Jules Ferry

French statesman

• Born: April 5, 1832
• Place of Birth: Place of birth: Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France
• Died: March 17, 1893
• Place of Death: Place of death: Paris, France

Education: University of Paris

Significance:Jules Ferry was a lawyer and politician who held several influential offices in the French government during the Imperialist Age after the overthrow of Napoleon III in 1870.

Background

Jules Ferry was born in Saint-Dié-des-Vosges in northeastern France on April 5, 1832. He was the son of Charles-Edouard Ferry and Adele Jamelet. Ferry followed his father into the legal profession, studying law at the University of Paris and earning admittance to the bar in 1854.

However, Ferry's attention soon turned to politics. He wrote scathing criticisms of the policies under Napoleon III (1808 – 1873), who seized power through a coup and was French emperor from 1852 to 1870 during the Second Empire. Ferry was especially critical of Baron George-Eugene Haussmann (1809 – 1891), who served as Prefect of the Seine, or the administrator of Paris, from 1853 to 1870. Between 1867 and 1868, Ferry penned a series of articles for the French newspaper Le Temps that attacked Haussmann's administration and plan for rebuilding Paris. These articles were later made into the play Les Comptes fantastiques de Haussmann, or The Fantastic Accounts of Haussmann, which took the Parisian administrator to task for his bookkeeping practices during the Paris reconstruction project. When Napoleon was overthrown during the Franco-German War (1870 – 1871), Ferry took over Haussmann's position as Prefect of the Seine.

Life's Work

Ferry served as Prefect of the Seine in 1870 and 1871 and was also appointed as the mayor of Paris in 1870. However, this appointment wound up leaving a permanent blot on his political record. The city was under siege by the Germans at this time, and food and other necessities were in short supply. Ferry was forced to order Parisians to ration food, a move that made him very unpopular and earned him the nickname "Ferry-la-famine," or "Ferry the famine," which followed him for the remainder of his career.

France lost the Franco-German War, and in the aftermath the French government struggled to hold control amidst an uprising of disgruntled citizens. The government sent the National Guard into Paris in March 1871 to attempt to secure cannons left from the war, only to discover that the citizens already had control of the weapons. The guardsmen refused to fight their fellow citizens, the people took over and held their own elections in what is known as the Paris Commune, and Ferry was forced to resign in June 1871.

Ferry next served a two-year term as minister to Greece before spending six years as the republican opposition to the government. He was chosen to serve as premier of France for two terms, first from 1880 to 1881 and a second time from 1883 to 1885. He also served as minister of foreign affairs during his second term as premier.

During this same time, Ferry served as minister of public instruction. At the time, the education system in France included elementary and secondary-level instruction, but parents had to pay for education, and only wealthy people could afford to send their children to school. Catholic religious orders, most often the Jesuit, provided schools for those who could not afford private education. After recognizing the importance of an educated citizenry during the French Revolution in the 1780s, various French leaders had passed a number of reforms to make education more universally available and improve its consistency and quality. As part of these efforts and because of a growing movement to laicize, or remove all religious influence from all levels of French government and public institutions such as schools, Ferry passed several additional laws, which came to be known as the Ferry Laws.

One such law was the Freedom of Higher Education Act, which prohibited any member of an unauthorized religious order from running a school or teaching in one. Since the Catholic Jesuits were not an authorized religion in France at the time, this forced their schools to close, and many Jesuit teachers had to leave the country to find work in places that would allow them to teach. Other Ferry Laws established secular, or non-religious, schools for children of all income levels and made attendance mandatory for French children.

In addition to his interest in education, Ferry held strong colonialist sentiments. He and others who believed that France should expand its colonial holdings helped France acquire Tunisia in 1881, northern and central Vietnam in 1883, and Madagascar and the French Congo in 1885.

Ferry spoke strongly in favor of continued colonialism in his "Speech before the French Chamber of Deputies," delivered on March 28, 1884. However, much of the public disapproved of these acquisitions, mainly because of the costs involved. Because of this, Ferry was forced to resign from office in 1885.

Despite this public dissatisfaction, Ferry was elected to the Senate in 1891 and later became its president. Public opinion against him persisted, however. On December 10, 1887, a man known only as Aubertin shot Ferry in Paris's city hall. Ferry survived the shooting but died five years later from complications from the gunshot.

Impact

Ferry is credited with the establishment of the contemporary model of public schools in France, including a system of schools that are public and free, with mandatory attendance and secular teaching. The provision of education for all girls and boys led to reduced adherence to gender-based ideas about professions. His role in the laicization and expansion of education and colonial expansion make up his legacy. Several schools in France are named after him, and when Francois Hollande (1954- ) became president of France on May 15, 2012, he offered a speech paying tribute to Ferry's role in the country's history.

Bibliography

"Death of Jules Ferry." The New York Times, March 1893. Web. 7 June 2016.

"Francois Hollande's Inauguration." CBS News, May 2012. Web. 7 June 2016.

"Jules Ferry Laws Establishing Free, Secular, Compulsory Education in France, 1880s." California State University, 2014. Web. 7 June 2016.

Jaoul-Grammare, Magali. "Gendered Professions, Prestigious Professions: When Stereotypes Condition Career Choices." European Journal of Education Research, Development and Policy, vol. 59, no. 2, 2024, doi.org/10.1111/ejed.12603. Accessed 30 Sept. 2024.

McKay, James P. et al. A History of World Societies, Volume C: 1775 to the Present, Volume 3. New York: Macmillan, 2011, 764-65.

Miles-Morillo, Lynne and Stephen Morillo. Sources for Frameworks of World History: Since 1350, Volume 2. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014, 124.

"Modern History Sourcebook: Jules Ferry (1832-1893): On French Colonial Expansion." Fordham University. July 1998. Web. 7 June 2016.