Cast in Stone

Media metadata | Métadonnées multimédias

François Césaire de Mahy

has biography | a une biographie

A member of Réunion's Creole elite - his family were slave owners and his father was mayor of Saint-Pierre and a colonial councillor - he studied at the Collège Royal in Saint-Denis de Bourbon, then at the Lycée Henri IV in Paris. Doctor of Medicine in 1855, he returned to Saint-Pierre de la Réunion in 1857, where he practiced as a physician until 1870. In November 1870, he was one of two moderate Republican deputies elected on the island, and held office until his death in 1906. A member of the colonial party and the colonial group in the Assembly, he actively supported conquest projects. He played a decisive role in the colonization of Madagascar. In January-February 1883, he was acting Minister of the Navy and Colonies, and organized an expedition against Grande-Île, in which a battalion of Creole volunteers from La Réunion took part. He multiplied his efforts to involve France in the takeover of the country. He was not satisfied with the imposition of a protectorate in 1885, and spoke out tirelessly to convince the French elite of the need to colonize Madagascar, not only as a member of parliament, but also as Honorary President of the Congress of French Geographical Societies, and finally as Minister of the Navy and Colonies, a post he held again from December 1887 to March 30, 1888. After the country's annexation in 1895, he supported Gallieni's "pacification" campaigns, which resulted in 50,000 to 100,000 deaths among the inhabitants of Madagascar. In 1898, François de Mahy displayed his anti-Dreyfus commitment and joined the Ligue de la Patrie, founded in reaction to the founding of the Ligue des Droits de l'Homme.

was born | est né

22 July 1830

died in | est mort par

19 November 1925

has parent | a pour parent

His father, François Césaire de Mahy (1759-?), was compensated for 7-8 enslaved people in Réunion in 1848. His uncle was Gabriel Le Coat de Kerveguen (1800-1860), one of the wealthiest slave-owners on the island.

has nationality | a la nationalité

France

has type | est de type

depicted

has association with | a une association avec

Parti Colonial

is referred to by | est référencé par

Geneastar

REPAIRS - François Césaire de Mahy

REPAIRS - Gabriel Le Coat de Kerveguen

DataBNF

Stephen Ellis, L’insurrection des menalamba. Une révolte à Madagascar (1895-1898). Paris / Antananarivo : Editions Karthala et Editions Ambozontany, 1998.
Daniel Varga. François Césaire de Mahy, un parlementaire réunionnais de premier plan sous la IIIe République le modèle d’une élite à la recherche de solutions extérieures aux problèmes de l’île. Revue historique de l’océan Indien, 2016, Elites dans les pays de l’Indianocéanie (XVIIIe-XXe siècles), 13, pp.387-400.

La Patrie, 3 juillet 1932, p. 3.