Théophile Delcassé

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Théophile Delcassé

Théophile Delcassé (born March 1, 1852 in Pamiers , Ariège department , † February 22, 1923 in Nice ) was a leading statesman of the French Third Republic .

Colonial minister

Early on he was active as a political journalist and politician in his home department of Ariège , where he proved to be a loyal follower of Léon Gambetta . In 1889 he became a member of the National Assembly as a representative of the city of Foix and for the Parti radical , of which he belonged to the moderate wing. Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot appointed him Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs in 1893, a post he retained until December 1893 under the subsequent cabinet of Charles Dupuy . It is thanks to Delcassé that the Colonial Office became an independent ministry for colonial affairs, whose first minister he himself became in 1894. In this role he gave new impetus to French colonial policy, especially in West Africa; new areas were subjugated and the fleet was also reinforced. Delcassé acted largely independently within his department, sometimes even without informing parliament of his initiatives.

Foreign minister

In June 1898 Delcassé became Foreign Minister in the Brisson cabinet, succeeding Gabriel Hanotaux . While most of the other foreign ministers of the Third Republic only held office for a few months, Delcassé managed to hold out for seven years, despite some fierce foreign policy controversies. His political course was marked by a decided opposition to the German Reich . With this in mind, he succeeded in leading France out of its initial political isolation.

Right at the beginning of his term of office, the Faschoda crisis occurred when the French captain Marchand hoisted the French flag in the southern Sudanese town of Faschoda on the Nile to document his country's claim to an overland connection between French West Africa and Djibouti . This met with fierce resistance from Great Britain , which wanted to control the Upper Nile itself within the framework of the Cape Cairo Plan . France was asked to withdraw in an ultimatum , Delcassé gave in and instead of Marchand, British General Kitchener moved into South Sudan. The Sudan Treaty finally awarded Sudan Great Britain, Delcassé took responsibility to parliament for the failure of the far-reaching colonial plans, at the same time he gradually succeeded in rapprochement with Great Britain, which seemed to him a suitable means of creating a counterweight to the German Reich and so on possibly to enable a revenge for the defeat of 1870/71 .

In 1899 he made himself available as a mediator in the conflict between the USA and Spain , where he was able to bring the peace negotiations between the two nations to a successful conclusion. By delimiting the respective spheres of interest in North Africa in the secret agreement of 1902, he also improved the relationship with Italy , which Libya was awarded as a future colony, while France itself secured Tunisia and Morocco . The alliance with Russia was also renewed - in 1899 and 1901 the minister visited Saint Petersburg . With Spain in June 1900, he regulated the demarcation between the Spanish and French colonies in Africa.

After a visit to London with President Émile Loubet in 1903, the Entente Cordiale between Great Britain and France was finally concluded on April 8, 1904 , whereby an agreement was reached with regard to mutual interests in Egypt , Newfoundland and Morocco . The direct consequence was a further alienation with the German Reich. During his term of office, the Doggerbank incident fell , which led to resentment in British-Russian relations. Delcassé successfully intervened on behalf of the French government to prevent war between the two countries. In the First Morocco Crisis , the Foreign Minister wanted to allow a confrontation with Germany. Opposed to this was the decidedly pacifist Prime Minister Maurice Rouvier . Because of these conflicting views, Delcassé finally resigned June 6, 1905, where he later campaigned for a naval cooperation between Great Britain and France.

In 1911/12 he was Minister of the Navy, then from February 1913 to January 1914 Ambassador to Saint Petersburg . As a co-founder of the Entente, at the beginning of the First World War he appeared particularly suitable for holding the Allied military alliance together, so that he again served as French Foreign Minister from August 26, 1914 to October 13, 1915. His most important success in this phase was Italy's entry into the war on the Allied side. Because of his overly pro-Russian stance, he had to resign on October 13, 1915, as his support for Russian war aims in the Balkans helped to drive Bulgaria into the camp of the Central Powers .

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predecessor Office successor
Gabriel Hanotaux
Gaston Doumergue
Foreign Minister of France
June 28, 1898 - June 6, 1905
August 26, 1914 - October 13, 1915
Maurice Rouvier
René Viviani
Joseph Noulens Minister of War of France
June 9, 1914 - June 13, 1914
Adolphe Messimy