Léon Gambetta
At a glance:
- Series: Dictionary of World Biography: The 19th Century
- Categories: Government and Politics
- Subcategories: Politicians, Diplomats, Dictatorships, Dictators, Tyrants
- Curriculum: 19th Century European History, French History
Article abstract: Gambetta, one of the most vocal critics of the Second Empire of Napoleon III in the 1860’s, became the virtual dictator of France in 1870 during the resistance to the Prussian invasion. He was one of the most prominent and the most popular republican politicians of the period.
Early Life
Léon Gambetta was born in 1838 in Cahors, in southern France. His Italian grandfather had moved his family to the region in 1818, and the Gambettas became shopkeepers. In 1837, Gambetta’s father, Joseph, married Marie Magdeleine Massabie, the...
[The entire page is 2314 words long]
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