Comportements révolutionnaires en Morvan Central au milieu du XIXe siècle : structures foncières, sociales et mentales. Souvenirs de l'Ancien Régime et de la Révolution.

Abstract

Differents forms of revolutionary action spring up in the Central Morvan area in the mid-nineteenth century and in particular under the Second Republic. The author explains these both by the change of political régime and by the circumstances of the economic depression which hit agriculture and even more forestry. But the study also stresses, as a part of any explanation, the importance of the very unequalitarian land structures, the small farmers and the poor are predominant by their very numbers and to understand these phenomena, their fierce indépendance has to be taken into account. The article evokes the nature of these actions: rural peurs, the taxing of corn, conflicts over the forest, actions against the nobles. But the many memories of the great Revolution must also be taken into account as 1789 and 1793 remained in the collective memory of simple people; they were revived and recalled by the village leaders from 1848 to 1851. In the main, this nineteenth century revolution is a repetition of the 1789 one, This is revealed by the development of the people's actions in a more and more revolutionary direction.