Briand, Aristide

(1862-1932)

   statesman, Nobel laureate

   The editor of l'humanité and a Nobel laureate, Aristide Briand was born in Nantes and educated in law at Paris. Secretary-general of the French Socialist Party, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in 1902 and was one of the legislators responsible for the Law of separation of Church and state, passed in 1905. By 1906, Briand had left the Socialist Party (after the Amsterdam Conference) and became minister of education and religion, the first of 26 ministries, including 11 premierships, that he would eventually hold. As premier in 1909, he was responsible for the controversial use of force in the suppression of a railway strike. From 1915 to 1917, he headed a wartime coalition government and also directed the Foreign Ministry, organizing the campaigns in Salonika and the Balkans. In 1929, Briand formed a new government and represented France at the Washington Conference. He also urged a postwar policy of conciliation with Germany. Briand resigned a year later, but in 1925, again as foreign minister, he was instrumental in achieving the Locarno security treaty. In 1926, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Gustave stresemann, the foreign minister of Germany. Briand, who enjoyed one of the longest ministerial careers of the third republic, served as premier again in 1925 and 1926, and as foreign minister from 1926 to 1932. In that capacity, he drafted and sponsored the Kellogg-Briand Pact, aimed at outlawing war. Briand was defeated for the presidency in 1931.