Contenu du sommaire

‪The debate on the restoration of the Monarchy began immediately after the fall of Louis XVI in 1792. ‪It would intensify with French emigration. By analyzing the relationships between the « monarchiens », those constitutional monarchists favoring a bicameral system, and the Bourbons in exile, this article shows how the idea of the reestablishment of the Old Regime often associated with emigres was successively rejected by the Bourbons. ‪The political confrontations and cooperation with the monarchiens demonstrates the extent to which the political thought of the future Louis XVIII in the 1790s turned towards a constitutional monarchy that, already before Brumaire, anticipated the central features of the Restoration of 1814.‪

‪Between 1793 and 1795, the representatives on mission attached to the Army of the Pyrénées Orientales put up a series of posters in Roussillon. ‪This article is based on an analysis of this series of posters (affiches), considered as « tools » to legitimize the nascent Revolutionary power. With this study of posters, it is possible to nuance an often overly schematic vision of Revolutionary propaganda. Hence, the politics of information used by the deputies of the Convention mobilized intermediaries within the local administrations and the army. It combines oral and written forms of communication, from the ritualistic forms of proclamation to informal reading. These posters beyond their informative value have an evidentiary quality. Indeed, these posters reflect the directives of the central government as well as revealing the personal initiatives of the representatives.

‪With the advent of the Directory a new period colonial debates began. ‪Faced with profound changes such as the abolition of slavery, the colonists and their allies sought to adapt their colonial model to a Revolutionary context. ‪The nature of the colonial system was much discussed, and while many shared the same vision about its development, widely divergent strategies and ideas would be put forward. How can a flourishing economy be reestablished in Santo Domingo -- by forced labor or free labor ; with or without a treaty ; by accepting or rejecting the notions of Adam Smith and the physiocrats ? These different projects reveal how the colonial economy was imagined, and how this issue was adapted to the prevailing condition of the island, as well as to more general debates about the French economy, especially to the transformations linked to the French Revolution.‪

‪Between 1809 and 1810, a project was developed aimed at incorporating into the archives of the Empire in Paris the largest and richest documentary collections from the annexed departments and satellite countries. ‪In 1814, hundreds of thousands of diplomas, registers, and bundles of documents from Italy, Vienna, and Spain were piled up in the palais de Soubise, and more materials were expected from Belgium, Geneva, and Holland. Most of these archives were returned to their respective countries with the Restoration. This article explores the origin of the Napoleonic « Annexation » of the archives of Europe, the political stakes, and the motivations of the protagonists, in particular the Garde des Archives, Pierre-Claude-François Daunou, whose name invites reflections about a continuity with the Republican era. ‪Moreover, this article analyzes the dynamics that developed in the designated territories, especially in two very different instances -- Rome and Florence. ‪The centralization of the archives rapidly became of highly complex operation, similar to the very construction of the Empire, because of the diversity of local situations and the roles played by the participants.

‪Elections were certainly held under Napoleon, using a two-tier electoral system previously employed during the Revolution, which was now applied in the departments recently annexed to France as well as those of the interior. ‪A quasi-universal male suffrage operated in the cantonal, or primary, assemblies, but its role was restricted to the presentation of « candidates », with the final choice resting in the hands of the government. Usually written off as a farce, these elections actually played an important part in the political and social functioning of the regime, whilst also serving to extend the electoral experience of the Revolution. However, the way these elections were run is poorly understood and we know little about the attitudes of voters and administrators towards them. A prefectoral enquiry, ordered by the minister of the Interior in 1813, offers some valuable insight into the behaviour of those who participated and the response of those who organised the polls. ‪This unique survey suggests that the contradictions inherent in the system consigned the experiment to defeat, though not without influencing both voting practice and the Bonapartist legacy in France.‪

‪The diner that took place on 18 November 1792 at White's Hotel, in Paris, is well-known in historiography as the birth of the (in) famous British Club. Yet, the British who celebrated the recent French victories have long been considered as deluded traitors and, as such, little worthy of interest. The same goes for the Irish « convives » whose presence at the diner was seen as a mere anecdote in the broader narrative of the birth of Irish nationalism. However, by examining the multiple layers of meaning behind this manifestation of sociability in Paris in the early Republic, the outlines of an original and revolutionary Irish republicanism can be traced to an earlier moment of the 1790s than previously admitted, challenging the revisionist narrative which sees the first Irish republicans as late, reluctant and opportunist revolutionaries. The Irish guests at White's also underline the link between Irish republicanism and a « Catholicism of the Enlightenment », between France and Ireland. ‪