Georges Ernest Boulanger, benefiting from Georges Clemenceau's…

Georges Ernest Boulanger, benefiting from Georges Clemenceau's influence, is appointed France's War Minister (replacing Jean-Baptiste-Marie Campenon) in January 1886 when Charles de Freycinet is brought into power.

Clemenceau assumes Boulanger is a republican, because he is known not to attend Mass.

However Boulanger will soon prove himself a conservative and monarchist.

This is the start of the so-called Boulanger era and another time of threats to the Republic.

Born in Rennes, Boulanger had graduated from Saint-Cyr and entered regular service in the French Army in 1856.

He had fought in the Austro-Sardinian War (he was wounded at Robecchetto, where he received the Légion d'honneur), and in the occupation of Cochin China, after which he had become a captain and instructor at Saint-Cyr.

During the Franco-Prussian War, Georges Boulanger had been noted for his bravery, and soon promoted to chef de bataillon; he had again been wounded while fighting at Champigny-sur-Marne during the Siege of Paris.

Subsequently, Boulanger was among the Third Republic military leaders who crushed the Paris Commune in April–May 1871.

Wounded a third time as he led troops to the siege of the Panthéon, he had been promoted commandeur of the Légion d'honneur by Patrice Mac-Mahon.

However, he was soon demoted (as his position was considered provisional), and his resignation in protest was rejected.

With backing from his direct superior, Henri d'Orléans, duc d'Aumale (incidentally, one of the sons of former king Louis-Philippe), Boulanger had been made a brigadier-general in 1880, and in 1882, War Minister Jean-Baptiste Billot had appointed him director of infantry at the war office, enabling him to make a name as a military reformer (he took measures to improve morale and efficiency).

In 1884, he had been appointed to command the army occupying Tunis, but was recalled owing to his differences of opinion with Pierre-Paul Cambon, the political resident.

Returning to Paris, he had begun to take part in politics under the aegis of Georges Clemenceau and the Radicals.