Thesis (doctoral)--Université de Savoie, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 1093-1134) and Index.

Le recours fréquent aux serments pendant la décennie révolutionnaire a déjà attiré l’attention de nombre d’historiens. Le serment civique a été surtout considéré en tant qu’acte significatif autour duquel semble s’être joué la légitimité révolutionnaire. Effectivement, du serment du roi et des députés de février 1790, à celui des prêtres adhérents à la Constitution civile du clergé, ou encore à celui que la troupe doit prêter après la fuite du roi, des formules constitutionnelles de 1791 et 1792 à celles de haine à la royauté de l’âge du Directoire, jusqu’aux variations apportées par Napoléon, le serment est un élément fondamental de la grammaire politique révolutionnaire. Mon projet de recherche se propose de considérer le serment dans une perspective plus vaste, en comparant la situation française aux expériences des Républiques Sœurs, en élargissant mon propos jusqu’à l’âge de la Restauration pour révéler l’importance du serment dans la culture politique contemporaine. / This thesis aims to study the characteristics of political trust and loyalty during the eighteenth century and the French Revolution. These characteristics are essential to understand the revolutionary culture, as they involve one of the most divisive issues of that time : civic oath. My thesis is aimed to clarify how the experience of oaths shaped the relationship between citizens and power during the revolutionary decade (1789-1799) in France and in Italy, and how this relationship is empowered by narratives taken from religion, the culture of honor, and ideology. From a wider, transnational viewpoint, my primary goal was to provide a deeper look into this key topic of the historiography of French Revolution.

Travailler sur la thématique de la mémoire napoléonien à Ajaccio du Consulat jusque sous la Cinquième République suggère qu’il existe un lien particulier entre ce personnage historique et ce cadre géographique. Ce lien, hormis les traces multiples et visibles aujourd’hui (dans le domaine des arts, de l’urbanisme et de la toponymie), repose sur le fait que Napoléon est né à Ajaccio, le 15 août 1769. La cité ajaccienne ne fut pas un lieu d’exercice de pouvoir, ni un lieu de résidence impériale, ni encore un lieu revêtant une forte charge symbolique (lieu de victoire ou de défaite militaire par exemple), elle est simplement la ville natale de Napoléon et cette donnée fait que leur rapport n’est pas uniquement indexé sur la destinée de ce personnage. Ce lien clairement établi met ainsi en relation un lieu, Ajaccio, avec un homme, Napoléon, et l’enjeu principal de son analyse est de savoir par quels biais le mythe, la légende ou encore le culte napoléonien ont réussit à investir sur le temps long le quotidien des habitants de cette ville. Une telle étude se mène sur différents fronts, histoire politique, patrimoniale et festive afin d’observer les ressorts les plus agissants qui favorisent localement l’élaboration d’une mémoire napoléonienne. Dès lors, plus l’étude de cette mémoire s’affine, plus il apparait clairement qu’elle est porteuse d’une dimension identitaire, permettant à la fois aux Ajacciens de revendiquer fièrement leurs origines et de se sentir pleinement Français, comme pour le reste des Corses. Tangible dès le Consulat, cette dimension identitaire sous-tend la perpétuation de cette mémoire napoléonienne à Ajaccio qui, par bien des aspects, marque durablement l’histoire de cette cité. / This study of the Napoleonian memory in Ajaccio from the time of the Consulate to the Fifth Republic shows that a specific bond exists between the historical figure and the city. Beyond the various and highly visible marks that can nowadays be noticed in the fields of arts, urbanism or toponymy, it rests plainly on the fact that Napoleon was born in Ajaccio on 15 August, 1769.The city has never been a governing place, nor an Imperial residence or a place of highly symbolic value (such as military victories or defeats) ; it is simply is Napoeon's hometown and this implies that their relationship does not rest exclusively on Napoleon's destiny. To study this relationship, it is necessary to see how the myth, the legend or the cult of Napoleon have in the long run invaded the everyday life of the inhabitants of the city. Such a study must be conducted at various levels, including political, patrimonial or festal history, in order to find out how a Napoleonian memory grew out locally. The more we refine the study, the clearer it is that this memory bore a distinctive identitarian dimension ; Ajaccians could thus proudly proclaim their origins and at the same time feel fully French, just like the rest of the Corsicans. This identitarian dimension was palpable right from the time of the Consulate, and it was the ground on which this Napoleonian memory developed in Ajaccio, and became a long standing trait in the history of this city.

