Ollivier, Émile

Ollivier, Émile

▪ French statesman
Ollivier also spelled  Olivier  
born July 2, 1825, Marseille, France
died Aug. 20, 1913, Saint-Gervais-les-Bains
 French statesman, writer, and orator who, as minister of justice under Napoleon III, authored an abortive plan for achieving a governmental compromise between Napoleonic autocracy and parliamentary democracy.

      Trained in the law and, in his early life, an adherent of the socialist and Romantic movements, Ollivier was appointed commissioner-general of the Bouches-du-Rhône département at the outbreak of the Revolution of 1848. When Louis-Napoléon became president of the republic (December 1848), Ollivier was dismissed from his post and from 1849 to 1857 held no public office. During this time he abandoned his socialist activities and concentrated on his law practice.

      Elected to the Legislative Assembly in 1857, Ollivier became one of the republican minority known as “the Five,” which viewed Napoleon's regime with hostility. But when the emperor made liberal concessions in November 1860, Ollivier offered his support to him if Napoleon would establish representative government. Ollivier soon broke with the republicans and began working with the Duke de Mornay for a “liberal empire” that would incorporate elements of parliamentary government.

      On Jan. 2, 1870, Napoleon appointed Ollivier minister of justice at the head of a government chosen from the leaders of a majority in parliament. Ollivier drew up a new constitution that was approved in a plebiscite by nearly 70 percent of the voters, and he set up numerous commissions to prepare the complete reform of such areas as labour, education, and law. He seemed to have transformed the Second Empire from despotism to constitutional monarchy without bloodshed or violence.

      Ollivier's work was ruined by the outbreak of the Franco-German War little more than six months after he came to power. He had no desire for war, but he allowed the control of events to slip out of his hands, so that when the Prussian chancellor Otto von Bismarck's Ems telegram was published Ollivier considered it an intolerable insult to France and declared war on Prussia (July 19, 1870). The French military reverses soon obliged him to resign, which he did on Aug. 9, 1870, and he never returned to politics.

      During the remaining 43 years of his life, Ollivier cultivated his wide interests and varied talents. At 65 he wrote L'Empire libéral (“The Liberal Empire”), partly a history of the Second Empire and partly memoirs. This monumental work of 17 volumes is historically valuable as a contemporary defense of Napoleon III. From 1870 he was a member of the French Academy.

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужен реферат?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Ollivier, Émile — (1825 1913)    political figure    Born in Marseille, Émile Ollivier was an attorney before being elected a deputy to the Legislative Corps (1857) where he joined jules favre and others in forming a republican opposition to the regime of napoléon …   France. A reference guide from Renaissance to the Present

  • OLLIVIER, ÉMILE —    French statesman, born at Marseilles; bred for the bar, and eminent at it; became Prime Minister under Louis Napoleon in 1870; precipitated with a light heart the country into a war with Germany, to his own overthrow; retired thereafter to… …   The Nuttall Encyclopaedia

  • Emile Ollivier (1825-1913) — Émile Ollivier (homme politique) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Émile Ollivier (1825-1913) — Émile Ollivier (homme politique) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Émile ollivier (1825-1913) — Émile Ollivier (homme politique) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Émile Ollivier — 30th Prime Minister of France In office 27 December 1869 – 9 August 1870 Preceded by Person …   Wikipedia

  • OLLIVIER (É.) — OLLIVIER ÉMILE (1825 1913) Comme son adversaire Adolphe Thiers, Émile Ollivier est né à Marseille. Grandi dans un milieu républicain (son père a protégé Mazzini réfugié à Marseille), il est, tout jeune, commissaire de la République dans les… …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Emile Ollivier (1940-2002) — Émile Ollivier (écrivain) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier est un écrivain d origine haitienne né le 19 février 1940 à Port au Prince. Il est décédé le 10 novembre 2002 à Montréal alors qu il achève son dernier… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Émile Ollivier (1940-2002) — Émile Ollivier (écrivain) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier est un écrivain d origine haitienne né le 19 février 1940 à Port au Prince. Il est décédé le 10 novembre 2002 à Montréal alors qu il achève son dernier… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Émile ollivier (1940-2002) — Émile Ollivier (écrivain) Pour les articles homonymes, voir Émile Ollivier. Émile Ollivier est un écrivain d origine haitienne né le 19 février 1940 à Port au Prince. Il est décédé le 10 novembre 2002 à Montréal alors qu il achève son dernier… …   Wikipédia en Français

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”