Abstract
George Clemenceau, and not 'Clémenceau' as many people use to write his name just to bother him, was born on the 28th September, 1841 in a modest house of a small Vendee village. But contrary to the appearances and to what he often claims, Clemenceau is not from a provincial background. He is the heritor of quite a wealthy family of doctors who were already rich before the revolution. He even has an ancestor who received a nobility title from Louis the XIII. Despite his vendean roots but like most of the republicans, Clemenceau has always showed a deep contempt for peasants since he was a young boy in his region. Nevertheless, Clemenceau has always seen himself as a vandean person and had a strong feeling of appurtenance to his native region. This matter can seem strange if we consider the political convictions of Clemenceau but also of his family and the political tradition of this region. Indeed, the vendee appears as one of the most traditionalist region of France, the symbol of the royalist resistance against the revolution. At the opposite we know now that Clemenceau went to republicanism and radicalism due to his family's influence. Truth is that republicans in the middle of the nineteenth century were quite rare in vendee. But the Clemenceau family was one of those exceptions. In fact, we can not really say that Clemenceau built his own strong and independent character because he always felt in opposition with his neighbours and comrades. It is partly true but there are also elements of Clemenceau's character that makes him a real vendean person. He said himself that he took the qualities of vendean spirit such as combativeness and courage against oppositions, criticisms, and attacks.
