Les empires atlantiques des Lumières au libéralisme, 1763 – 1865

Abstract

This collection, which brings together research on all of the Americas, takes a new look at elements common to the Atlantic empires. These include language, the circulation of people and ideas (Vanessa Mongey), or even the juridical-administrative organization that emerged over the long period in which these territories confronted both a renewal of political and philosophical paradigms and a questioning of their links to the mother countries.The articles that make up this collection are organized in three parts and cover a long enough period to examine the entirety of the “revolutions” at work in these Atlantic empires as well as to attempt to connect them. The case of North America is examined here principally through the prism of slavery and abolition but also, in the essay by Erika Pani, by examining the notion of individualism. These analyses provide new perspectives while also questioning supposed differences with the revolutions in South America. In the Caribbean space, which holds a pivotal place not always accorded it (Marie-Jeanne Rossignol, Alejandro E. Gómez), we encounter a new occasion to measure the shock wave produced in North American slave societies by the 1791 Haitian Revolution and the proclamation of the first black republic in 1804. This can be seen as an example of the dangers of abolitionism or as a desperate hope for freedom, which lasted until the US Civil War in 1865. This dynamic is similar to that which can be observed in the slave societies of South America and opens up an aspect of the Atlantic world that has been little studied until now.Another complex perspective is shown in the analysis of territorial reorganization and the role of these territories in both institutional reorganization and the subsequent rupture of colonial bonds. In particular, this complexity can be seen in the revealing example of Central America and the issue of frontiers in the moment of defining territorial sovereignties in the founding of the Central American Republic, explored by Jordana Dym. The problems linked to territorial sovereignties are also approached through questions and semantic issues relating to the concept of federation (and confederation), objects of deep debate in New Granada (Clément Thibaud, Daniel Gutiérrez Ardila) as well as in monarchic and imperial Brazil (Iara Lis Shiavinatto, Andréa Slemian). All of these articles show the difficulties the actors had in delegating their sovereignty.In the background of the search for a new constitutional order is the question of the republic and its definition. The concept of republic being eminently polysemic and therefore subject to debate, the studies in this volume show that from north to south, the choice of a republican form of government was not self-evident. In this “third moment where the societies are already emancipated from the old forms, but not yet identified with classical liberalism,” in the organizers’ words, this choice was not inevitable. This can be seen most clearly in the contributions of Gabriel Entin, Samuel Poyard, and Andréa Slemian.This volume is rich, stemming from the desire to transcend borders in order to observe the processes at work in this century of mutation. After reading it, however, I would question the application of the Atlantic scale concept, insofar as it does not here encompass all of the Atlantic worlds affected by these changes, but also because the articles, apart from those in the first part, do not utilize the concept of “Atlantic empires,” which was nonetheless set out convincingly in the introduction. This last remark should not, however, take away from the compelling historiographical contribution of this collection.