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Poincare Pe : Raymond Poincaré (1860-1934): born in Bar-le-Duc, France 1860: elected deputy for the French district of Meuse 1887; by 1895, he was chosen vice president of the Chamber of Deputies (French Parliament). He resigned from the Chamber of Deputies in 1903, & practiced law & served in the politically less-significant Senate until 1912. He returned to national prominence when he became prime minister in January 1912, & proved to be a strong leader & foreign minister. To everyone’s surprise, however, the following year he decided to run for the presidency, & he was elected to the post in January 1913. Unlike earlier presidents, he took an active role in policy formation. His strong sense of nationalism moved him to work diligently to secure France’s defence, strengthening alliances with Britain & Russia & supporting legislation to raise national military service from two years to three. Although he worked for peace, as a native of the Lorraine region, Poincaré was suspicious of Germany, which had seized the area in 1871. When World War I broke out in August 1914, Poincaré proved to be a strong wartime leader & mainstay of French morale. In Dec. 1915, President Poincaré invited volunteers to the French Army. Two batches of Indian volunteers from Chandernagore were trained in Pondicherry & sent to fight in Verdun. All except one survived that rigorous trench warfare. In 1917, he asked his long-time political enemy Georges Clemenceau to form a government, as he believed that Clemenceau was best-qualified to serve & lead the nation, despite his leftist political leanings. But Poincaré soon found himself in serious disagreement with Clemenceau over the terms of the Treaty of Versailles, which was signed in June 1919 & defined the terms of peace following World War I. Poincaré felt strongly that Germany should be subjected to heavy reparations & assume responsibility for starting the war. Although American & British leaders regarded the treaty as overly punitive, the document, which called for substantial financial & territorial reparations from Germany, was not harsh enough to satisfy Poincaré. He further demonstrated his aggressive stance toward Germany when he assumed the position of prime minister again in 1922. He was also minister of foreign affairs during this term. When the Germans failed to meet their reparations payment in January 1923, Poincaré ordered French troops to occupy the Ruhr Valley area, an important industrial region in western Germany. Despite the occupation, the German government refused to make the payment. German workers’ passive resistance to French authority wreaked havoc on the German economy. The German mark failed & the French economy also suffered because of the cost of the occupation. Finally, in 1924, the British & American governments negotiated a settlement that attempted to stabilize the German economy & soften the terms of the reparations. During the same year, Poincaré’s party suffered a defeat in the general election, & he resigned as prime minister. ― In 1926, amidst a serious economic crisis in France, Poincaré was once again asked to form a government & assume the role of prime minister. He moved quickly & forcefully to handle the financial situation by cutting government spending, increasing interest rates, introducing new taxes & stabilizing the value of the franc, basing it on the gold standard. The April 1928 general elections demonstrated popular support for Poincaré’s party & his role as prime minister. On November 7, 1928, under attack from the Radical Socialist Party, Poincaré was forced to resign. He acted swiftly to form a new ministry within the week, marking his final term as prime minister. Citing ill health, Poincaré left office in July 1929, & subsequently refused the offer of yet another term as prime minister in 1930.