaré
1926-1929
Prime Minister of France
1929
Followed by:
André Tardieu
1929-1930

Initial text from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica - please update as needed.