The life of Georges Clemenceau

In September 1841, Clemenceau was born in a remote village in the Vendée province of France. He had six brothers and sisters. He entered the Nantes public secondary school at the age of 12. His family had an ancestral manor, and he spent his youth among farmers. spent. His father Bangyaman is a local doctor. Vendée is one of the provinces in France with a deeper traditional and religious influence. However, Benjamin, due to his exposure to advanced science and technology, is more open-minded, supports democracy, and does not believe in religion. On December 2, 1852, Louis Bonaparte proclaimed himself emperor and announced the establishment of the Second French Empire. Benjamin was arrested for opposing the restoration of the monarchy and was sent to Toulon Prison to serve his sentence.

Clemenceau inherited his father's business and began studying medicine at the age of 19. He has a wide range of interests and has strong interests in philosophy, literature, politics, art, etc. Politically influenced by his father since childhood, he has a sense of justice and advocates democracy, democracy and press freedom. He has been writing political and literary reviews in newspapers since he was a student, and actively participated in activities against the Second Empire. In 1862, he was imprisoned for 73 days. At the end of 1865, he went to the United States as a correspondent for The Times to conduct an on-the-spot investigation of the French Revolutionary War. He deeply appreciated the American Revolutionary War and the American Revolutionary War and advocated the implementation of an American-style French Revolutionary War in France with "no labor problems." . He lived in the United States for four years, where he married his pupil Mary Plummer. In 1869, he returned to China on the fifth day after his marriage and opened a medical practice in Montmartre, the 18th arrondissement of Paris, one of the proletarian settlements in Paris, and soon became famous. In September 1870, the French army suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Sedan, and Napoleon III surrendered. On September 4, a revolution broke out in Paris, announcing the restoration of peace, and immediately established a provisional government, which declared that the war against Prussia would continue. Clemenceau was appointed prefect of Montmartre. In February 1871, he was elected as a radical member of parliament. At that time, the nature of the Franco-Prussian War had been transformed into a just war of French self-defense against aggression, while the Provisional Government was bent on betraying the country and surrendering, ceding territory and seeking peace. When the National Assembly discussed the conclusion of a preliminary peace treaty between France and Germany that ceded Alsace and eastern Lorraine and paid an indemnity of 5 billion francs, Clemenceau voted against it and resigned as a member of Parliament in protest.

On March 18, 1871, the great Paris proletarian revolution broke out in Montmartre. When the soldiers sent by the reactionary government refused to shoot at the unarmed people defending the cannon and turned their guns to kill the reactionary officers, he opposed the use of violence by the people and stepped forward to stop them. But he was sympathetic to the Paris Commune uprising, and traveled with others between the Commune and Versailles, fantasizing about mediation to avoid "civil war." As the district chief of the area where the uprising started, he did not participate in counterrevolutionary suppression and adopted a "neutral" stance. After the suppression of the Paris Commune, he resigned as district mayor and reopened his medical practice in Montmartre.

In 1871 he was elected to the Paris City Council. He has served as Speaker of the City Council since 1875. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 1876 and soon became a leader of the radical faction. He has always supported peace and opposition to the restoration of the monarchy. In 1877, he took the lead in opposing President MacMahon's attempt to strengthen personal power; although he did not agree with socialism, he maintained friendly relations with socialists. On some issues, he was influenced by socialists to a certain extent. He founded "Justice" in 1880, and Marx's son-in-law Runge was one of the most influential editors of the newspaper. Under the influence of Longuet, Clemenceau adopted the most important demands for democracy and social reform put forward by the platform of the French Workers' Party, which was just founded in 1879. In October 1880, he delivered what Marx called a "semi-socialist" speech in Marseille, proposing progressive taxes on capital, the abolition of the standing army, shortening the working day, and the legalization of trade union activities. Under the influence of Longuet, Clemenceau opposed the Jouferry government's colonial military expedition to Tunisia in 1881 and its subsequent colonial expansion policies in Africa, Indochina and other places. He believed that using violence to conquer "uncivilized" peoples would only reduce the moral prestige of the French nation. The government should not use France's vast manpower and material resources on colonial expeditions but on various urgent domestic reforms. In his view, the colonial enterprise was only conducive to the enrichment of a few people and was not in the interest of France.

