The French Revolution as an Imperial Revolution

Abstract

Attempts to reframe the Age of Revolutions as imperial in nature have not fully integrated the French Revolution. Replying to this gap and criticisms of the Revolution’s global turn, this essay positions the Revolution as both a moment of imperial reorganization and a sequence of political reinvention that exceed our current categories of empire and nation-state. These arguments open a forum comprising five contributions set in transimperial contexts that span from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean. The forum offers some points of reflection regarding the narratives, periodizations, and concepts that guide historians of the French Revolution as they navigate the global turn.

Biographical Note

Dr. Megan Maruschke(SFB 1199 & Leipzig University)

Megan Maruschke is senior researcher at the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 1199 „Processes of Spatialization under the Global Condition“ at Leipzig University and lecturer at the Global and European Studies Institute of Leipzig University.

Dr. Manuel Covo (UC Santa Barbara)

Covo works on the transition from early modern to modern European colonialism in the long eighteenth century.  He specializes in French imperialism, political economy and Atlantic revolutions, with a special focus on the impact of the Haitian Revolution on France and the United States.