Georges Benjamin Clemenceau was a French statesman who served as Prime Minister of France from 1906 to 1909 and again from 1917 until 1920. A physician turned journalist, he played a central role in the politics of the Third Republic, particularly amid the end of the First World War. He was a key figure of the Independent Radicals, advocating for the separation of church and state, as well as the amnesty of the Communards exiled to New Caledonia.
Portrait by Nadar, 1904
Clemenceau at age 24, c. 1865
Mary Clemenceau in period costume. Portrait by Ferdinand Roybet
An 1887 painting of a French child being taught about the "lost" province of Alsace-Lorraine in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War dramatizes the main goal of Clemenceau and the French in general, to regain those provinces
The French Third Republic was the system of government adopted in France from 4 September 1870, when the Second French Empire collapsed during the Franco-Prussian War, until 10 July 1940, after the Fall of France during World War II led to the formation of the Vichy government.
Proclamation of the abolition of the monarchy in front of the Palais Bourbon, seat of the Corps Législatif, on 4 September 1870
A French propaganda poster from 1917 is captioned with an 18th-century quote: "Even in 1788, Mirabeau was saying that War is the National Industry of Prussia."
The Sacré-Cœur Basilica was built as a symbol of the Ordre Moral.
Georges Ernest Boulanger, nicknamed Général Revanche