Are you an EPFL student looking for a semester project?
Work with us on data science and visualisation projects, and deploy your project as an app on top of GraphSearch.
Concept
Paul Doumer
Summary
Joseph Athanase Doumer, commonly known as Paul Doumer (pɔl dumɛːʀ; 22 March 1857 - 7 May 1932), was President of France from 13 June 1931 until his assassination.
Joseph Athanase Doumer was born in Aurillac, in the Cantal département, in France on 22 March 1857, into a family of modest means. Alumnus of the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers, he became a professor of mathematics at Mende in 1877.
In 1878 Doumer married Blanche Richel, whom he had met at college. They had eight children, four of whom were killed in the First World War (including the French air ace René Doumer).
From 1879 until 1883 Doumer was professor at Remiremont, before leaving on health grounds. He then became chief editor of Courrier de l'Aisne, a French regional newspaper. Initiated into Freemasonry in 1879, at "L'Union Fraternelle" lodge, he became Grand Secretary of Grand Orient de France in 1892.
He made his debut in politics in 1885 as chef de cabinet to Charles Floquet, then president of the Chamber of Deputies (a post equivalent to the speaker of the House of Commons). In 1888, Doumer was elected Radical deputy for the department of Aisne. Defeated in the general elections of September 1889, he was elected again in 1890 by the arrondissement of Auxerre. He was briefly Minister of Finance of France (1895–1896) when he tried without success to introduce an income tax.
Doumer was Governor-General of French Indochina from 1897 to 1902. Upon his arrival the colonies were losing millions of francs annually. Determined to put them on a paying basis, he levied taxes on opium, wine and the salt trade. The Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laotians who could not or would not pay these taxes, lost their houses and land, and often became day laborers. He established Indochina as a market for French products and a source of profitable investment by French businessmen. Doumer set about outfitting Indochina, especially Hanoi, the capital, with modern infrastructure befitting property of France.
Official source
About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.