{{Short description|French statesman (1851–1925)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}} {{Infobox officeholder | name = Léon Bourgeois | image = Léon Bourgeois.jpg | order = President of the Council of Ministers of France | term_start = 1 November 1895 | term_end = 29 April 1896 | president = Félix Faure | predecessor = Alexandre Ribot | successor = Jules Méline | order2 = President of the Senate | term_start2 = 14 January 1920 | term_end2 = 22 February 1923 | predecessor2 = Antonin Dubost | successor2 = Gaston Doumergue | order3 = President of the Chamber of Deputies | term_start3 = 6 June 1902 | term_end3 = 12 January 1904 | predecessor3 = Paul Deschanel | successor3 = Henri Brisson | order4 = Minister of Foreign Affairs | term_start4 = 28 March 1896 | term_end4 = 29 April 1896 | president4 = Félix Faure | prime_minister4 = ''Himself'' | predecessor4 = Marcelin Berthelot | successor4 = Gabriel Hanotaux | order5 = Minister of the Interior | term_start5 = 1 November 1895 | term_end5 = 28 March 1896 | president5 = Félix Faure | prime_minister5 = ''Himself'' | predecessor5 = Georges Leygyes | successor5 = Ferdinand Sarrien | order6 = Minister of State | term_start6 = 29 Octobre 1915 | term_end6 = 12 December 1916 | president6 = Raymond Poincaré | prime_minister6 = Aristide Briand | term_start7 = 12 September 1917 | term_end7 = 13 November 1917 | president7 = Raymond Poincaré | prime_minister7 = Paul Painlevé | birth_date = {{Birth date|1851|5|21|df=yes}} | birth_place = Paris | death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1925|9|29|1851|5|21}} | death_place = Oger | resting_place = Cimetière de l'Ouest, Châlons-en-Champagne | party = Radical | alma_mater = Université de Paris | spouse = Virginie Marguerite Sellier | awards = Nobel Peace Prize, 1920 }} '''Léon Victor Auguste Bourgeois''' ({{IPA|fr|leɔ̃ buʁʒwa|lang}}; 21 May 1851{{spaced ndash}}29 September 1925) was a French statesman. His ideas influenced the Radical Party regarding a wide range of issues.
He promoted progressive taxation such as progressive income taxes and social insurance schemes,<ref>J. E. S. Hayward, "The Official Philosophy of the French Third Republic: Leon Bourgeois and Solidarism," ''International Review of Social History,'' (1961) 6#1 pp 19-48</ref> along with economic equality, expanded educational opportunities, and cooperative solidarism. In foreign policy, he called for a strong League of Nations, and the maintenance of peace through compulsory arbitration, controlled disarmament, economic sanctions, and perhaps an international military force.
==Biography== Bourgeois was born in Paris in to a modest Republican family of a watchmaker of Burgundian descent,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Nobel Peace Prize 1920 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1920/bourgeois/biographical/ |access-date=2022-11-16 |website=NobelPrize.org |language=en-US}}</ref> and was trained in law, graduating from his university in 1874. After holding a subordinate office (1876) in the department of public works, he became successively prefect of the Tarn (1882) and the Haute-Garonne (1885), and then returned to Paris to enter the Ministry of the Interior.
He became Prefect of Police<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=James Brown |date=1925 |title=In Memoriam: Léon Bourgeois–1851–1925 |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-journal-of-international-law/article/in-memoriam-leon-bourgeois18511925/752033A5EDDE46EBC0DFD635591A693E |journal=American Journal of International Law |language=en |volume=19 |issue=4 |pages=774–776 |doi=10.1017/S0002930000063843 |issn=0002-9300}}</ref> in November 1887 at the critical moment of Jules Grévy's resignation from the presidency. In the following year, he entered the Chamber, being elected deputy for the Marne, in opposition to George Boulanger, and joined the Radical Left. He was undersecretary for Home Affairs in Charles Floquet's ministry of 1888 and resigned with it in 1889, being then returned to the chamber for Reims. In Pierre Tirard's ministry, which succeeded, he was Minister of the Interior, and subsequently, on 18 March 1890, Minister of Public Instruction in the cabinet of Charles Louis de Saulces de Freycinet, a post for which he had qualified himself by the attention he had given to educational matters. In this capacity, he was responsible for some important reforms in secondary education in 1890.
