born April 5, 1832, Saint-Dié, France
died March 17, 1893, Paris
French politician.
He held a number of offices in the early Third Republic , including mayor of Paris (1870) and premier of France (1880–81, 1883–85). His government established free, compulsory, secular education (1882), enacting such anticlerical measures as dissolving the Jesuits and forbidding their members to teach. Ferry played a major part in extending France's colonial territories in Asia and Africa, but public anger for colonial expenditures forced his resignation, though he was later elected to the Senate. He was assassinated by a madman.