Biography
He was born at Beaurevoir in the département of Aisne. He studied history at the École des Chartes, and became maître de conférence in the École des Hautes Études. His political career was that of a civil servant rather than a party politician. In 1879 he entered the ministry of foreign affairs as a secretary, and rose step by step through the diplomatic service.
In 1886 he was elected deputy for Aisne, but, defeated in 1889, he returned to his diplomatic career, and on 31 May 1894 was chosen by Charles Dupuy to be minister of foreign affairs. With one interruption (during the Ribot ministry, from 26 January to 2 November 1895) he held this portfolio until 14 June 1898. During his ministry he developed the rapprochement of France with Russia—visiting Saint Petersburg with the president, Félix Faure—and sent expeditions to delimit the French colonies in Africa. The Fashoda Incident of July 1898 was a result of this policy, and Hanotaux's distrust of England is frankly stated in his literary works.
Hanotaux was elected a member of the Académie française on 1 April 1897. He served as a delegate for France with the League of Nations and participated in the 1st (15 November - 18 December 1920), 2nd (5 September - 5 October 1921), 3rd (4 September - 30 September, 1922) and 4th Assemblies (3 September - 29 September 1923). In the early 1920s, there was a proposal for the League of Nations to accept Esperanto as their working language. Ten delegates accepted the proposal with only one voice against, the French delegate, Gabriel Hanotaux. Hanotaux did not like how the French language was losing its position as the international language of diplomacy and saw Esperanto as a threat.
Gabriel Hanotaux died in Paris in 1944 and was interred in the Passy Cemetery. His home in Orchaise now serves as a botanical garden, the Parc botanique du Prieuré d'Orchaise.
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