Abstract
For a long time consigned to oblivion, the figure of the soldier and naturalist Bory de Saint-Vincent has been during recent years the subject of a renewed but timid interest. This recovery is justified especially for his role as leader of the French missions in the Morea and Algeria, which replicated the military-scientific model that started in Egypt. Indeed, this leadership and the works of anthropology or botany that he produced as a result are now considered key elements in the process of construction of a modern unitary representation of the Mediterranean. These recent contributions, however, often do not consider other of his works that offer a much more complex and contradictory image of his thought. This article offers a review of recent interpretation by giving examples of his works on the Iberian Peninsula and the Canary Islands. It aims to show his representation of the Mediterranean not as a homogeneous and linear process but as the result of an ambivalent approach that led to both a unitary image and a simultaneous internal differentiation of the region.
Highlights
Over the last thirty years there has been much debate regarding the nature and character of the notion of ‘Mediterranean’
Great focus has been made on the role of French interventionism in the region for the emergence of that unitary image (Ruel, 1991). Such was the case of a couple of international meetings which tried to elucidate the role of the nineteenth century French scientific-military expeditions for the formation of the modern image of the Mediterranean (Bourguet et al, 1998, 1999)
It was argued that the expeditions in Egypt, the Morea and Algeria followed a model under state-patronage set by the Napoleonic quest in Egypt, which involved the submission of scientific production to national interests and that led to the construction of a unified image of the Mediterranean according to the French political ambitions in the region
Summary
Over the last thirty years there has been much debate regarding the nature and character of the notion of ‘Mediterranean’. It was argued that the expeditions in Egypt, the Morea and Algeria followed a model under state-patronage set by the Napoleonic quest in Egypt, which involved the submission of scientific production to national interests and that led to the construction of a unified image of the Mediterranean according to the French political ambitions in the region This idea has gained much attention, being the object of multiple reviews and commentaries, including the adoption of the term ‘territorialization’ to describe such a process (Ortega Galvez, 1996; Schmitz, 2002). As a result of the previous debate, several recent contributions have suggested new ways to tackle the Mediterranean dilemma Such is the case of the work by Peregrine Horden and Nicholas Purcell (2000) which acknowledges the objections posed by the critics to the unitary vision of the Mediterranean, proposing a more nuanced and conciliatory approach to the history of the region based on multiple processes of connectivity within diversity. I will suggest a redefinition of the Mediterranean debate based on the main conclusions of my analysis
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