Ancient warriors on modern soil: French military reform and American military images in eighteenth-century France

Abstract

The American Revolution made idealized characteristics of ancient militaries seem like actual possibilities in France. Roger Chartier recognized that a change occurred in French thinking that had made certain revolutionary ideas ‘conceivable’ by 1789. When French adulation of ancient militaries intermingled with the reports of the early American Revolution, against a backdrop of the urgent need for French military reform, the abstract met the concrete, and the idealized characteristics of effective ancient militaries become practical possibilities. In addition to the potential for a more disciplined, patriotic army reminiscent of the Greeks and Romans, press representations of the American army and militia further introduced more concrete ideas about republican government and a more merit-based society. To old regime France, these ideas were revolutionary indeed. French perceptions of the American military gave new power to old ideas; through the lens of ‘classical republican discourse’ French commentators began to visualize a future revolution.