The French Revolution and the New Spatial Format for Empire: A Nation- State with Imperial Extensions

Abstract

Both global history and the new imperial history identify an emerging convergence of spatial formats, practices, and knowledge for organizing societies during the nineteenth century, though each emphasizes different competitive formats: the territorializing nation-state and the enduring empire. Rather than contrasting empire and nation-state, this article takes their combination seriously through the example of the respatialization of the French Empire during the Revolution and the reorganization of domestic territory into departments. The history of departmentalization underscores the emerging and changing interrelationships between nation and empire. The territorialization of metropolitan France, which developed out of imperial and transregional exchanges, was emblematic of the new type of empire that became a prevailing model for societal organization in the nineteenth century: the nation-state with imperial extensions.

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.