Réseaux huguenots et espace Européen (XVIe–XXIe siècle)

Among the examples of the «principle of circulation» in European space, the Huguenot phenomenon is one of the most significant cases, by its duration, four centuries, its scale and the diversity of its expressions. It begins as early as the XVI^th century with the persecution of the first French Protestants who start emigrating to Holland, confirms its dimension after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685: 200,000 French Protestants take refuge mainly in Switzerland, in the United Provinces, in the British Isles and in Protestant Germany, continuing to have connections with their co-religionists who remained inside the French Kingdom. Throughout the XVIII^th century, three networks, religious, cultural and economic, in constant interaction without superimposing themselves, define a Huguenot circularity which marks European space. During the XIX^th-century nationalisms, this circularity strongly weakens without completely disappearing, in particular among the French Huguenots. From World War II on, a reactivation based on memory occurs, which leads in France the Huguenot areas to receive many of Nazism's victims, then facilitates religious and cultural exchanges between Huguenots from France and from the «Refuge».     

Une illustration des relations difficiles entre Paris et Londres: Le voyage des Français à Moscou et l'échec du projet britannique de pacte tripartite franco–anglo–soviétique (décembre 1944)1

L'échec du projet britannique de pacte tripartite franco–anglo–soviétique révèle quelques traits majeurs des relations entre la France et le Royaume-Uni au XXème siècle. Le premier est l'existence de divergences qui concernent davantage l'accessoire que l'essentiel. Si les deux pays sont d'accord pour considérer qu'une alliance entre Paris, Londres et Moscou est essentielle à l'équilibre européen, ils divergent sur la forme à lui donner, les Français préférant un système de pactes bilatéraux à la formule tripartite proposée par les Britanniques. En outre cet épisode se caractérise par une absence de consultation entre les deux diplomaties. Les incidents qui en découlent pourraient prêter à sourire s'ils n'étaient pas le signe d'un climat de suspicion réciproque. Celui-ci est d'ailleurs plus marqué à Paris qu'à Londres. Tous ces éléments participent aux difficiles relations franco–britanniques et expliquent qu'il ait fallu attendre le 4 mars 1947 pour voir l'alliance franco–britannique se matérialiser par le traité de Dunkerque.

Abstract:?The failure of the British project of a tripartite pact between France, Britain and the USSR exemplifies some of the main features of the Franco–British relationship in the twentieth century. The first is the existence of divergences, which concern more incidental details than essential matters. If the two countries agreed to consider that an alliance between Paris, London and Moscow was essential for European balance, they differed on the form it should take. The French preferred a bilateral pact system to the tripartite pact formula proposed by the British. Moreover, this episode was distinguished by an absence of consultation between the two diplomacies. The incidents that followed could be risible if there were not signs of a climate of mutual suspicion which was, incidentally, more distinct in Paris than in London. All these elements contributed to the difficult Franco–British relationship and explain why one had to wait until 4 March 1947 to see a Franco–British alliance realized by the Dunkirk Treaty.     

La république universellè des francs-maçons entre «culture de la mobilité» et basculement national (XVIIIe–XIXe siècle)

In 1723, the Charter of the Grand Lodge of England defines the project of the Masonic order: to become «the center of the union and the means of tying a faithful friendship among men who without that would have remained at a perpetual distance». From this aspiration to rebuild Babel, proceed the attempts to chart the Masonic Republic, to set up a network of truly universal correspondence and language — this last building site leading to Esperanto. The order developed throughout the XVIII^th century this universal utopia on the mode of a true citizenship of the Masonic Republic with its passport, its rights and its duties. Then it had to answer the formidable upheavals resulting from 1789 and the awakening of nationalities, while being directed towards a more committed design of the universal Republic of the freemasons, sensitive to the liberal ideals and the emancipation of the nations, with the risk of giving arguments to its detractors, convinced of the masonic involvement in a world-wide conspiracy.     

Poésie, Sciences Et Politique Une Génération D’Intellectuels Italiens (1290–1330)

Nothing is more false than the image of Dante as an isolated genius standing out against his epoch. On the contrary he belongs to a very caracteristic generation of italian intellectuals: laymen, often active in more than one domain, practicing abundantly poetic expression, engaged in political action, these scholar-citizens share equally a strong historical conscience. Their inventivity is manifested in philosophy, in medecine and in law, as well as in literary expression. Aside from these endogenous factors, a key to this phenomenon is linked to the active reception of the naturalistic knowledge elaborated in Paris, which is read in Italy outside of the control of theologians. The parallel journeys of a dozen uncommon personalities show the necessity of enlarging the habitual frames of medieval intellectual history.     

Nationalisme, “italianité” et émigration aux Amériques (1830–1990)

L'histoire des communautés italiennes du Nouveau Monde nous renvoie exactement l'image que nous aurions pu dessiner en analysant l'histoire de l'Italie. De fait, le processus de construction et celui ensuite de destruction d'un imaginaire italien unitaire sont les mêmes. Emilio Franzina a proposé de ne pas voir dans cet effet‐miroir le simple reflet de l'histoire nationale, mais, tout au contraire, d'y découvrir le rôle de l'émigration dans la construction de la nation italienne. Si les élites de la mère‐patrie proposèrent un modèle d’ “italianité” que les classes inférieures ne comprirent pas, l'émigration obligea celles‐ci à élaborer leur modèle d'unité linguistique et comportementale. Dans cette perspective, l'émigration devint un des éléments principaux de la construction d'un horizon culturel national en Italie : le retour de la moitié des immigrés qui rentrèrent avant la Première Guerre mondiale, ainsi que les voyages en Italie de ceux qui restèrent aux Amériques, contribuèrent à la “modernisation” politique et économique de leur réseau natal.     

Avant Lomé: la France,l’Afrique anglophone et la CEE (1961–1972)

Before the Lomé Convention (1975) was signed between the European Economic Community (EEC) and 46 African Caribbean and Pacific States, the EEC member states had to deal with the African members of the Commonwealth. Among the Six France was in a peculiar position, wishing to maintain a special relationship between the EEC and the French-speaking African states and to enlarge its relations with other regions of the Third World. This article, based on an examination of the French Foreign Ministry Archives and the Papiers Foccart, aims to investigate the prehistory of the relations between the EEC and the English-speaking African states. It analyses the French role in the debate, outcomes and consequences of the first agreements signed by the European Community with Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. To this aim it will focus on the negotiations between the EEC and the African states, but also on the debate which took place in some international organisations on the Yaoundé Convention, in order to understand to what extent these discussions paved the way for the evolution of the EEC Development Policy during the 1970s.