Marie Joseph Louis Adolphe Thiers (15 April 1797–3 September 1877) was a French statesman and historian. He was the second elected President of France, and the first President of the French Third Republic.
Thiers served as a prime minister in 1836, 1840 and 1848. He was a vocal opponent of Emperor Napoleon III, who reigned from 1848–71. Following the defeat of France in the Franco-German War, which he opposed, he was elected chief executive of the new French government, negotiated the end of the war, and, when the Paris Commune seized power in that city in March 1871, gave the orders to the army for its suppression. He was named President of the Republic by the French National Assembly in August 1871. Opposed by the royalists in the French assembly and the left wing of the Republicans, he resigned on May 24, 1873, and was replaced as President by Patrice de MacMahon, Duke of Magenta.