34 Facts About Gabriel Alapetite

Gabriel Ferdinand Alapetite was a French senior civil servant and diplomat.

Gabriel Alapetite considered that the Tunisian Muslims had an utterly different mentality from French people, and could never become citizens of France.

Gabriel Alapetite was born on 5 January 1854 in Clamecy, Nievre.

Gabriel Alapetite's parents were Marien Ferdinand Alapetite and Alphonsine Janiska.

Gabriel Alapetite's siblings were Jeanne Marie Alapetite and Emile Marien Alapetite.

Gabriel Alapetite began practice as a lawyer with Theodore Tenaille-Saligny as his political mentor.

Gabriel Alapetite was chef de cabinet in Pas-de-Calais from December 1876 to May 1877 and in Haute-Garonne from December 1877 to February 1879.

Tenaille-Saligny became a Senator from 1879 to 1888, while Gabriel Alapetite followed a standard administrative progression.

Gabriel Alapetite was in turn Sub-Prefect of Muret from 25 March 1879, Loudun from 11 November 1880 and Chatellerault from 21 October 1883.

Gabriel Alapetite was made Secretary-General of Rhone on 25 April 1885.

Gabriel Alapetite was appointed Prefect of Indre on 20 June 1888.

Gabriel Alapetite was only 34 at this time, very young for such a responsible position.

Gabriel Alapetite was appointed Prefect of Sarthe on 1 December 1888, then Prefect of Puy-de-Dome on 24 May 1889.

Gabriel Alapetite was appointed Prefect of Pas-de-Calais on 8 January 1890.

Gabriel Alapetite acted tactfully but decisively to prevent disturbances, as he had in similar circumstances two years earlier, and only one person died during the strike.

Gabriel Alapetite played a balancing act in correcting the initiatives of the Ministry of Public Works, the Ministry of the Interior, the President of the Council and the Ministry of War.

Gabriel Alapetite convinced the President of the Council to threaten to withdraw troops from the mining basin, and this persuaded the companies to accept negotiations.

Gabriel Alapetite created provident funds and developed agricultural cooperation, which reduced scarcity and famine.

Gabriel Alapetite wrote that "the moral conquest of the native through medical welfare is a long-term effort" to advance the interests of France in North Africa.

Gabriel Alapetite inaugurated a monument with a bust of the geologist Philippe Thomas by the sculptor Andre Cesar Vermare in Sfax on 26 April 1913.

Gabriel Alapetite inaugurated another monument in honour of Thomas in Tunis on 29 May 1913.

Gabriel Alapetite did not feel that Tunisians should be treated in the same way as French people, since the Tunisian Muslims had a different mentality.

Gabriel Alapetite strongly opposed sending Muslim troops to the Dardanelles during the Gallipoli Campaign, where they would be fighting against Muslims, and this view prevailed.

Gabriel Alapetite was deeply antisemitic, as was typical of the French administration in Tunisia.

Gabriel Alapetite wrote a long reply in which he rejected the idea.

Gabriel Alapetite said that conscripting Tunisian Jews would be equivalent to granting them French citizenship, and this would provoke the Muslims.

Gabriel Alapetite was French Ambassador in Madrid from 1918 to 1920.

Gabriel Alapetite was French Commissioner General in Strasbourg, Alsace-Lorraine, from 1920 to 1924.

Gabriel Alapetite had to deal with labour tensions, disputes over language and religion, difficulties implementing French law and difficulties with Alsatian civil servants.

In 1920 Gabriel Alapetite stated before a regional consultative assembly that he hoped Alsatians would learn one new French word each day, and forget one German word.

Gabriel Alapetite died on 22 March 1932 in Paris aged 78.

Gabriel Alapetite was decorated with the Ordre des Palmes Academiques on 12 July 1884.

Gabriel Alapetite was named Knight of the Legion of Honour on 3 August 1890, Officer of the Legion of Honour on 7 January 1894 and Commander of the Legion of Honour on 26 January 1906.

Gabriel Alapetite was elected a full member of the Academie des Sciences Coloniales in 1926.