Because he failed to gain a majority in the Senate, he refused to form a cabinet many times. His huge political power and sharp critical ability made him have so many enemies that when the Panama scandal occurred in 1892, Ertz, one of the parties involved in the Panama Canal Company fraud case, was a personal friend of Clemenceau and a shareholder of his newspaper. , so Clemenceau was also implicated. His political enemies turned on him with vengeance, and he was later accused of accepting a stipend from the British Foreign Office. Out of anger, he fought a duel with his enemies without getting hurt. Although he won the case in court, he was ultimately defeated in the 1893 election due to attacks from all sides.

In the nine years from 1893 to 1902, Clemenceau was very unhappy politically and was mainly engaged in newspaper activities. In 1897, he began to write editorials for the Sinian Newspaper. From 1900 to 1902, he founded the weekly "Group". In June 1903, he took charge of the newspaper office of "Aurora News". Newspapers became an important base and powerful weapon for his political activities. This role was prominently displayed during the Dreyfus Affair.

In 1894, French Jewish officer Dreyfus was wronged and sentenced to life imprisonment for treason.

Although the real criminal was later discovered, the government and military authorities tried their best to cover up the truth, which aroused public outrage and led to a massive social movement calling for a retrial of the case. Clemenceau initially supported Dreyfus's sentencing. Once he learned the truth, he vigorously campaigned for it. He wrote more than 800 articles in newspapers such as "Chendan", effectively exposing the reactionary forces of militarism and clericalism, and for Dreyfus delivers justice. "Chendan" also published the entire front page of the famous French writer Zola's open letter to the president. The eye-catching banner title "I accuse!" was added by Clemenceau. The retrial movement greatly enhanced Clemenceau's prestige and became the beginning of his comeback. In 1902, Clemenceau was re-elected as a senator and became the leader of the center-left alliance in the Senate.

In March 1906, he served as Minister of the Interior in the Sarlian Cabinet. After the collapse of the Sarlian Cabinet in October of the same year, he became Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. The cabinet he presided over lasted for 33 months, making it one of the longest-lived cabinets during the Third World War.

In 1909, he was attacked by the powerful Derkasse and resigned. He then traveled overseas. In 1911, he was re-elected as a senator. As a member of the Foreign Affairs and Army Committee, he was convinced that the Germans were going to war and focused on national defense. In 1913, he founded a new daily newspaper, the Freeman, and appointed himself editor-in-chief. In September of the following year, "The Freeman" was banned, and two days later it was renamed "The Prisoner" and reprinted. During World War I, he vigorously carried out chauvinist and militaristic propaganda, advocating the expansion of arms production and recruiting more manpower, and fighting against the idea of ??domestic appeasement and compromise. Advocated a revenge war against Germany to protect France's security.

In 1917. At that time, the French front line was defeated, with heavy casualties and low morale. Russia withdrew from the war. The faction within the French government represented by former Prime Minister Caillot advocated immediate peace negotiations and the realization of a "peace without victors." In this emergency, President Raymond Poincaré decided to ask Clemenceau to form a government. At that time, Clemenceau was 76 years old and held the important responsibilities of Prime Minister and Minister of War. On March 8, 1918, he said in a policy speech in the House of Representatives: "My domestic policy is: I will fight. My foreign policy is: I will fight. ... Any time, anywhere, I will fight. …And I will continue to fight until the end of my life.”

He has always been arbitrary, and this has become more prominent after he came back to power. In fact, he implemented a personal dictatorship while retaining parliament. He kills decisively and carries out orders with authority. He personally went to the front lines many times to revive morale, vigorously suppressed anti-war forces at home, and denounced them as "defeatists". He also used this as an excuse to suppress the labor movement. Former Interior Minister Malvi and former Prime Minister Kayo were also arrested on charges of attempting to negotiate secret peace talks.

