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Cabinet Dufaure I
54th Cabinet of France
The cabinet at the end of 1872.
Date formed	19 February 1871 (1871-02-19)
Date dissolved	18 May 1873 (1873-05-18)
People and organisations
President	Adolphe Thiers
Head of government	Jules Dufaure
Member parties	Opportunists Legitimists Orleanists Liberals
Status in legislature	Majority 580 / 638 (91%)
Opposition parties	Bonapartists Radicals
History
Election	1871 legislative election
Predecessor	National Defence
Successor	Dufaure II

The First cabinet of Jules Dufaure was the 54th cabinet of France and the second of the Third Republic, seating from 19 February 1871 to 18 May 1873, headed by Jules Dufaure as Vice-President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Justice, under the presidency of Adolphe Thiers.

History

The Government of National Defence, having led the republic during the Franco-Prussian War, signed the Armistice of Versailles which provided for new elections in the National Assembly to establish a more legitimate government.

The cabinet was formed following the Legislative elections of 1871, which saw a majority of royalists elected. Their initial project was a third Restoration of descendants of either the Bourbons or the Orléans; the Republic was merely seen at that time by royalists as a system of transition before the return of a constitutional monarchy.

However, Jules Dufaure succeeded in assembling a coalition of Opportunists, Legitimists, Orleanists and independent Liberals, while leaving Bonapartists, marginalized following the fall of the Second Empire, and Radicals, openly in favour of the pursuit of the war, out of the majority.

On 18 May 1873, Adolphe Thiers, wishing to reorganize the government and to make it more republican leaning, asked the cabinet to resign and tasked Jules Dufaure to form a new one, leading to the formation of the Cabinet Dufaure II.

Actions

The main actions of the government were to deal with the Paris Commune and to end the Franco-Prussian War by conducting negotiations with Bismarck before signing the Treaty of Frankfurt and reducing the indemnity requested by Prussia to five billion francs.

It also supervised the reorganization of the French Army in order to provide it with manpower equivalent to that of the Prussian Army and to professionalize it, and finally dissolved the National Guard now seen as a major threat to the republic and the regular army.

Composition

Notes

1. Titled Chief of the Executive Power of the French Republic from 17 February 1871 to 31 August 1871.
2. Order of the list corresponds to the order of appointment.

References

1. ^ Government of the French Republic (19 February 1871). "Decree on the composition of the government". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
2. ^ Government of the French Republic (18 May 1873). "Decree on the composition of the government". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
3. Government of the French Republic (2 September 1872). "Decree appointing the Vice-President of the Council of Ministers". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
4. Fortescue, William (2000). The Third Republic in France 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities. Routledge. p. 11. ISBN 0-415-16944-5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
5. ^ Fortescue, William (2000). The Third Republic in France 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities. Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 0-415-16944-5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
6. ^ Fortescue, William (2000). The Third Republic in France 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities. Routledge. p. 24. ISBN 0-415-16944-5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
7. Schmidt, Martin E. (1974). Alexandre Ribot: Odyssey of a Liberal in the Third Republic. Martinus Nijhoff. p. 12. ISBN 978-90-247-1639-5. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
8. Grubb, Alan (1996). The Politics of Pessimism: Albert de Broglie and Conservative Politics in the Early Third Republic. Associated University Presses. p. 75. ISBN 0-87413-575-3. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
9. Ollier, Edmund (1871). Cassell's History of the War Between France and Germany, 1870-1871, Volume 2. Cassell, Petter & Galpin. p. 530. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
10. Government of the French Republic (2 August 1871). "Decree appointing the Minister of Foreign Affairs". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
11. ^ Government of the French Republic (5 June 1871). "Decree appointing the Minister of Interior, the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of War". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
12. Government of the French Republic (11 October 1871). "Decree appointing the Minister of Interior". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
13. ^ Government of the French Republic (6 February 1872). "Decree appointing the Minister of Interior and the Minister of Agriculture". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
14. Government of the French Republic (7 December 1872). "Decree appointing the Minister of Interior". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
15. ^ Government of the French Republic (23 April 1872). "Decree appointing the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Agriculture". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
16. ^ Government of the French Republic (7 December 1872). "Decree appointing the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Public Works". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
17. Government of the French Republic (25 February 1871). "Decree appointing the Minister of Finance". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
18. Government of the French Republic (23 February 1871). "Decree appointing an Undersecretary of State". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 16 March 2020.
19. Government of the French Republic (9 April 1873). "Decree appointing an Undersecretary of State". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 16 March 2020.
20. Government of the French Republic (26 March 1873). "Decree appointing an Undersecretary of State". gallica.bnf.fr (in French). Retrieved 16 March 2020.

• French Third Republic
• Cabinets established in 1871
• Cabinets disestablished in 1873
• 1871 in France