Louis-Hubert Lyautey
| Hubert Lyautey | |
|---|---|
wearing the insignia of a Marshal of France
|
|
| Birth name | Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey |
| Born |
17 November 1854 Nancy, France |
| Died | 21 July 1934 (aged 79) Thorey-Lyautey, France |
| Allegiance |
 France
|
| Service/branch | French Army |
| Years of service | 1873-1925 |
| Rank | Général de division |
| Awards |
Marshal of France Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor Médaille militaire |
Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey (17 November 1854 – 21 July 1934) was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France. He was dubbed the Maker of Morocco and the French empire builder, and in 1931 made the cover of Time.
Lyautey was born in Nancy, capital of Lorraine. His father was a prosperous engineer, his grandfather a highly decorated Napoleonic general. His mother was a Norman aristocrat, and Lyautey inherited many of her assumptions: monarchism, patriotism, Catholicism and belief in the moral and political importance of the elite.
In 1873 he entered the French military academy of Saint-Cyr. He attended the army training school in early 1876, and in December 1877 was made a lieutenant. After graduating from St Cyr, two months holiday in Algeria in 1878 left him impressed by the Mahgreb and by Islam. He served in the cavalry, and was to make his career serving in the colonies and not in a more prestigious assignment in metropolitan France. In 1880 he was posted to Algiers, then campaigning in southern Algeria. In 1884, to his disappointment, he was recalled to France.
In 1894 he was posted to Indochina, serving under Joseph Gallieni. He helped crush the so-called piracy of the Black Flags rebellion along the Chinese border. Then set up the colonial administration in Tonkin, and was then head of the military office of the Government-General in Indochina. By time he left IndoChina in 1897 he was a lieutenant-colonel and had the Legion of Honour.
In Indochina he wrote "Here I am like a fish in water, because the manipulation of things and men is power, everything I love".
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Wikipedia