DOMINIQUE VIVANT DENON - FROM TRAVELS IN ITALY TO THE LOUVRE MUSEUM. TOWARD A TYPOLOGY OF THE 18TH CENTURY TRAVELOGUE. Keywords: travelogue, 18th century, libertine culture, Italy, Egypte, Napoleon, Louvre. Number of characters: 121 846 (68 pages) The present thesis, Dominique Vivant Denon - From travels in Italy to the Louvre Museum is divided into two parts. The first one is a monograph on baron Vivant Denon, an important figure of the cultural life in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the author of Point de Lendemain, two travelogues, Voyage dans la Basse et la Haute Égypte and Voyage en Sicile, but, primarily, Napoleon's advisor in the field of fine art and the first director of The Louvre. The introductory pages of the thesis deal with the reception of Denon's works. There is a certain flux in the perception of Denon's oeuvre which has given rise to a range of interesting issues. One of them, the popularity of the libertine culture of pre-revolutionary France in the second half of the twentieth century, accounts for the fact that the novella Point de Lendemain is today the best known piece among Denon's extensive and multifaceted writings. A shift in the perception of the travelogue as a literary genre in our time, when the remotest of places are accessible in hours, may be...

"We Have to Record the Downfall of Tyranny": The London Times Perspective on Napoleon Bonaparte's Invasion of Russia aims to illustrate how The London Times interpreted and reported on Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia. This thesis explains how England feared its grip on Europe was slipping away due to a French takeover of the continent. This work details the English struggle in order to provide a broader analysis through a newspaper of how nations indirectly involved in the Napoleonic wars understood the conflict.

Es ist eine geschichtsträchtige Zeit. Napoleon Bonaparte, Zar Alexander I. von Russland, König Friedrich Wilhelm III. von Preußen, Graf zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, Ludwig Graf Yorck von Wartenburg und viele andere höchste Politiker und Militärs waren 1813, nach Napoleons Rückzug aus Russland, in Radeberg zu Lage-Sondierungen, Gelände-Besichtigungen und hochrangigen Gesprächen. Nur knapp sind Radeberg und Lotzdorf direkten militärischen Kämpfen entgangen, trotzdem waren die Schäden durch Belagerungen, Requirierungen, Plünderungen u. ä. unvorstellbar.... Dabei spielte der Sandberg, gelegen zwischen Radeberg und Lotzdorf am „Lotzdorfer Zacken“ und die höchste Erhebung im Radeberger Gebiet, eine besondere Rolle, denn Napoleon kam mit seinem Stab von Dresden, um von hier aus das Terrain für die Vorbereitung einer Schlacht zu sondieren.

Existing studies of popular culture and popular politics in the long eighteenth century over-favour either the ‘culture’ or the ‘politics’. This thesis contributes to debates on the making of both national and class identity in Britain via intensive analysis of popular song culture, in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. Portrayals of Napoleon himself are used to shape the thesis’ source material and the forms of discussion. It argues for the necessity of sympathetic, informed contextualisation of political issues within contemporary cultural processes: that an understanding of the composition/production and performance/ consumption of song is a prerequisite of determining songs’ relevance and reception. In so doing, it uncovers a nuanced array of attitudes towards both Napoleon and British patriotism, of unsuspected breadth, assertiveness, and idiosyncrasy. The thesis is divided into two stages of argument. Part I consists of a close and contextualised reading of songs as literary and musical objects. Chapter One, after close historiographical engagement that moves to a focus on Colley’s Britons and revisionist arguments about British society, discusses those songs originating after Waterloo. Chapter Two considers songs from 1797-1805. Chapter Three considers songs from 1806-15. Part II builds upon the themes and conclusions of Part I by situating these songs within a lived context. Chapter Four looks at the role of songwriters and printers; Chapter Five at singers; Chapter Six at audiences and reception. Chapter Seven elaborates the overall argument in a synoptic case study of Newcastle. The conclusion is followed by an appendix, listing the songs most pertinent to the thesis, giving additional bibliographical information. A hard copy (USB) of recordings of a representative selection of these songs is also included. These appendices reinforce the thesis’ methodology: to consider songs, not as passive evidence of expression, but as active, dynamic objects.

