Elisée Reclus facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Élisée Reclus
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| Born | March 15 1830 Ste Foy la Grande, France
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| Died | July 4, 1905 (aged 75) |
Élisée Reclus (March 15 1830–July 4 1905), also known as Jean Jacques Élisée Reclus, was a French geographer and anarchist. This means he studied the Earth's features and believed in a society where people could live freely without a government telling them what to do.
Contents
Élisée Reclus: A Life of Exploration and Ideas
Early Life and Education
Élisée Reclus was born in Sainte-Foy-la-Grande in France. He was one of fourteen children! His father was a Protestant priest. Élisée studied in Germany at the University of Berlin, where he learned a lot about geography from a famous teacher named Karl Ritter.
Traveling the World
After his studies, Élisée spent six years (from 1852 to 1857) traveling a lot. He visited places like the British Isles, the United States, Central America, and Colombia. When he returned to Paris, he started writing many articles about geography for different magazines.
Writing About the Earth
In 1867 and 1868, he published an important two-volume book called La Terre (which means The Earth). This book described the amazing things happening on our planet.
Ideas for a Better Society
Élisée Reclus was also very interested in how people lived together. During a difficult time in Paris in 1870, he supported a group called the Paris Commune. These were people who wanted to create their own government in Paris. Reclus wrote articles supporting their ideas. Because of his strong beliefs, he was arrested in April 1871. He was later exiled, meaning he had to leave France.
After this, Reclus visited Italy and Switzerland, where he continued to write many articles about geography.
Leading by Example
In 1882, Reclus started talking about new ideas for society, including different ways to think about marriage. Because of his ideas and his role as a leader among anarchists, he was seen as an important figure. Another famous anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, was arrested, but Reclus was living in Switzerland at the time, so he was safe.
After 1892, Élisée Reclus taught at the University of Brussels. He kept writing for many science and geography journals until the end of his life.
His Main Books
Élisée Reclus wrote many books that shared his knowledge of geography and his ideas about society. Some of his most famous works include:
- Nouvelle Géographie Universelle (New Universal Geography) – a huge work published between 1875 and 1894.
- La Terre, description des phénomènes de la vie du globe (The Earth, description of the phenomena of the life of the globe) – published in 1867-1868.
- Histoire d'une montagne (Story of a Mountain) – published in 1872.
- Histoire d'une ruisseau (Story of a Stream) – published in 1876.
- L'Homme et la Terre (Man and the Earth) – published after he died in 1905.
Élisée Reclus passed away in Torhout, near Bruges, in Belgium.
Related pages
- Anarchism in France
- Onésime Reclus, his brother
Images for kids
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Reclus reading Le Cri du Peuple in the garden of his home in Brussels, around 1894–1905.
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A picture of Élisée Reclus.
See also
In Spanish: Élisée Reclus para niños
