Hubert Lyautey
Louis Hubert Gonzalve Lyautey[b] (17 November 1854[1] – 27 July 1934) was a French Army general and colonial administrator. After serving in Indochina and Madagascar, he became the first French Resident-General in Morocco from 1912 to 1925. Early in 1917 he served briefly as Minister of War. From 1921 he was a Marshal of France.[2] He was dubbed the French empire builder, and in 1931 made the cover of Time.[3][4] Lyautey was also the first one to use the term "hearts and minds" as part of his strategy to counter the Black Flags rebellion during the Tonkin campaign in 1885.[5]
Hubert Lyautey
Office established
17 November 1854
Nancy, French Empire
27 July 1934 (aged 79)
Thorey, French Republic
French
- Léon Lyautey (father)
- Laurence de Villemotte (mother)
1873–1925
Marshal[a]
Black Flags Rebellion
French Conquest of Morocco First World War
Zaian WarEarly life[edit]
Lyautey was born in Nancy, capital of Lorraine. His father was a prosperous engineer, and his grandfather a highly decorated Napoleonic general. His mother was a Norman aristocrat, and Lyautey inherited many of her assumptions: monarchism, patriotism, Catholicism and belief in the moral and political importance of the elite.[6]
In 1873 he entered the French military academy of Saint-Cyr. He attended the army training school in early 1876, and in December 1877 was made a lieutenant. After graduating from St Cyr, two months holiday in Algeria in 1878 left him impressed by the Maghreb and by Islam.[6] He served in the cavalry,[7] and was to make his career serving in the colonies and not in a more prestigious assignment in metropolitan France. In 1880 he was posted to Algiers, then campaigning in southern Algeria. In 1884, to his disappointment, he was recalled to France.[8]
Military career[edit]
Indochina[edit]
In 1894 he was posted to Indochina, serving under Joseph Gallieni. He helped crush the so-called piracy of the Black Flags rebellion along the Chinese border. He then set up the colonial administration in Tonkin, and was then head of the military office of the Government-General in Indochina. By time he left Indochina in 1897 he was a lieutenant colonel and had received the Legion of Honour.[9]
In Indochina he wrote:
Political career[edit]
Colonial policies[edit]
His personal beliefs evolved from monarchism and conservatism to a belief in social duty. He wrote a journal article "On the Social Function of the Officer under Universal Military Service". However, his colonial policies were similar in practice to those of Gallieni, a secular republican.[7] He was suspicious of republicanism and socialism, and believed in the social role of the Army in regenerating France.[10]
Lyautey adopted and emulated Gallieni's policy of methodical expansion of pacified areas followed by social and economical development (markets, schools and medical centres) to bring about the end of resistance and the cooperation of former insurgents. This method became known as tache d'huile (literally, "oil stain"), as it resembles oil spots spreading to cover the whole surface. Lyautey's writings have had a significant influence on contemporary counterinsurgency theory through its adoption by David Galula.[27] He also practiced a policy known as politique des races, i.e. dealing separately with each tribe; this was done to avoid any one tribe from gaining too much influence within the colonial system.[28]
Lyautey is considered to have been an apt colonial administrator. His governing style evolved into the Lyautey system of colonial rule. The Lyautey system invested in pre-established local governing bodies and advocated for local control. He advocated for finding a sub-group that didn't have nationalistic tendencies but had a strong desire for local autonomy then investing in this sub-group as political leaders.[29] He tried to balance blunt military force with other means of power and promoted a vision of a better future for the Moroccans under the French colonial administration. For example, he invited a talented young French urban planner Henri Prost to design comprehensive plans for redevelopment of the major Moroccan cities.[30][31]
In Morocco from 1912 he was publicly deferential to the sultan[11] and told his men not to treat the Moroccans as a conquered people.[7] He opposed Christian proselytising and the settlement of French migrants in Morocco,[32] and quoted with approval Governor Lanessan of Indo-China "we must govern with the mandarin and not against the mandarin".[10]
Minister of War[edit]
Lyautey briefly served as France's Minister of War for three months in 1917, which were clouded by the unsuccessful Nivelle Offensive and the French Army Mutinies. Lyautey was apparently surprised to receive a telegram offering him the job (10 December 1916) and demanded, and was given, authority to issue orders to Nivelle (the new Commander-in-Chief of French forces on the Western Front) and Sarrail (Commander-in-Chief at Salonika); Nivelle's predecessor Joffre had enjoyed much greater freedom from the War Minister and had also had command over Salonika. Prime Minister Aristide Briand, not going into detail about Joffre's removal, replied that Lyautey would be one of a War Committee of five members, controlling manufacturing, transport and supply, and thus giving him greater powers than his predecessors. Lyautey replied "I shall answer your call". Lyautey had to spend a good deal of time touring units and learning about the Western front.[33][34]
