Joseph Gallieni

Gallieni is a redirect to this article. For the station of the Paris Métro see Gallieni (Métro Paris) .

Joseph Gallieni

Joseph Simon Gallieni (born April 24, 1849 in Saint-Béat , Haute-Garonne département , † May 27, 1916 in Versailles ) was a French general , governor of Madagascar and minister of war.

Life

Joseph Simon Gallieni was the son of Italian immigrants. After studying at the Prytanée militaire and the Saint-Cyr military school , he began his service as an active officer in the French marine infantry on July 15, 1870 .

The Franco-German War 1870/1871

The young Gallieni took part in the Franco-German War of 1870/1871 as a sous-lieutenant in the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment. He was wounded during the battle of Sedan in the village of Bazeilles and was taken prisoner of war . He came to Germany and was released from captivity on March 11, 1871.

Service in the colonies

Promoted to lieutenant on April 25, 1873 , he went to the island of Réunion with his new unit, the 2nd Marine Infantry Regiment, until 1876 . With his departure on December 11, 1876, Gallieni's career began in black Africa. Little is known about its use in the years up to 1882; various sources in French military literature are only vague. In 1878 he was promoted to captaincy . From 1883 to 1886 he served as a colonial officer in Martinique . Upon his return he is promoted to lieutenant colonel.

Soon after, on December 20, 1886, he was appointed Governor General of the French colony of Soudan française (today's Republic of Mali ). He remained there until 1891. After his return to France, Gallieni was appointed Colonel on March 11, 1891 . From 1892 to 1896 he served in Indochina , in 1896 he became General de Brigade .

He gained fame there mainly for his tough and often merciless fight against Chinese pirates , which helped to stabilize the region. In Indochina he often relied on troops from the Foreign Legion , and he worked for the first time with Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey .

From 1896 to 1905 he served as Governor General in Madagascar, where he also ruled the island, which was plagued by revolts and unrest, with a hard hand and the bayonets of the Foreign Legion. On August 9, 1899, he was promoted to General de Division (Major General). Awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor (November 6, 1905), he retired in April 1914.

First World War

In August 1914, Gallieni was reactivated as military governor of Paris . Gallieni used his chance to attack when the German 1st Army swerved to the east in the Battle of the Marne and sent his troops to the front, also with the help of all taxis available in Paris. Gallieni commented on this idea, unique in the history of war, as follows: “  Eh bien, voilà au moins qui n'est pas banal!  ». The actual importance of taxis was rather minor, the vast majority of soldiers were transported by rail. Gallieni's unusual idea contributed to the stabilization of the front on the Marne and is still published today, often in a distorted way, as an anecdote of the Battle of the Marne. From October 29, 1915 to March 16, 1916 he was still minister of war before age and poor health forced him to resign.

On December 28, 1899 he became a corresponding member of the Académie des Sciences .

Gallieni died on May 27, 1916 as a result of an operation. In 1921 he was posthumously appointed Marshal of France .

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On the subject of the Marne Battle

• John Giles: The Western Front then and now - from Mons to the Marne and back . Battle of Britain Prints, London 1992, ISBN 0-900913-71-1
• Robert B Asprey: The First Battle of the Marne . Weidenfeld & Nicholson, London 1962

Works written by Gallieni

• Mission d'exploration du Haut-Niger. Voyage au Soudan Français (Haut-Niger et pays de Ségou) 1879–1881. Contenant 140 gravures dessinées sur bois par Riou, 2 cartes et 15 plans. Hachette, Paris 1885.
• Deux campagnes au Soudan français. 1886-1888. Avec une préface de Victor Duruy . Ouvrage contenant 163 gravures sur bois d'après les dessins de Riou et 2 contes et 1 plan. Hachette, Paris 1891.
• Trois colonnes au Tonkin (1894–1895). Avec 10 plans. R. Chapelot, Paris 1899.
• La pacification de Madagascar (opérations d'octobre 1896 à mars 1899). Ouvrage rédigé d'après les archives de l'état-major du corps d'occupation. R. Chapelot, Paris 1900.

Other literature

• Pierre-Barthélemy Gheusi : Gallieni. (1849-1916) . Eugène Fasquelle, Paris 1922, ( Bibliothèque "Charpentier" ).
• Pierre Lyautey: Gallieni . Gallimard, Montrouge 1959.
• Marc Michel: Gallieni . Fayard, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-213-02368-9 .

Web links

Commons : Joseph Gallieni  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about Joseph Gallieni in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ List of members since 1666: Letter G. Académie des sciences, accessed on November 17, 2019 (French). 

predecessor	Office	successor
Alexandre Millerand	Minister of War of France October 29, 1915-16. March 1916	Pierre Roques