Joseph Simon Gallieni (24 April 1849 – 27 May 1916) was a French soldier, active for most of his career as a military commander and administrator in the French colonies. Gallieni is infamous in Madagascar as the French military leader who exiled Queen Ranavalona III and abolished the 350-year-old monarchy on the island. He was recalled from retirement at the outbreak of the First World War. As Military Governor of Paris he played an important role in the First Battle of the Marne, when Maunoury's Sixth Army, which was under his command, attacked the German west flank. A small portion of its strength was rushed to the front in commandeered Paris taxicabs. From October 1915 he served as Minister of War, resigning from that post in March 1916 after criticizing the performance of the French Commander-in-Chief, Joseph Joffre (formerly his subordinate, earlier in their careers), during the German attack on Verdun. He was made Marshal of France posthumously in 1921. Early life and career Gallieni was born in 1849 at Saint-Beat, in the department of Haute-Garonne, in the central Pyrenees. He was of Corsican and Italian descent. His father, born in Pogliano Milanese, had risen from the ranks to be a captain. He was educated at the Prytanée Militaire in La Flèche, and then the École Spéciale Militaire de Saint-Cyr, becoming a Second Lieutenant in the 3rd Marine Infantry Regiment before serving in the Franco-Prussian War. Gallieni fought at Sedan and was taken prisoner at Bazeilles, scene of the stand of the colonial marines. He learned German whilst a prisoner there, and later kept a notebook in German, English and Italian called “Erinnerungen of my life di ragazzo” ("Memories of my life from boyhood [onwards]") - ("ragazzo" translates better as"urchin" or "vagabond" so Gallieni was not without humor,). Colonial Service He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1873. His colonial career began in 1876 in Senegal. He was promoted to Captain in 1878. He led an expedition to the upper Niger. He also served in Reunion and Martinique. In 1886, he was appointed governor of the French Sudan, during which time he successfully quelled a rebellion by Sudanese insurgents under Mahmadu Lamine. He was outstanding at colonial penetration without open hostilities in West Africa in 1880 and 1886-8. In 1888 he was appointed to the War College. In 1892-6 he served as a colonel in French Indochina commanding the second military