Jean Jaurès Assassinated (1914)

Fri Jul 31, 1914

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On this day in 1914, prominent French socialist Jean Jaurès was assassinated by a nationalist at the outbreak of World War I after returning from a diplomatic meeting in Brussels where he had advocated against the coming war.

Initially a moderate republican, Jaurès was later one of the first social democrats, eventually becoming the leader of the French Socialist Party, which opposed Jules Guesde’s revolutionary Socialist Party of France. The two parties merged in 1905 in the French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO).

Today, a key aspect of his legacy is his anti-militarism. Jaurès was an early opponent of the draft and desperately tried to prevent war between France and Germany before World War I, going so far as to try and organize a general strike in both countries to force their leaders to negotiate diplomatically.

In 1914, Jaurès returned to Paris from a diplomatic meeting in Brussels to advocate against the coming war. He was assassinated by a French nationalist at the outbreak of World War I, and remains a key figure in the history of the French Left.

“Tradition does not mean to look after the ash, but to keep the flame alive.”

- Jean Jaurès