Au dix-septième et au dix-huitième siècles, l'existence imaginaire ou véritable des sociétés idéales sur le continent américain posait une question intéressante. Si l'on étudie ce thème du point de vue historique ou littéraire, on y trouvera des renseignements sur la pensée de l'époque. L'idée de telles sociétés' eut une influence considérable sur l'esprit européen. La conception du Nouveau Monde s'est formée autour de l'image, quelquefois fantaisiste, de ses habitants. [...]

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The objective of this thesis is to analyse the evolution of the concept of pleasure in the literature and the history of ideas of the beginning of the 18th Century in France, through the study of the upheaval of sensibility carried out by Prevost's worried hedonism. In order to better understand the progressive transition of the semantic and lexicological concept of pleasure in the theoritical literature, we examine the philosophical and moral treaties on pleasure as well as the definitions found in the dictionnaires of the time. The study then focuses on two novels by Prevost: L'Histoire du chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut and L'Histoire d'une Grecque moderne. These novels stage two experiences of pleasure which contribute to shape a new architecture of man characterised by instability and inconsistance. Prevost's hedonism redefines the position of the social, moral and psychological being according to certain features which lead to a particular aesthetic of disharmony.

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Dans le contexte des chocs de la première modernité et de la Réforme catholique qui suit le concile de Trente (1545-1563), Cîteaux, qui est à la fois une abbaye et un chef-d'ordre, a été exemptée de la commende. Cette exemption conserve les abbés réguliers et leur permet de diriger et de réformer l'ordre en adaptant ses institutions aux exigences réformatrices. Au centre de la direction se place donc le problème complexe des rapports entre l'abbé de Cîteaux, le chapitre général, les quatre premiers pères, les abbayes-filles, et les différents pouvoirs extérieurs, à la fois religieux et politiques. L'abbé général doit diriger un ordre troublé par l'autonomie croissante des congrégations nationales et la formation de l'étroite observance. En effet, l'ordre cistercien conserve des abbayes dans toute l'Europe demeurée catholique. La crainte d'un schisme interne à l'ordre aboutit à la redéfinition des pouvoir institutionnels au profit des vicaires généraux et des présidents de congrégations. L'étude du rôle de l'abbé de Cîteaux se fait au double point de vue du pouvoir, celui de la direction et celui de la réforme de l'ordre. Le problème posé est celui de l'évolution du gouvernement abbatial, et ne se réduit pas à un prisme biographique. Métaphore de l'unité de l'ordre, l'abbé réunit en lui une autorité fonctionnelle et personnelle. Malgré les déchirements, le souhait du maintien de l'unité repose au XVIIe siècle sur la notion du bien commun à tous les fragments monastiques cisterciens : la famille autour du Novum monasterium de Cîteaux et de son père-abbé. / In the context of the clashes of the first modernity and of the Catholic Reformation after the Council of Trent (1545-1563), Cîteaux, which is both an Abbey and a chief of Order, is exempt from being hold in commendam, allowing the regular abbots to govern and reform the order while adapting its institutions to the reformative demands. Hence, at the heart of the leadership lies the complex problem of the relationship between the abbot of Cîteaux, the General Chapter, the four first fathers, the daughter-abbeys, and the various different external powers, both political and religious. The general abbot is confronted to controlling an order that is disturbed by the growing autonomy of the national Congregations and the formation of the Strict Observance. Indeed, the Cistercian Order maintains a number of abbeys throughout all parts of Europe that have remained catholic. The fear of an internal schism within the order leads to a redefinition of the institutional powers for the benefit of vicar-generals and congregation presidents. My study of the role of the abbot of Cîteaux is conducted from the dual point of view of power, that of the leadership and that of the reformation of the order. The problem that I raise is that of the evolution of the abbatial government and it cannot be restricted to a biographical prism. As a metaphor for the order's unity, the abbot gathers both a functional and a personal authority. In spite of the various rifts, the wish for maintaining unity persists in the 17th century around the notion of a common good shared by all the Cistercian monastic fragments : the family gathered around the Novum monasterium of Cîteaux and its father abbot.

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Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Mid-eighteenth-century Caribbean free ports constitute crucial sites of both imperial domination as well as revolutionary potential in the development of the modern world. While Spain, France, and Britain’s establishment of Caribbean “free ports” from 1756-1784 marked a significant shift in European imperial political economy, few historians have investigated or compared the motivations for these reforms. Also, little scholarship exists on how various people throughout the Atlantic world reacted to these new free ports. However, this movement affected many of the dramatic political and economic changes made during the second half of the eighteenth century. Drawing on U.S., European, and Caribbean archives, this dissertation asserts that, for some, Caribbean free ports buttressed and revitalized various empires, while, for others, they helped combat these empires’ worst abuses. While varying over time and place, “free ports” generally describe places where merchants of all flags could enter and conduct commerce with each other. This policy constituted a meaningful economic reform within European imperial commercial regimes that often excluded foreign traders from colonial ports. This has prompted some scholars to describe the promulgation of free ports as an early moment of “liberalism.” Instead, I argue that Spain, France, and Britain used this same commercial “tool” to accomplish distinct goals, but all with the aim of directing rather than completely “opening” foreign trade. Spain established free ports in the colony of Santo Domingo in order to encourage Spanish and Canary Island settlers to populate a tenuous borderland region that was under threat of French conquest. Spain’s free ports thus successfully maintained Spanish territorial control in the region. French policy-makers, on the other hand, opened several ports in the Lesser Antilles and Saint-Domingue primarily to provide essential supplies of lumber, livestock, and foodstuffs to Caribbean planters which helped sustain France’s lucrative plantation regime. Finally, Whitehall passed the Free Port Act to export British manufactured goods and enslaved Africans to foreign markets, thereby “ruining” their rivals’ colonial trade and extending Britain’s commercial empire to foreign realms. While subject to different regulations, all these reforms drew on previous Dutch and Danish models, as well as on each other, in a spirit of jealous emulation. And while exhibiting distinct goals, all these (heavily-restricted) free-port policies sought to control colonial commerce and augment the relative wealth and power of their particular empire. Building off these imperial perspectives and goals, this dissertation then reveals these Caribbean free ports’ effects on other people in the Atlantic world. I argue that American revolutionaries viewed British free ports as an insufficient and illogical reform, thus heightening their disappointment of and distance from the mother country. Foreign free ports also served as key sources to replace British commerce, inspiring nascent revolutionaries that life outside the British commercial system was possible. Later, foreign free ports provided essential supplies for the American war effort and helped the nascent U.S. economy to survive. Moving to the intellectual realm, Caribbean free ports also provided material evidence for European philosophes who published influential works on political economy. People like Adam Smith and Abbé Raynal (and his co-authors of the famous Histoire des deux Indes) observed Caribbean free ports and used Dutch ones as models to demonstrate how more liberalized foreign commerce could foster mutual prosperity, consumer benefits, and some degree of non-antagonistic peace between polities. Free ports, therefore, were essential in the development of “classical liberalism” and doux commerce. Finally, this dissertation uncovers how many enslaved people used such ports to escape their enslavers and spread across the Greater Caribbean. These harbors attracted many foreign trading vessels through which enslaved people could receive essential information, gain money through petty commerce, or stow away. Contrary to imperial desires, free ports offered more opportunities for freedom-seekers and thus challenged the slave-based foundations of these Atlantic empires. As such, Caribbean free ports sit at the center of key debates and conflicts regarding the nature of empire, economic sovereignty, and the benefits and detriments of international trade in the eighteenth century and beyond.