He retained his office in Émile Loubet's cabinet in 1892, and was Minister of Justice under Alexandre Ribot at the end of that year, when the Panama scandals were making the office one of peculiar difficulty. He energetically pressed the Panama prosecution, so much so that he was accused of having put wrongful pressure on the wife of one of the defendants in order to procure evidence. To meet the charge, he resigned in March 1893 but again took office and retired only with the rest of the Freycinet ministry.
In November 1895, he formed his own cabinet, distinctively radical, which fell as the result of a constitutional crisis arising from the persistent refusal of the Senate to vote supply. He was an eminent Freemason<ref>{{cite book|author=Edward A. Tiryakian|title=For Durkheim: Essays in Historical and Cultural Sociology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z61mk-BEEQ0C&pg=PA93|year=2009|publisher=Ashgate |page=93|isbn=9780754671558}}</ref><ref>He was initiated at "La Sincerité", lodge of Grand Orient de France (Paul Guillaume, « La Franc-maçonnerie à Reims (1740–2000) », 2001, p. 333)</ref> and eight of his cabinet members were Freemasons.<ref>{{cite book|author1=Jean-Marie Mayeur|author2=Madeleine Rebirioux|title=The Third Republic from Its Origins to the Great War, 1871-1914|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FzRVu2ycby0C&pg=PA164|year=1988|publisher=Cambridge U.P.|page=164|isbn=9780521358576}}</ref> thumb|Official portrait of Léon Bourgeois The Bourgeois ministry seemed to think that popular opinion would enable them to override what they regarded as an unconstitutional action on the part of the upper house. However, the public was indifferent, and the Senate triumphed. The blow damaged Bourgeois's career as an ''homme de gouvernement''. As Minister of Public Instruction in the Brisson cabinet of 1898, he organized courses for adults in primary education. After the short ministry, he represented his country with dignity and effect at the Hague Peace Convention, and in 1903 was nominated a member of the permanent court of arbitration.
He held somewhat aloof from the political struggles of the Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes ministries, travelling considerably in foreign countries. In 1902 and 1903, he was elected president of the Chamber. In 1905, he replaced the duc d'Audiffret-Pasquier as senator for the department of Marne, and in May 1906, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Sarrien cabinet. He was responsible for the direction of French diplomacy in the conference at Algeciras. He was delegate to both Hague Conferences held in 1899 and 1907. Bourgeois also became delegate to Paris Peace Conference and strongly supported the Japanese Racial Equality Proposal as "an indisputable principle of justice".<ref name = "PaulGordonLauren1988p92b">Conférence de paix de Paris, 1919–1920, ''Recueil des actes de la Conférence'', "Secret," Partie 4, pp. 175–176. as cited in Paul Gordon Lauren (1988), ''Power And Prejudice: The Politics And Diplomacy of Racial Discrimination'' Westview Press {{ISBN|0-8133-0678-7}} p.92</ref>
Following World War I, he became President of the Assembly of the League of Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in 1920.
A social republican, Bourgeois sought a middle ground between socialism and capitalism which he termed "solidarism". He believed that the rich had a social debt to the poor which they should pay by the income tax, thus providing the state with the necessary revenue to finance social measures for those living in poverty. However, the Senate opposed his proposal, and opposition grew until his resignation as prime minister.
During his premiership, a law of December the 27th 1895 related to an existing pension fund was passed that gave workmen the right to claim repayments in case of judicial liquidation or failure.<ref>[https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Transactions_of_the_Second_International/LvYhAQAAIAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=France+law+december+29+1895+pensions&pg=PA808&printsec=frontcover Transactions of the Second International Actuarial Congress Held in the Hall of the Institute of Actuaries, Staple Inn, Holborn, London, May 16 to 20, 1898, Volume 2, 1899, P.808-809]</ref>
==Bourgeois's Ministry, 1 November 1895 – 29 April 1896== *Léon Bourgeois – President of the Council and Minister of the Interior *Marcellin Berthelot – Minister of Foreign Affairs *Godefroy Cavaignac – Minister of War *Paul Doumer – Minister of Finance *Louis Ricard – Minister of Justice *Édouard Locroy – Minister of Marine *Émile Combes – Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Worship *Albert Viger – Minister of Agriculture *Pierre-Paul Guieysse – Minister of Colonies *Edmond Guyot-Dessaigne – Minister of Public Works *Gustave Mesureur – Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs
'''Changes''' *28 March 1896 – Bourgeois succeeds Berthelot as Minister of Foreign Affairs. Ferdinand Sarrien succeeds Bourgeois as Minister of the Interior.
