BRIAND, ARISTIDE

BRIAND, ARISTIDE. – French statesman, born on 28 March 1862 in Nantes, died on 7 March 1932 in Paris. After working for several years as a journalist, contributing to the Démocratie de l'Ouest, La Lanterne, and other newspapers, and after joining the Socialist Party, he was elected deputy in 1902. In 1905 he was rapporteur for the persecutory and sectarian bill on the separation of Church and State, a law that was passed in accordance with B.'s ideas. He subsequently served several times as minister and president of the Council. As Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1927, he took the initiative in promoting a worldwide pact to make wars impossible, the well-known Briand-Kellogg Pact, to which 44 nations adhered. In 1930 he envisioned the establishment of a European federal union.