| Titre | Un anti-héros des deux mondes ? Ronald MacIver et l'histoire atlantique du volontariat armé (1860-1880) | |
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Revue | Revue historique |
| Numéro | no 692, octobre 2019 | |
| Page | 895-920 | |
| Résumé |
Cet article se propose d'étudier la trajectoire d'un volontaire armé du XIXe siècle, Ronald MacIver (1841-1907), à partir des biographies qui lui ont été consacrées à la fin du XIXe siècle. Hors du commun, son parcours compte une quinzaine d'engagements différents dans les années 1860 et 1870, principalement en Europe et en Amérique. Le propos de l'article n'est pourtant pas de retracer ce parcours, ni même d'en analyser les étapes. La pérégrination transatlantique de MacIver est prise comme point d'observation des mutations qui marquent à cette époque le monde atlantique. L'un des objectifs de l'article est d'ailleurs de défendre la pertinence d'une telle échelle d'analyse par la mise en évidence de la connexion entre théâtres européens et américains à travers ces circulations transnationales. La réflexion s'attache d'abord à examiner les dimensions personnelles du parcours de MacIver : s'il correspond à une carrière militaire qui s'élabore par-delà les frontières, il est aussi motivé par des considérations politiques conservatrices. L'accent est ensuite mis sur les dimensions concrètes et pratiques de la trajectoire de MacIver : par l'examen des conditions de possibilité du volontariat dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle, l'article se propose de mettre en lumière l'insertion du volontariat militaire dans des logiques complexes et contradictoires à l'échelle du monde atlantique. Le dernier moment de la réflexion réconcilie en quelque sorte échelle individuelle et échelle globale en se centrant sur les réseaux de combattants et sur leur rôle dans l'émergence, y compris du point de vue des acteurs du temps, d'un monde atlantique espace d'engagement militaire et d'action politique. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
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| Résumé anglais |
This article aims to study the itinerary of a volunteer from the 19th century, Ronald Mac Iver (1841-1907), starting from the biographies which were dedicated to him at the end of the century. His exceptionnal path included fifteen different commitments during the 1860s and the 1870s, including European (France, Spain, Greece, Serbia, etc.), American (USA, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil etc.) and some non-occidental countries (Egypt, India, New Guinea). The aim of the article, though, is not to trace the steps of this itinerary nor to analyze them. The transatlantic peregrination of MacIver serves as a point of observation of the mutations of the atlantic world during this period. One of the goals of the paper is indeed to defend the relevance of such a scale of analysis by showing how European and American theaters of war connect together through these transnational circulations. The reflexion stresses first on the personal dimensions of the itinerary of MacIver. First of all, we face the construction of a transnational military career, as MacIver appears as a professional officer who moves from a theater of fighting to another. Nevertheless, his path is also clearly motivated by political reasons. MacIver is an international volunteer who fights to defend his ideas, which in his case are conservative : he refuses the abolitions of slavery, defends christiandom and monarchy, and even his vision of nationalism, one of the key processes of that time on an atlantic scale, is a conservative one. In a second moment, the paper deals with the global conditions in which this transnational commitment takes place. The demonstration brings to light a double contradictory process which influences MacIver's experience : from one hand, his volunteering is permitted by the multiplication of the intercontinental links in the atlantic world, as a result of the transport revolution and the first globalization, which allow an increased mobility between Europa and America ; from the other hand, the volunteering has to deal with the emergence of the nation-states who strengthen their control on their borders, especially the terrestrial ones, and fight against transnational political circulations. Such a paradoxical situation leads to insist on the agency of MacIver and the actors of political internationalism in the atlantic world : how did they manage to get through these new and fluctuating conditions, in order to carry out their projects ? The last moment of the paper connects together these personal and global scales by focusing on the part of these transnational volunteers in the making of an atlantic world as a space of military commitment and political action. To do so, it takes into account the own perception of the actors and tries to show that they were themselves aware to be part of this atlantic world. The demonstration stresses particularly on the part of the volunteering networks established by the Garibaldians and the Confederates which made possible itineraries like MacIver's through battlefield solidarities and re-commitments. Taking place during the genesis of modern war on both shores of the Atlantic, we argue that this international volunteering was decisive in this genesis, because the circulations of the volunteers made them go-betweens who spread up the new knowledges and techniques of modern war. Finally, this international volunteering needs to be replaced within a broader movement of political transnational solidarities which also concerned civilians and other fields of public action and determined the practical conditions of the volunteering. Source : Éditeur (via Cairn.info) |
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| Article en ligne | http://www.cairn.info/article.php?ID_ARTICLE=RHIS_194_0895 |
