'Complaints lost in the wind'-French India and the crisis of the absolute monarchy: a global dimension?

Rapport, M. (2013) 'Complaints lost in the wind'-French India and the crisis of the absolute monarchy: a global dimension? In: Swann, J. and Felix, J. (eds.) The Crisis of the Absolute Monarchy: From Old Regime to the French Revolution. Series: Proceedings of the British Academy. Oxford University Press: Corby, UK, pp. 223-243. ISBN 9780197265383

Full text not currently available from Enlighten.

Abstract

This article uses the example of the French trading posts ('comptoirs') in eighteenth-century India to argue that a full explanation of the crisis of the Old Regime in 1789 must engage with the global context. Examining a series of memoranda (drawn from the Archives Nationales d'Outre-Mer) sent to the new revolutionary authorities in Paris by the local French leadership in Pondichery, it suggests that, since the difficulties of the French imperial experience 'on the ground' were an important element in explaining the stresses in the Ancien Regime's foreign policy, those same local problems ultimately rebounded back on the regime itself, and so helped precipitate the French Revolution. This piece concludes by supporting the notion of a 'global turn' in interpretations of this period, as posited by historians such as Lynn Hunt and Christopher Bayly, amongst others.

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Rapport, Dr Michael
Authors: Rapport, M.
Subjects:D History General and Old World > DC France
D History General and Old World > DS Asia
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
Publisher:Oxford University Press
ISBN:9780197265383

University Staff: Request a correction | Enlighten Editors: Update this record