Editing Nicolas Bourbaki (section)

==Background==
[[File:Portrait Bourbaki.JPG|thumb|left|200px|[[Charles-Denis Bourbaki]], 19th century general and namesake of the collective]]

[[Charles-Denis Bourbaki|Charles-Denis Sauter Bourbaki]] was a successful general during the era of [[Napoleon III]], serving in the [[Crimean War]] and other conflicts. During the [[Franco-Prussian war]] however, Charles-Denis Bourbaki suffered a major defeat in which the [[Armée de l'Est]], under his command, retreated across the Swiss border and was disarmed. The general unsuccessfully attempted suicide. The dramatic story of his defeat was known in the French popular consciousness following his death.{{sfn|Aczel|pp=61–63}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=22–25}}

[[File:Gustav_Herglotz,_Gaston_Julia.jpeg|thumb|right|250px|[[Gaston Julia]] (right), who was not a member of Bourbaki, lost his nose during World War I. The war created a lost generation of mathematical knowledge, which the Bourbaki founders sought to fill.]]  In the early 20th century, the First World War affected Europeans of all professions and social classes, including mathematicians and male students who fought and died in the front. For example, the French mathematician [[Gaston Julia]], a pioneer in the study of [[fractal]]s, lost his nose during the war and wore a leather strap over the affected part of his face for the rest of his life. The deaths of ENS students resulted in a [[lost generation]] in the French mathematical community;{{sfn|Borel|p=373}} the estimated proportion of ENS mathematics students (and French students generally) who died in the war ranges from one-quarter to one-half, depending on the intervals of time (c. 1900–1918, especially 1910–1916) and populations considered.{{sfn|Aczel|p=82}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=44–45}} Furthermore, Bourbaki founder [[André Weil]] remarked in his memoir ''Apprenticeship of a Mathematician'' that France and Germany took different approaches with their intelligentsia during the war: while Germany protected its young students and scientists, France instead committed them to the front, owing to the French [[Liberté, égalité, fraternité|culture]] of [[egalitarianism]].{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=44–45}}

A succeeding generation of mathematics students attended the ENS during the 1920s, including Weil and others, the future founders of Bourbaki. During his time as a student, Weil recalled a prank in which an upperclassman, {{ill|Raoul Husson|fr|Raoul Husson}}, posed as a professor and gave a math lecture, ending with a prompt: "Theorem of Bourbaki: you are to prove the following...". Weil was also aware of a similar stunt around 1910<ref name=":0" /> in which a student claimed to be from the fictional, impoverished nation of "Poldevia" and solicited the public for donations.{{sfn|Aczel|pp=63–65}}{{sfn|Mashaal|p=23}} Weil had strong interests in languages and [[Indian culture]], having learned [[Sanskrit]] and read the [[Bhagavad Gita]].{{sfn|Aczel|pp=25–26}}{{sfn|Mashaal|pp=35–37}} After graduating from the ENS and obtaining his doctorate, Weil took a teaching stint at the [[Aligarh Muslim University]] in India. While there, Weil met the mathematician [[Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi|Damodar Kosambi]], who was engaged in a power struggle with one of his colleagues. Weil suggested that Kosambi write an article with material attributed to one "Bourbaki", in order to show off his knowledge to the colleague.{{sfn|Beaulieu|1999|p=239}} Kosambi took the suggestion, attributing the material discussed in the article to "the little-known Russian mathematician '''D. Bourbaki''', who was poisoned during the Revolution." It was the first article in the mathematical literature with material attributed to the eponymous "Bourbaki".{{sfn|Aczel|p=65}}<ref>{{cite book |chapter=On a Generalization of the Second Theorem of Bourbaki |last=Kosambi |first=Damodar Dharmananda |title=D.D. Kosambi |pages=55–57 |doi=10.1007/978-81-322-3676-4_6 |isbn=978-81-322-3674-0 |year=2016 }}</ref>{{sfn|Mashaal|p=26}} Weil's stay in India was short-lived; he attempted to revamp the mathematics department at Aligarh, without success.{{sfn|Mashaal|p=35}} The university administration planned to fire Weil and promote his colleague [[Tirukkannapuram Vijayaraghavan|Vijayaraghavan]] to the vacated position. However, Weil and Vijayaraghavan respected one another. Rather than play any role in the drama, Vijayaraghavan instead resigned, later informing Weil of the plan.{{sfn|Aczel|pp=32–34}} Weil returned to Europe to seek another teaching position. He ended up at the University of Strasbourg, joining his friend and colleague Henri Cartan.{{sfn|Aczel|p=81}}