Faure, Francois Felix

Faure, François Félix 

Born Jan. 30, 1841, in Paris; died there Feb. 16, 1899. French statesman.

Faure. a wealthy merchant, supported the Versaillais during the Paris Commune of 1871, later joining the right-wing bourgeois republicans. He served as naval minister from May 1894 to January 1895, when he was elected president of the republic, the post he held until January 1899. As president, Faure helped direct France’s colonial usurpations, approving the seizure of Madagascar in 1896. An advocate of closer ties with Russia, he received Tsar Nicholas II in Paris in 1896 and a year later reciprocated with a state visit to St. Petersburg. In the political struggle that grew out of the Dreyfus case, Faure lent his support to the reactionary forces.