Background and establishment The Corps des Mines emerged in the third quarter of the 18th century in a context of gradual specialization within the French state's civilian bureaucracy, echoing experiences elsewhere in Europe and especially the establishment of the
Prussian bureaucracy under
Frederick William I (r. 1713-1740). The model of a of state engineers was first established in the
Kingdom of France with the
Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, which from 1747 on relied on a dedicated higher education institution, later known as the
École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. Meanwhile during the 18th century, the
mining sector developed an increasingly specialized body of knowledge, particularly in the German-speaking world where it was more advanced than in France. Milestones of that development included the establishment in 1762 by the
Habsburg monarchy of the
Mining Academy in Schemnitz (now
Banská Štiavnica in
Slovakia), and that in 1765 by the
Electorate of Saxony of a similar Mining Academy () in
Freiberg, still extant as the
Freiberg University of Mining and Technology. The Freiberg Academy served as a direct inspiration for the establishment of the first
École des Mines in France, in 1783, which a contemporary described as intended to train "engineers and inspectors that would be at the same time physicists, metallurgists, architects, mechanics, mathematicians, geologists, and good managers". The formation of a self-conscious community of state mining engineers took place gradually and on a small scale. In 1769, an administrative unit focused on mines was first established within the French civil service. On , a royal decision of
Louis XVI established four positions of . These engineers first referred to their own group as "corps des Mines" in the early phase of the
French Revolution, in a memorandum to the
National Assembly on . Legislation of the
National Convention in 1794 created the and re-established the École des Mines in Paris, with a mandate to recruit its engineers from
École Polytechnique. That year, scholar , who had just been appointed by the as editor of its newly established , wrote: "there needs to be a Corps of engineers in the state's service, in order to mobilize technology and science for the benefit of the public good, and to disseminate knowledge."
19th century On , an
Imperial Decree of
Napoleon gave permanent status to the "Corps impérial des ingénieurs des Mines" and established the Conseil Général des Mines as a collective oversight body of senior members of the Corps. That same year, new legislation established the legal regime of
mining concessions that the would manage on behalf of the French state. Initially, the Corps des Mines was second in status to the older
Corps des Ponts et Chaussées, so that the best-ranked students exiting École Polytechnique would join the rather than the , as did scientific luminaries such as
Augustin-Louis Cauchy,
Gustave Coriolis,
Augustin Fresnel, and
Henri Navier. This changed in the late 1810s, when most of the best-ranked started opting for the Corps des Mines, a precedence that was fully cemented by the 1850s. Throughout its existence, the Corps des Mines has kept a limited size in line with its elitist character: during the 19th century and until
World War II, the yearly intake of new members fluctuated between two and seven, rising to around ten per year in the postwar period and twenty by the late 20th century. The total number of members reached 52 in 1810 and 153 in 1914. The 1810 decree defined the mission of the Corps des Mines as "to oversee [] the operation of mines and enterprises". In 1846, in the wake of the
Industrial Revolution, an ordinance expanded it to "oversee the condition of fixed [steam] machines and of locomotives", whereas the were in charge of the
railway tracks. This paved the way for a leading role of the Corps des Mines in the development of
rail transport in France. Several members of the Corps des Mines were prominent in the
Saint-Simonian movement of the mid-19th century, including
Gabriel Lamé, ,
Émile Clapeyron,
Michel Chevalier,
Jean Reynaud, and
Louis Le Chatelier. In the later 19th century, the identity of the Corps des Mines crystallized around the combined legacies of
Colbertism, the
French Enlightenment, Saint-Simonianism, and an idiosyncratic combination of
French liberalism,
technocracy and
dirigisme. Examples of this synthesis included the history of the Corps written in 1889 by and, a bit later,
Henry Le Chatelier's influence on a landmark report on French economic development strategy led in 1919 by minister
Étienne Clémentel. By that period, the practice of
pantouflage, namely mid-career moves from the civil service to executive positions in the business sector, was well established and followed by a majority of members of the Corps des Mines, whereas a stable minority (around a third) kept all their career in government positions. In this context, the Corps's original focus on mining had already been largely diluted by the late 19th century.
20th century In the early 20th century, the scope of activity (and related ) of the Corps des Mines expanded from its early focus on mining and railways towards steel and metallurgy, utilities, after
World War I also oil and chemistry, and from the 1970s, manufacturing and to a lesser extent financial services. From 1915 to 1958, one or two positions per year (nicknamed "mines colos") were reserved for service in the
French colonial empire. Members of the Corps des Mines eventually found their ways to senior positions in a diverse array of large companies, albeit typically French rather than foreign-controlled (
BP France being an early exception); many of them rose to chief executive of their respective employers. By contrast, few created their own business, apart from a handful of exceptions including (founder in Spain of the
Sociedad Minera y Metalúrgica de Peñarroya),
Auguste Rateau (founder of an eponymous
turbomachinery producer), and
Conrad Schlumberger (cofounder of
Schlumberger). During
World War II and under the
Vichy regime, like other parts of the French civil service, the Corps des Mines largely collaborated with German occupation forces, while a minority of members joined the
Resistance. Among the former,
Jean Bichelonne became Industry Minister in 1942, led efforts to reorganize France's economy, and was viewed by
Albert Speer as a peer; was Vichy's minister of transportation, and was in charge of food procurement. Conversely,
Louis Armand organized the
Résistance-Fer network in French railways and was later instrumental in the creation of
Euratom, of which he became the first president.
Pierre Guillaumat was a member of the Resistance's intelligence service, the
Bureau central de renseignements et d'action, and later became
Charles de Gaulle's right-hand man for the establishment of France's
energy independence.
Aimé Lepercq commanded the
French Forces of the Interior in the Paris region and was briefly finance minister until his death in a wartime car crash in November 1944. The Corps des Mines played a central role in the development of
France's civil nuclear program, in which Guillaumat was a key figure as were his followers and
Georges Besse. In 1973, it was granted oversight of France's civil nuclear safety, even though its members were never dominant in the country's nuclear industry. Following the
Feyzin disaster of 1966, the Corps des Mines was also increasingly associated with the oversight of dangerous industrial facilities and
environmental hazard. In the last third of the 20th century, the Corps des Mines gradually expanded and diversified its recruitment. In 1970, for the first time, it opened itself to alumni of the
École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris, or (thus called to differentiate them from the ). In 1974, it did likewise for alumni of the
École Normale Supérieure. In 1975 for the first time, a woman became , following the opening in 1972 of École Polytechnique's admission exam to female students. In 1985, the Corps des Mines tightened the conditions for early leave of absence from the civil service, or . Around the same time, members of the Corps des Mines increasingly had to compete for senior positions in the corporate world, in contrast with the earlier period when they appeared to have
de facto pre-programmed career paths leading to the top, so-called .
21st century In the late 20th and early 21st centuries, the structure of the French state's was gradually streamlined. In this process, the Corps des Mines played a consolidating role even though it did not correspondingly expand in size. It absorbed the in 1988, the in 2009, and the in 2011. The most consequential of these developments was the 2009 merger with the "Corps des Télécoms", upon which the identity of the Corps des Mines shifted towards greater emphasis on
information technology. ==Recruitment and careers==