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'Raymond Poincaré' (August 20, 1860 – October 15, 1934) was a French conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of France on five separate occasions and as President of France from 1913 to 1920.
Born in Bar-le-Duc, Meuse, France, the son of Nicolas Antonin Hélène Poincaré, a distinguished civil servant and meteorologist. Educated at the University of Paris, Raymond was called to the Paris bar, and was for some time law editor of the ''Voltaire''.
As a lawyer, he successfully defended Jules Verne in a libel suit presented against the famous author by the chemist Eugène Turpin, inventor of the explosive Melinite, who claimed that the "mad scientist" character in Verne's book "Facing the Flag" was based on himself. (A letter which Verne later sent to his brother Paul seems to suggest that, though acquitted due to Poincaré's spirited defence, Verne did intend to defame Turpin.)
Poincaré had served for over a year in the Department of Agriculture when in 1887 he was elected deputy for the Meuse. He made a great reputation in the Chamber as an economist, and sat on the budget commissions of 1890–1891 and 1892. He was minister of education, fine arts and religion in the first cabinet (April – November 1893) of Charles Dupuy, and minister of finance in the second and third (May 1894 – January 1895).
In Alexandre Ribot's cabinet Poincaré became minister of public instruction. Although he was excluded from the Radical cabinet which followed, the revised scheme of death duties proposed by the new ministry was based upon his proposals of the previous year. He became vice-president of the chamber in the autumn of 1895, and in spite of the bitter hostility of the Radicals retained his position in 1896 and 1897.
Along with other followers of "Opportunist" Léon Gambetta, Poincaré founded the Democratic Republican Alliance (ARD) in 1902, which became the most important center-right party under the Third Republic.
In 1906 he returned to the ministry of finance in the short-lived Sarrien ministry. Poincaré had retained his practice at the bar during his political career, and he published several volumes of essays on literary and political subjects.

Contents

World War I

References

World War I

Poincaré became Prime Minister in January of 1912, and began to pursue a hard-line anti-German policy, noted for restoring close ties with France's Russian ally. He was elected President of the Republic in 1913, in succession to Armand Fallières and attempted to make that office into a site of power for the first time since MacMahon in the 1870s. He generally managed to continue to dominate foreign policy, in particular, and his anti-German sentiments were blamed by some for the outbreak of the First World War. He became increasingly sidelined after the accession to power of Georges Clemenceau as Prime Minister in 1917.
In 1920, Poincaré's term as President came to an end, and two years later he returned to office as Prime Minister. Once again, his tenure was noted for its strong anti-German policies, especially the Ruhr Occupation of 1923–1924, which was carried out in response to the Cuno government's failure to pay reparations. Eventually, the increasing cost of the occupation led to a defeat for Poincaré's conservative coalition in the 1924 parliamentary elections, and his government fell. Financial crisis, however, brought him back to power in 1926, and he once again became Prime Minister and Finance Minister until his retirement in 1929. He died in Paris in 1934.
His brother, Lucien Poincaré (b. 1862), famous as a physicist, became inspector-general of public instruction in 1902. He is the author of ''La Physique moderne'' (1906) and ''L'Electricité'' (1907). Jules Henri Poincaré (b. 1854), also a distinguished physicist and mathematician, belonged to another branch of the same family.
==Poincaré's First Ministry, 21 January 1912 – 21 January 1913==

★ Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Alexandre Millerand - Minister of War

★ Théodore Steeg - Minister of the Interior

★ Louis Lucien Klotz - Minister of Finance

★ Léon Bourgeois - Minister of Labour and Social Security Provisions

★ Aristide Briand - Minister of Justice

★ Théophile Delcassé - Minister of Marine

★ Gabriel Guist'hau - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

★ Jules Pams - Minister of Agriculture

★ Albert Lebrun - Minister of Colonies

★ Jean Dupuy - Minister of Public Works, Posts, and Telegraphs

★ Fernand David - Minister of Commerce and Industry
'Changes'

★ 12 January 1913 - Albert Lebrun succeeds Millerand as Minister of War. René Besnard succeeds Lebrun as Minister of Colonies.
==Poincaré's Second Ministry, 15 January 1922 – 29 March 1924==

★ Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ André Maginot - Minister of War

★ Maurice Maunoury - Minister of the Interior

★ Charles de Lasteyrie - Minister of Finance

★ Albert Peyronnet - Minister of Labour

★ Louis Barthou - Minister of Justice

★ Flaminius Raiberti - Minister of Marine

★ Léon Bérard - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

★ Henry Chéron - Minister of Agriculture

★ Albert Sarraut - Minister of Colonies

★ Yves Le Trocquer - Minister of Public Works

★ Paul Strauss - Minister of Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions

★ Lucien Dior - Minister of Commerce and Industry

★ Charles Reibel - Minister of Liberated Regions
'Changes'

★ 5 October 1922 - Maurice Colrat succeeds Barthou as Minister of Justice.
==Poincaré's Third Ministry, 29 March – 9 June 1924==

★ Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ André Maginot - Minister of War

★ Justin de Selves - Minister of the Interior

★ Frédéric François-Marsal - Minister of Finance

★ Charles Daniel-Vincent - Minister of Labour and Hygiene

★ Edmond Lefebvre du Prey - Minister of Justice

★ Maurice Bokanowski - Minister of Marine

★ Henry de Jouvenel - Minister of Public Instruction, Fine Arts, and Technical Education

★ Joseph Capus - Minister of Agriculture

★ Jean Fabry - Minister of Colonies

★ Yves Le Trocquer - Minister of Public Works, Ports, and Marine

★ Louis Loucheur - Minister of Commerce, Industry, Posts, and Telegraphs

★ Louis Marin - Minister of Liberated Regions
==Poincaré's Fourth Ministry, 23 July 1926 – 11 November 1928==

★ Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council and Minister of Finance

★ Aristide Briand - Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Paul Painlevé - Minister of War

★ Albert Sarraut - Minister of the Interior

★ André Fallières - Minister of Labour, Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions

★ Louis Barthou - Minister of Justice

★ Georges Leygues - Minister of Marine

★ Édouard Herriot - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

★ Louis Marin - Minister of Pensions

★ Henri Queuille - Minister of Agriculture

★ Léon Perrier - Minister of Colonies

★ André Tardieu - Minister of Public Works

★ Maurice Bokanowski - Minister of Commerce and Industry
'Changes'

★ 1 June 1928 - Louis Loucheur succeeds Fallières as Minister of Labour, Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions

★ 14 September 1928 - Laurent Eynac enters the ministry as Minister of Air. Henry Chéron succeeds Bokanowski as Minister of Commerce and Industry, and also becomes Minister of Posts and Telegraphs.
==Poincaré's Fifth Ministry, 11 November 1928 – 29 July 1929==

★ Raymond Poincaré - President of the Council

★ Aristide Briand - Minister of Foreign Affairs

★ Paul Painlevé - Minister of War

★ André Tardieu - Minister of the Interior

★ Henry Chéron - Minister of Finance

★ Louis Loucheur - Minister of Labour, Hygiene, Welfare Work, and Social Security Provisions

★ Louis Barthou - Minister of Justice

★ Georges Leygues - Minister of Marine

★ Laurent Eynac - Minister of Air

★ Pierre Marraud - Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts

★ Louis Antériou - Minister of Pensions

★ Jean Hennessy - Minister of Agriculture

★ André Maginot - Minister of Colonies

★ Pierre Forgeot - Minister of Public Works

★ Georges Bonnefous - Minister of Commerce and Industry

References

★
Raymond was also the cousin of Mathematician Henri Poincaré.