Lyautey was strongly disliked by the political Left, and when Briand reconstructed his government in December 1916, Painlevé declined to stay part (he had been Minister of Public Instruction and Fine Arts) as he was reluctant to be associated with him, although doubts about the replacement of Joffre by Nivelle rather than Philippe Petain also played a role (Painlevé was later himself Minister of War for much of 1917, then briefly Prime Minister late in the year).[35]
Lyautey was met with a fait accompli as Nivelle, whom he would not have chosen, had been appointed Commander-in-Chief by the acting War Minister Admiral Lacaze, whilst munitions under Albert Thomas (formerly Under-Secretary for War) were hived off into a separate ministry assisted by the industrialist Louis Loucheur as Under-Secretary of State. Lyautey had hoped to rely on Joffre, Ferdinand Foch and de Castelnau, but the first soon resigned from his job as advisor, Foch had already been sacked as commander of Army Group North, de Castelnau was sent on a mission to Russia, and Lyautey was not permitted to revive the post of Chief of the Army General Staff.[36]
Lyautey was hard of hearing and inclined to dominate conversation. As minister and cabinet member, he preferred to deal directly with the British government via the British Embassy, to the annoyance of the British CIGS Robertson (at a time when generals of both countries tried to prevent politicians from "interfering" in the details of strategy), who disliked Lyautey. On the train to the Rome Conference (5–6 January 1917) Lyautey stood before a map lecturing the British delegation on their Palestine campaign. Robertson, a man of notorious bluntness, listened to the lecture then asked Lloyd George "has he finished?" before retiring to bed.[34] Robertson told Lloyd George "that fellow won’t last long". He wrote to the King’s adviser Clive Wigram (12 January):
Lyautey attended the infamous Calais Conference on 27 February 1917, at which Lloyd George attempted to subordinate British forces in France to Nivelle. After a serious argument had broken out between Lloyd George and the British generals, Lyautey claimed that he had not seen the proposals until he boarded the train for Calais.[38] On being shown Nivelle's plan, Lyautey declared that it was "a plan for "the Duchess of Gerolstein" " (a light opera satirising the army). He contemplated trying to have Nivelle dismissed, but backed down in the face of traditional Republican hostility to military men with political aspirations.[39][40] Lyautey shared his concerns about Nivelle with Petain, commander of Army Group Centre, who would eventually replace him.[41]
Lyautey refused to discuss military aviation even at a closed session of the French Chamber, and at the subsequent open session declared that to discuss such matters even in closed session would be a security risk. He resigned as Minister of War after being shouted down in the Chamber on 15 March 1917, and after several leading politicians declined the post of Minister of War, Aristide Briand's sixth cabinet (12 December 1916 – 20 March 1917) fell four days later.[42][43][44]
In popular culture[edit]
Lyautey plays a major role in Garment of Shadows (2013), a Sherlock Holmes/Mary Russell novel by Laurie R. King, set in Morocco in 1925. He is said to be a distant cousin of Holmes.
Following his resignation from the position of Resident-general in 1925, Lyautey planned for his own burial in Rabat and in 1933 requested painter Joseph de La Nézière to produce a sketch for his mausoleum as a traditional Muslim Qubba. Following Lyautey's death in France on 1934-07-27 and his state funeral in Nancy on 1934-08-03, the French authorities decided to locate his resting place on the Protectorate Residence's grounds rather than in more iconic locations such as Chellah or near the Hassan Tower, which could have offended some Muslim Moroccan sensitivities. Even so, the erection of a monument to Morocco's Christian colonizer was controversial and criticized by Mohamed Belhassan Wazzani and other nationalist and Muslim leaders. Reflecting those misgivings, Sultan Mohammed V of Morocco declined to attend the funeral on the Residence grounds on 1935-10-31, when Lyautey's remains were eventually placed in the completed mausoleum, even though he participated in a ceremony earlier the same day at Bab er-Rouah in downtown Rabat. The mausoleum building was designed by architect René Canu based on La Nézière's sketch.[65]
Following Moroccan independence, French President Charles de Gaulle and Mohammed V, by then the King of Morocco, agreed to preempt the risk of incidents around the still controversial mausoleum and to repatriate Lyautey's remains, which were ceremoniously removed on 1961-04-22 and shipped to France via Casablanca.[66] The mausoleum remained empty thereafter.[65] Lyautey was reburied in Les Invalides in Paris, first in the crypte des Gouverneurs of the church of Saint-Louis-des-Invalides on 1961-05-10, and then in 1963 in the complex's Dome Church. There, his remains lie in an ornamented casket designed by Albert Laprade, the Residence's original architect almost a half-century earlier, and made by celebrated art deco metalworker Raymond Subes.[67]