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Between 1792 and 1815 Europe was plunged into a period of profound turmoil and transformation. The French Revolution unleashed a torrent of political, social, cultural, and military changes. Napoleon extended them beyond the country s frontiers. The ensuing struggle was immense in its scale and intensity. Never before had European states resorted to a mobilization of civilian and military resources as comprehensive as during this period. This book explores the practical and philosophical challenges that Napoleonic administrators encountered in their quest to establish and legitimize French imperium in conquered territories. The dualities at the basis of the Napoleonic Empire progress and exploitation; emancipation and occupation; national liberation and occupation have been the object of previous studies. The contributions brought together in this edited collection build on recent historiographical work to explore in depth the dynamics such dualities generated on the ground in different regions of the empire.
List of contents
PART I: ECONOMIC CHANGES AND CHALLENGES.- 1. Alexander Grab; State and Society in Napoleonic Italy (1800-1814).- 2. Johan Joor; Ravage and Resilience: Functioning and Impact of the Continental System in Napoleonic Holland, Especially in Rotterdam.- 3. Michael V. Leggiere; Napoleon, Empire, and the Quest for Economic Self-Sufficiency.- PART II: NEW ADMINISTRATION, NEW ADMINISTRATORS.- 4.Aurélien Lignereux; Imperial and Imperialized Civil Servants: A Social History of the Imperial State.- 5.Bettina Severin-Barboutie; A 'Civilizing Mission' in Europe? Revisiting French Rule in the Grand Duchy of Berg.- 6.Sam A. Mustrafa; Royal Republicans in the Service of an Emperor: The Legislature of the Kingdom of Westphalia.- PART III: QUESTIONS OF LEGITIMACY.- 7. Christine Haynes; 'It is not in traversing the country that one will end this war': Maximien Lamarque and French Counter-Insurgency Operations in Calabria, Catalonia, and the Vendée.- 8. Dzavid Dzanic; A Compartmentalized Bonaparte:The Legitimacy of French Rule in Egypt.- PART IV: CRITICAL NARRATIVES.- 9. David Laven; Eugène Labaume's History of Venice as a Critique of Napoleonic Imperialism.- 10.Patrice Gueniffey; Michelet, Napoleon and History Writing in the Nineteenth Century.- PART V: CULTURAL REFLECTIONS.- 11.Maximilien Novak; War on Culture: German Intellectual Elites Under French Occupation (1806-1814).- 12.Peter Hicks; The Battle in the Drawing Room.- PART VI: HIGH AND LOW - INDIVIDUAL EXPERIENCES.- 13. Franziska Schedewie; Last-Minute Diplomacy on the Eve of the War 1812: The Uneasy Position of the Russian Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna in the Rhine Confederation State of Saxe-Weimar.- 14. Vittoria Princi; Sleeping on Straw: The Napoleonic Soldier's Experience of Domestic Comfort.- PART VII: THE POST-NAPOLEONIC AFTERMATH.- 15. Karen Hagemann; Defeat, Occupation and Memory: The French Victory at Jena and Auerstedt 1806 and its Aftereffects.- 16.Beatrice de Graaf; Hotbed Brussels: Fighting Bonapartists after Napoleon, 1815-1830.- Conclusion; Carola Dietze.
About the author
Doina Pasca Harsanyi is Professor of History at Central Michigan University, USA.
Alexander Mikaberidze is Professor of History at Lousiana State University Shreveport, USA.
Summary
Between 1792 and 1815 Europe was plunged into a period of profound turmoil and transformation. The French Revolution unleashed a torrent of political, social, cultural, and military changes. Napoleon extended them beyond the country’s frontiers. The ensuing struggle was immense in its scale and intensity. Never before had European states resorted to a mobilization of civilian and military resources as comprehensive as during this period. This book explores the practical and philosophical challenges that Napoleonic administrators encountered in their quest to establish and legitimize French imperium in conquered territories. The dualities at the basis of the Napoleonic Empire – progress and exploitation; emancipation and occupation; national liberation and occupation – have been the object of previous studies. The contributions brought together in this edited collection build on recent historiographical work to explore in depth the dynamics such dualities generated on the ground in different regions of the empire.