Thèse numérisée par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire de maîtrise utilisant les archives trouvées aux Archives Nationales de France ( AN section Paris), aux archives du Ministère des Affaires étrangères de France (AMAE) et celles du fond d'archives Colonna Walewski (ACW). / Le Second Empire français est une période de grands changements sur la scène internationale. Profitant des diverses crises politiques de nature nationale secouant l’Europe et l’Amérique, Napoléon III entend profiter de ces dernières pour favoriser l’expansion de l’influence française dans des régions appelées à devenir névralgiques pour les intérêts impériaux. Érigée en moyen de puissance, la politique des nationalités est un discours politique flou, théorique et adapté aux besoins du moment par le régime du Prince-Président. Son principal objectif vise l’installation de régimes césaro-démocratiques alliés à la France. Ces derniers peuvent être implantés par divers moyens : la guerre, par des échanges de territoires entre souverains ou par une méthode politique novatrice, l’appel au peuple comme source de légitimité. Ce qui est inusité avec la politique des nationalités, c’est le recours systématique à une «volonté» populaire. Quelle se manifeste par des élections contrôlées ou par une assemblée de notables bien sélectionnés, il y a ce souci d’apparaître légitime auprès des différentes populations. En utilisant des sources primaires et de nombreuses recherches historiques et politiques, le présent mémoire étudie les divers mécanismes qui régissent la politique des nationalités de Napoléon III. Il sera question d’analyser la dynamique de la politique des nationalités et de la façon dont cette dernière permet l’accroissement de l’influence française en Italie, en Allemagne, au Mexique et finalement dans la Syrie ottomane. / The Second French Empire was a period of great change on the international scene in Europe and America. Using the diverse national crises that were shaking the European and American balance of power, Napoleon III intended to use these crises in order to favour French influence in regions where her interests were starting to become vital for worldwide supremacy. Put forward as a means of power, the policy of nationalities is an abstract political idea that creates a political discourse which favors imperial projects around the world. The objective of the policy of nationalities aims at the installation of monarchies allied to France which can be installed in various ways, through war, territorial exchanges or by a new method, popular referenda. However, all of these regimes were installed in the name of nationality. Yet what is innovative in the policy of nationalities, is the systematic recourse to the will of the people as a means to legitimize France’s territorial expansion. This manifested itself in a controlled election or by an assembly of well chosen notables. There was always a need to appear lawful in the eyes of the foreign populations. Using primary sources and a variety of historical studies, this research’s aim is to analyze the methods used by Napoleon III to promote France’s policy of nationalities. We will study the dynamic of this policy and the way the national argument was used during political crises in Italy, Germany, Mexico and the ottoman province of Syria.

O propósito deste trabalho é estudar o delineamento e os usos políticos do imaginário francês e napoleônico na América portuguesa, especialmente durante o processo de reorganização da Corte bragantina no Rio de Janeiro de 1808 a 1821. Problematizamos esta temática por intermédio de três interrogações essenciais: (1) que imagens de Napoleão o governo português divulgou nos anos iniciais de sua presença na América?; (2) em que medida essas imagens sustentaram (ou não) atitudes de repúdio à França e aos franceses de modo geral? e (3) que alterações ocorreram nessas representações no período posterior ao término das Guerras Peninsulares e da queda de Napoleão? Constatamos o uso de muitas dessas imagens pelo governo joanino com a intenção de reforçar seu status político e o controle sobre seus súditos, bem como resquícios dessas representações no imaginário da América portuguesa mesmo após a queda do Império napoleônico apesar do restabelecimento das relações diplomáticas e comerciais entre França e Portugal e a positivação do elemento francês na Corte do Rio. / Our purpose is to study the outlines and political uses of French and Napoleonic imaginary in the Portuguese America, especially during the reorganization process of the House of Braganza and the Portuguese Court in Rio de Janeiro from 1808 to 1821. We inquiry that thematic through three essential questions: (1) which images from Napoleon the Portuguese Government publicized in the initial years of its presence in the America? (2) how did those images support (or not) the refuse attitude to France and to French people in general? and (3) what kind of changes occurred in those representations after the ending of Peninsular Wars and the fall of Napoleon? We verify that the use of those images by Dom João\'s government had the intention to reinforce his political status and the control over his subjects, as well as traces from those representation in the Portuguese America imaginary even after Napoleonic Empire fall despite of Diplomatic and Commercial re-establishment between France and Portugal and the French element appreciation in the Court of Rio.