Georges Ernest Boulanger
French general (1837-1891)
Georges Ernest Jean-Marie Boulanger (29 April 1837 – 30 September 1891), nicknamed Général Revanche ('General Revenge'), was a French Army officer and politician. An enormously popular public figure during the second decade of the Third Republic, he won multiple elections. At the zenith of his popularity in January 1889, he was feared to be powerful enough to establish himself as dictator. His base of support was the working-class districts of Paris and other cities, plus rural traditionalist Catholics and royalists. He advocated revanche (revenge on Germany), révision (revision of the constitution), and restauration (restoration of the Orléanist monarchy).
The elections of September 1889 marked a decisive defeat for the Boulangists. Changes in the electoral laws prevented Boulanger from running in multiple constituencies, and the aggressive opposition of the established government, combined with Boulanger's self-imposed exile, contributed to a rapid decline of the movement. The decline of Boulanger severely undermined the political strength of the conservative and royalist elements of French political life; they would not recover strength until the establishment of the Vichy regime in 1940. The defeat of the Boulangists ushered in a period of political dominance by the Moderate Republicans.
Academics have attributed the failure of the movement to Boulanger's own weaknesses.
“Georges Ernest Boulanger” enters the record as french general (1837-1891). Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Georges, Ernest and Boulanger can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 4, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q315747. VIAF identifies the subject as 7358720. The Library of Congress control number is n83010409. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1837, 1891, 1889 and 1940.
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This entry incorporates text from “Georges Ernest Boulanger” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.