“Velvet” French imperialism (On David Tosdd’s book)
Prusskaya Evgeniya
The attention of researchers to the history of empires, especially of the modern epoch, has not faded for several decades. Post-colonial approaches and the study of global history are contributing to the rethinking of the concepts of "empire", "colonialism", "imperialism". The article of 1953 by J. Gallagher and R. Robinson Dedicated to the concept of "informal empire" became a turning point for the study of this topic. However, the most studies on the informal empire are devoted to the British experience. David Todd's book “The Velvet Empire” attempts to correct this imbalance. The review addresses this fascinating research. D. Todd demonstrates how the economic and financial policy of France in the 19th century became an instrument for the spread and consolidation of French influence in the world. The book shows the methods by which the informal empire was built in the 1815-1880s and gives new interpretations of such topics as the establishment of French Algeria and the Mexican campaign of the 1860s.
The article was prepared in the framework of the project of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, topic № FZNF-2020-0001.
References:
After the Imperial Turn: Thinking with and through the Nation / Ed. A. M. Burton. Durham, 2003.
Aguirre R.D. Informal Empire. Mexico and Central America in Victorian Culture. Minneapolis, 2004.
Barton G. Informal Empire and the Rise of One World Culture. Basingstoke, 2014.
Bayly C.A. The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914: Global Connections and Comparisons. Maiden, 2004.
Daughton J.P. When Argentina Was “French”: Rethinking Cultural Politics and European Imperialism in Belle‐Époque Buenos Aires // The Journal of Modern History. 2008. Vol. 80. № 4 (December). P. 831-864.
Ferguson N. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. New York, 2004.
Gallagher J., Robinson R. The Imperialism of Free Trade // The Economic History Review, 1953. New Series. Vol. 6. № 1. P. 1-15.
Ghosh D. Another Set of Imperial Turns? // The American Historical Review. 2012. Vol. 117. № 3 (June). P. 772-793.
Hobsbawm E. The Age of Empires: 1874–1914. London, 1987.
Informal Empire in Latin America: Culture, Commerce and Capital / Ed. M. Brown. Oxford, 2008.
Lieven D. Empire: The Russian Empire and Its Rivals. New Haven, 2000.
McLean D. War, Diplomacy and Informal Empire. Britain and the Republics of La Plata, 1836-1853. London, 1994.
Mikhail A., Philliou C. The Ottoman Empire and the Imperial Turn // Comparative Studies in Society and History. 2012. Vol. 54. № 4 (October). P. 721-745.
Shawcross E. France, Mexico and Informal Empire in Latin America, 1820-1867: Equilibrium in the New World. Basingstoke, 2018.
Silverfarb D. Britain's Informal Empire in the Middle East: A Case Study of Iraq, 1929-1941. New York, 1986.
The French Colonial Mind. Vol. 1: Mental Maps of Empire and Colonial Encounters / Ed. M. Thomas. Nebraska, 2012.
The Oxford World History of Empire / Ed. P.F. Bang, C. A. Bayly, W. Scheidel. 2 vol. Oxford, 2020.
Todd D. A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. Princeton, 2020.
Todd D. Free Trade and its Enemies in France, 1814-1851. Cambridge, 2015.