BRIAND, ARISTIDE (1862-1932), French statesman, was born at Nantes March 28, 1862. As a law student he became asso ciated with advanced movements in politics, writing articles for Le Peuple, and directing the Lanterne for some time. From this he passed to the Petite Republique, leaving it to found with Jean Jaures, L'Humanite. At the congress of working men at Nantes in 1894 he secured the adoption of the general strike idea against the adherents of Jules Guesde. From that time, Briand became one of the leaders of the French Socialist party. In 1902, after several unsuccessful attempts, he was elected deputy. From the beginning of his career in the chamber of deputies, Briand was occupied with the question of the separation of Church and State. He was ap pointed rapporteur of the commission charged with the prepara tion of the law and succeeded in carrying his project through with but slight modifications, and without dividing the parties upon whose support he relied. He accepted the portfolio of public in struction and worship in the Sarrien ministry (1906) so that he might apply the law for which he was largely responsible. So far as the chamber was concerned his success was complete. But the acceptance of a portfolio in a bourgeois ministry led to his exclu sion from the Unified Socialist party (March 5906). As opposed to Jaures, hP contended that the Socialists should co-operate ac tively with the Radicals in all matters of reform, and not stand aloof to await the complete fulfilment of their ideals. In Oct. 1906 Clemenceau formed his first government, and in it Briand re mained minister of public instruction and worship. There were certain difficulties in the application of the Separation Law due to the hostility of the Vatican. It was then that Briand gave proof of his essential liberalism. Though he held fast to the principle of the new legislation, he made possible the carrying on of the rites of the Roman Catholic Church under the laws as to associations and public gatherings. On the death of Guyot-Dessaigne in Jan. 1908 he was appointed to the ministry of justice.
When the Government of Clemenceau fell in July 1909 Briand formed his first cabinet, himself taking the portfolio of interior and worship. He announced that he would adopt a policy of na tional understanding and tranquillity. In Oct. 1910 there was a threat of a general strike on the railways. Briand mobilized all the railwaymen who were still subject to military service, dismissed those who disobeyed and had the members of the strike committee arrested. A majority in the chamber approved his action, but in spite of this the Government resigned on Nov. 2, 191o, as a result of the withdrawal of Viviani, the minister of labour, who disagreed with his colleagues on the question of the right to strike.
Briand immediately formed a new cabinet, of a more radical tendency than its predecessor. This alteration, which offended the moderate Republicans without conciliating the Radicals, weakened the position of the ministry. The parliamentary difficulties about the Franco-German agreement with regard to concessions in the Congo, which was one of the causes, or rather pretexts, of the Agadir crisis of the following July, was among the principal rea sons for the resignation, some weeks later, of this Government, although this was not stated at the time. A parliamentary incident gave Briand an excuse for an unobtrusive withdrawal. In Feb. 191I, when he was accused by the Radicals of failing in the strict application of the law with regard to religious houses, his majority fell to six and he resigned.
After some months out of office, he became minister of justice in Poincare's first cabinet on Jan. 13, 1912. When Poincare was elected president of the republic in Jan. 1913, Briand succeeded him as premier. The life of this Government was brief. Its most important work was to ask parliament to lengthen the period of military service from two to three years as a rejoinder to the in crease in German armaments. On March 18, 1913, on the question of electoral reform, the ministry was overthrown by the senate, which defeated a proposal already passed by the chamber to intro duce proportional representation.
Briand remained more or less in retirement until the outbreak of the World War. On Aug. 26, 1914, Viviani felt himself obliged to broaden the base of his Government, and offered Briand the port folio of justice. On the fall of the Viviani cabinet, Briand on Oct. 29, 1915, formed a government in which he himself took over the direction of foreign affairs. He made its character as a national coalition clear by including as ministers, without portfolio, the So cialist Guesde, the Catholic Conservative Cochin and the three former premiers, de Freycinet, Combes and Bourgeois. However, in the beginning of the summer of 1916, he was accused in certain political circles of a lack of vigour in the prosecution of the war.
By the end of autumn, the Rumanian disaster, and especially the situation in Greece, made him the object of further attacks. The question of the higher command was also causing much anxi ety. At this time Joffre, who had been made a marshal, was re placed by Nivelle. Briand thought it advisable for all these reasons to reform his cabinet. He appointed Lyautey minister for war, and called in experts who were not in parliament to take charge of the more technical offices. On March 14, 1917, a difference of opinion between the chamber and Lyautey brought about the latter's resig nation. After a vain attempt to reform his government, Briand decided to resign.
For three years Briand took scarcely any part in public affairs. It must, however, be noted that in Sept. 1917 von der Lancken, the civil commissioner of Germany in Brussels, renewing an at tempt which he had already made in the spring, proposed to Bri and, through a Belgian intermediary, a meeting in Switzerland to discuss the possibility of peace. Briand was inclined to accept the offer, but Ribot, the minister of foreign affairs, counselled him to avoid it as a snare.
During the years which immediately followed the war, Briand still remained in retirement. He showed, however, by one or two speeches in the chamber, that he was inclined to move to the Left. In Jan. 1921, on the fall of the Leygues ministry, he was called upon to form a government, and himself took charge of foreign affairs. He interested himself particularly in the application of the Treaty of Versailles, especially with regard to reparations. In the autumn he went to Washington as the French representative at the conference on naval disarmament. From that moment he was fiercely attacked by those who accused him of having failed to safeguard the interests of his own country. This campaign reached its height when, early in 1922, the Inter-Allied conference met at Cannes, and Briand discussed with Lloyd George the question of an Anglo-French defensive pact. A telegram which he received from Millerand, then president of the Republic, decided Briand to return to Paris and confront his enemies. When he arrived he real ized that his position had become untenable. He announced his resignation to the chamber on Jan. 12, 1922.
In April 1925 he was offered the portfolio of,foreign affairs in Painleve's cabinet, and he remained in the same office in the sec ond Government formed by this leader in October. The Locarno agreement in Oct. 1925 enormously increased the influence of Bri and, who had played an important part in the negotiations. When Painleve resigned on Nov. 22, Briand became the new head of the Government.
On March 6, 1926, Briand's ministry fell, the chamber having thrown out a financial measure which he considered necessary. Briand, however, accepted office again, but the situation became more and more difficult because of the financial crisis and the con tinued depreciation of the franc. Raoul Peret, finance minister, suddenly resigned and the Government fell on June 15. But, once again, Briand reconstructed the ministry and brought in Caillaux as finance minister. A month later, on July 17, the ministry was defeated, the chamber refusing to grant the special powers de manded for dealing with the financial problem. Herriot's ministry, which succeeded it, lasted only a few days and fell on July 21. Poincare then formed a coalition Government in which Briand again became minister for foreign affairs. In this position he con tinued to direct the foreign policy of France on the basis of Euro pean consolidation and reconstruction. He received the Nobel peace prize, at the same time as the two other principal signatories of the Locarno pact, Chamberlain and Stresemann.
A great parliamentarian, although he broke with the extreme Left in 1906, he retained his connection with many of the more advanced political thinkers. His genuinely liberal ideas, and his constant endeavours toward national unity, gained him the sym pathy of the moderate parties. His ease and animation as a speaker, his parliamentary experience and his well-known ability in the conduct of foreign affairs, all contributed to that great influ ence which made him, up to that time, premier more often than any other politician in France. (See OUTLAWRY OF WAR.) Briand's works include : La Separation des Eglises et de l'Etat, discussion of the new system (1909) ; Paroles de Paix (1927).