Christophe Léon Louis Juchault de Lamoricière
Christophe- Léon- Louis de Juchault Lamoricière or La Moricière ( born September 5, 1806 Saint -Philbert -de- Grand -Lieu in Nantes, † September 11, 1865 in Prouzel at Amiens ) was a French general and statesman. He had a significant share in the conquest of Algeria and was minister of war in 1848 for several months of the Second Republic.
Life
After he had since 1826 at the Ecole du Génie at Metz, he joined 1828 in the engineering corps one. In 1830 he was sent as a Captain of Zouaves to Algeria and there rose steadily in the following years. In 1837 he was colonel, 1840 General and Governor of the province of Oran and in 1843 lieutenant general. He was one of the best generals Bugeaud, distinguished himself on August 14, 1844 at Isly in 1845 and represented the absent Bugeaud as Governor General. In 1847 he finally accepted the surrender of Abd el -Kader.
Alexis de Tocqueville, a staunch colonialist and become an Algeria expert in his parliamentary career, holds in his 1841 work "Thoughts on Algeria " Lamoricière for the most important officer in the conquest of Algeria:
"This man has huge weaknesses and even very large errors that exist in my opinion in one of uncontrolled and unbridled ambition, extreme contempt for human life and a relentless and unapproachable personality. But he knows the country admirably, has an iron will and an indestructible energy. His ideas are indeed bizarre and imperfect, but in some ways very far-reaching. He loves Africa, it considered his country and identifies with him. (...) I think you have to try it with Lamoricière at the top. But he's a guy you nevertheless must now monitor how future. "
It is clear in this ambivalent characteristic that Tocqueville Lamoricière want to see act only in Algeria, whereas he says, not only in regard to him, but to all who work there officers that God would preserve the French against " ever having to experience that France me where this is directed by an officer of Africa - Army " What 1846 as for the situation in Algeria, wrote Tocqueville on 5 April 1846 Lamoricière:
" From the moment in which we have committed major violent act of conquest, we must, I think, not shy away from the violence in detail, which are absolutely necessary to consolidate the conquest. "
After his return to France Lamoricière played as a military and a deputy (since 1846) in the February 1848 revolution an important role. As Supreme Commander of the National Guard, he commanded the attack against the barricades. The government Cavaignacs he served from June 28 to December 20 as minister of war. From 1850 to 1851 he was on a diplomatic mission in Russia.
Lamoricière was one of the foremost opponents of the Prince President Louis- Napoléon (later Napoléon III. ) And was therefore arrested and exiled in the coup on December 2, 1852. In 1857 he received permission to return to France, but the emperor refused the oath of allegiance and instead took in 1860 in command of the papal troops against Piedmont. On September 18, 1860 he was defeated at the Battle of Castelfidardo of the Piedmontese army.
He spent his last years in complete seclusion in France and died in 1865. 1909 was erected to him in Constantine a statue that stands in his birthplace of St Philbert since 1969. His tomb is in the cathedral of Nantes.