«Whoever has seen Toulon has seen Troy»: evacuation from the city on December 18, 1793
Verchenkova Victoria
The author of the article highlights the episode of the evacuation of Allied troops of the First Anti-French Coalition from Toulon at the end of the siege of 1793. For three months, the city was occupied by Allied troops which proclaimed Louis XVII the king, but the Republican army managed to take Toulon on December 18. The Allies gathered a military council, at which it was decided to evacuate the city urgently. The author shows in what haste the evacuation took place and what panic reigned in the city. Not only the coalition troops tried to leave Toulon, but also some part of local population which was afraid of reprisals from the Republicans. The city was in an unimaginable turmoil, there were screams and crying. Both allies and locals abandoned their possessions to catch the ships. The demoralization was completed by the explosions of the Arsenal and warehouse, committed by the British, who did not want to leave them to the Republicans. The common misfortune did not unite the allies, but only intensified the contradictions between them that had taken place earlier throughout almost the entire siege. Nevertheless, the coalition troops managed to evacuate Toulon without serious losses, taking with them those residents who wanted to leave the city. Many of the remaining townsmen faced the sad fate of being shot on the Champ de Mars. Those who left with the allies could not return to their hometown for a long time, being scattered all over the Western Mediterranean.
The study is realized in the State Academic University for the Humanities within the framework of the state task of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (project FZNF–2023–0003 Traditions and values of society: mechanisms of formation and transformation in the context of global history).
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