== Support to the French National Museum of Natural History == Bourgeois is one of the founders of the Friends of the Natural History Museum Paris society. He was the very first president in office from 1907 to 1922.<ref>Yves Laissus, "Cent ans d'histoire", ''1907-2007 - Les Amis du Muséum'', centennial special, September 2007, supplement to the quarterly publication ''Les Amis du Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'', n° 230, June 2007, ISSN 1161-9104 {{in lang|fr}}.</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}} * ''France since 1870: Culture, Politics and Society'' by Charles Sowerine. {{EB1911|wstitle=Bourgeois, Léon Victor Auguste}}
==External links== {{Commons category}} * {{Nobelprize}} including the communication with the Nobel Committee, December, 1922 ''The Reasons for the League of Nations'' * [http://www.nobel-winners.com/Peace/leon_bourgeois.html About Leon Victor Auguste Bourgeois] on nobel-winners.com * {{Internet Archive author|sname=Léon Bourgeois|sopt=t}} * {{PM20}}
{{S-start}} {{s-off}} {{succession box|title=Minister of the Interior|before=Ernest Constans|after=Ernest Constans|years=1890}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts|before=Armand Fallières|after=Charles Dupuy|years=1890–1892}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Justice|before=Louis Ricard|after=Jules Develle|years=1892–1893}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Justice|before=Jules Develle|after=Eugène Guérin|years=1893}} {{succession box|title=Prime Minister of France|before=Alexandre Ribot|after=Jules Méline|years=1895–1896}} {{succession box|title=Minister of the Interior|before=Georges Leygues|after=Ferdinand Sarrien|years=1895–1896}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Foreign Affairs|before=Marcelin Berthelot|after=Gabriel Hanotaux|years=1896}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts|before=Alfred Rambaud|after=Georges Leygues|years=1898}} {{succession box|title=President of the Chamber of Deputies|before=Paul Deschanel|after=Henri Brisson|years=1902–1904}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Foreign Affairs|before=Maurice Rouvier|after=Stéphen Pichon|years=1906}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Labour and Social Security|before=René Renoult|after=René Besnard|years=1912–1913}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Foreign Affairs|before=Gaston Doumergue|after=René Viviani|years=1914}} {{succession box|title=Minister of State|before=—|after=—|years=1915–1916}} {{succession box|title=Minister of Labour and Social Security|before=Étienne Clémentel|after=André Renard|years=1917}} {{succession box|title=Minister of State|before=—|after=—|years=1917}} {{succession box|title=President of the Senate|before=Antonin Dubost|after=Gaston Doumergue|years=1920–1923}} {{S-end}} {{Heads of government of France}} {{Foreign Ministers of France}}{{Minister of Justice (France)}}{{LoNPresidents}} {{Nobel Peace Prize Laureates 1901-1925}} {{1920 Nobel Prize laureates}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgeois, Leon}} Category:1851 births Category:1925 deaths Category:19th-century police officers Category:Politicians from Paris Category:Radical Party (France) politicians Category:Prime ministers of France Category:Foreign ministers of France Category:Ministers of justice of France Category:French interior ministers Category:Presidents of the Chamber of Deputies (France) Category:Members of the 4th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Category:Members of the 5th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Category:Members of the 6th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Category:Members of the 7th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Category:Members of the 8th Chamber of Deputies of the French Third Republic Category:French senators of the Third Republic Category:Senators of Marne (department) Category:Presidents of the Senate (France) Category:Prefects of Haute-Garonne Category:Prefects of Tarn (department) Category:Prefects of police of Paris Category:Delegates to the Hague Peace Conferences Category:Members of the Permanent Court of Arbitration Category:Presidents of the Assembly of the League of Nations Category:French Freemasons Category:Nobel Peace Prize laureates Category:French Nobel laureates Category:Officers of the Legion of Honour Category:French judges of international courts and tribunals