At the end of 1917, the United States, led by President Wilson, sent troops to land in France to support the exhausted British and French troops fighting against Germany. The war situation changed in favor of the Allied Powers. However, "one mountain cannot accommodate two tigers", and the contradiction between Clemenceau and Army Commander Henri Philippe Pétain was exposed again. The contradiction between the almost fanatical Clemenceau and the quiet Pétain became more and more prominent. Clemenceau often angrily accused his army commander of not reporting the war situation to him in detail and timely. The more on such occasions, the more Pétain became angry. Being silent made it almost impossible for him to control the situation of the battle. At the critical juncture of the war, he put forward the proposal of a joint military command, obtained the consent of the Allied governments, and established a unified command headed by Foch. When the news of Germany's surrender came in November 1918, the 77-year-old Clemenceau burst into tears and shouted: "I have finally waited for this day of revenge!". The French Senate unanimously passed a decree confirming his merits, stating: "As a citizen, Prime Minister and Minister of War, Georges Clemenceau has performed great services for his country." Clemenceau has since been known as the "Father of Victory". Indeed, after Clemenceau took over the cabinet, France quickly revitalized its national vitality, reversed the war situation, and ensured the final victory of the war. Not only that, he also retained the tradition and tradition that soldiers should be led by civilian officials after experiencing the war, and did not allow the victorious marshals and generals to act arbitrarily.

He actively participated in planning the armed intervention against Soviet Russia, signed an anti-Soviet and demarcated "sphere of influence" agreement with the United Kingdom, and actively supported the counter-revolutionary rebellions of Denikin, Kolchak and others within Soviet Russia. He also proposed the infamous "anti-epidemic zone" plan to prevent the spread of the influence of the Russian Revolution. Clemenceau said: "The danger of Bolshevism is great at present. Bolshevism is expanding. If Bolsheviks spread in Germany, pass through Austria and Hungary and reach Italy, then Europe will face great danger."

In 1919 Clemenceau represented France at the Paris Peace Conference. At the "Conference of Three", Lloyd George was most concerned about the colonial issue, while Woodrow Wilson insisted that all affairs should be resolved based on "the principles of peace and justice" and that the issue of the League of Nations covenant should be discussed first. For Clemenceau, he advocated dismembering Germany and weakening it to the maximum extent so that France could dominate the European continent.

The peace plan he proposed, in addition to recovering Alsace and Lorraine, required the possession of the Saar region, and the separation of the left bank of the Rhine from Germany and becoming a buffer state under French control; part of the territory in eastern Germany was allocated to Poland, the Czech Republic, etc. ; Germany will compensate for all war losses; and divide the German colonies according to the wartime secret agreement. Due to the opposition of Britain and the United States, he had to make some concessions, but the peace treaty finally signed with Germany still partially satisfied France's demands.

The Treaty of Versailles signed on June 28, 1919 is undoubtedly Clemenceau's masterpiece. But he was not universally admired by the French. Right-wing newspapers attacked him as only following Wilson's ass; Foch called his compromise a betrayal and a surrender; Raymond Poincaré called him "a lunatic who is revered as a god by the country." The peace treaty was signed more than a month ago , Clemenceau once again ordered shooting at the parade on May 1, which completely replaced the strong and resolute character he showed in the war with the image of a rough and cruel dictator.

At the end of 1919, he participated in the presidential election with the confidence of victory, hoping to defeat Raymond Poincaré in one fell swoop and replace him, but he did not expect to be defeated miserably. As a result, he withdrew from politics in 1920, left Paris, and returned to the Vendée province where he had been away for decades. From 1920 to 1929, during this period, Clemenceau was almost forgotten. In addition to tidying up his garden, reading newspapers, and writing memoirs every day, he occasionally travels and hunts, and writes some essays after returning. He visited India and then the United States in 1922, where he was warmly welcomed by the president and the people. Finally, he settled in his hometown and wrote "Demosthenes" (1927), "The Twilight of My Thought" (1929) and an unfinished "The Glory and Pain of Victory" (1930). The will was written on March 28, 1929. He wrote many books in his life. Mainly include: "Social Chaos" (1895), "American Reconstruction" (1928), etc. In 1918 Clemenceau was elected a member of the French Academy.

On November 24, 1929, Clemenceau died in loneliness at his former residence in Vendée Province at the age of 88. His will was written like this: "After my death, please bury my body next to the cemetery of my father Bellaman Clemenceau. My body should be sent directly from the morgue to the cemetery without entering any church or church." Have any formal funeral. My grave should be the same as my father's, with no tombstone and only an iron fence." Clemenceau was forgotten, and in the ten years after his death, there was no one in France. Politicians have mentioned his name in public.