Imperial Republics: Revolution, War and Territorial Expansion from the English Civil War to the French Revolution PDF
Preview Imperial Republics: Revolution, War and Territorial Expansion from the English Civil War to the French Revolution
IMPERIAL REPUBLICS: REVOLUTION, WAR, AND TERRITORIAL EXPANSION FROM THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR TO THE FRENCH REVOLUTION This page intentionally left blank EDWARD G. ANDREW Imperial Republics Revolution, War, and Territorial Expansion from the English Civil War to the French Revolution UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buff alo London © University of Toronto Press 2011 Toronto Buff alo London www.utppublishing.com Printed in Canada ISBN 978-1-4426-4331-4 Printed on acid-free, 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks. ________________________________________________________________ Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Andrew, Edward, 1941– Imperial republics : revolution, war, and territorial expansion from the English Civil War to the French Revolution/Edward G. Andrew. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4426-4331-4 1. France – History – Revolution, 1789–1799. 2. Great Britain – History – Civil War, 1642–1649. 3. United States – History – Revolution, 1775–1783. 4. France – Intellectual life – 18th century. 5. Great Britain – Intellectual life – 17th century. 6. United States – Intellectual life – 18th century. 7. Political science – Rome – History. 8. Republicanism – Rome – History. 9. Imperialism. I. Title. JC421.A53 2011 321.8'6 C2011-903139-6 ________________________________________________________________ This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council. University of Toronto Press acknowledges the fi nancial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing activities. Contents Acknowledgments vii Preface ix Introduction: Rome in the Eighteenth Century 3 1 Machiavelli on Imperial Republics 18 2 Republicanism and the English Civil War 27 3 Catonic Virtue, Sweet Commerce, and Imperial Rivalry 49 4 From Colony to Nation to Empire 71 5 From Caesar to Brutus to Augustus 98 6 Le Royaume and La Patrie: Rome in Eighteenth-Century France 116 7 The Role of Brutus in the French Revolution 140 8 Imperial Pride and Anxiety: Gibbon’s Roman Empire and Ferguson’s Roman Republic 167 Conclusion 178 Index 183 This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments I would like to thank the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for aff ording me the opportunity to do research for this book and to fund excellent research assistants, Sophie Bourgault, Robert Sparling, Larissa Atkison and Katie Edwards, who were invaluable in fi nding useful sources of information and providing helpful ideas. Larissa Atkison prepared the index. Also I would like to thank Ronnie Beiner, Ryan Balot, Leah Bradshaw, Sankar Muthu, Simon Kow, Geoff rey Kellow, and other participants at the meetings of the Canadian Political Science Association, where earlier versions of the ideas raised in this book were fi rst aired; Daniel Quinlan and the anonymous reviewers for the University of Toronto Press for useful suggestions in clarifying my argument; and, above all, to Donna Trembowelski Andrew for reading and editing this book, despite her manifest distaste for its contents. This page intentionally left blank Preface The title of this book perhaps needs some explanation. Imperialism and republicanism are o(cid:286) en taken to be antithetical. We usually think of empires as vast areas of land acquired by military conquerors, such as Cyrus, Alexander, or Genghis Khan, and maintained by emperors, such as in the Hi(cid:308) ite, Han, Mogul or Inca empires. But the Roman Republic conquered other peoples and ruled extensive areas around the Mediterranean Sea, and it was precisely the Roman Republic that served as a model polity for many thinkers of the seventeenth and eigh- teenth centuries. Republicanism is usually understood in terms of self-rule or autonomy,1 while empires are understood as being characterized by externally imposed rule or the subjection of one populated territory by a more powerful nation. Republican citizens make laws for them- selves, at least in theory;2 imperial powers give laws to subject prov- inces. Philip Pe(cid:308) it’s infl uential Republicanism: A Theory of Freedom and Government holds republicanism and imperialism to be opposed; em- pires make laws for conquered nations to which the metropolis is not subject, whereas republics are governed by the empire of law condition, 1 Richard Dagger, Civic Virtues: Rights, Citizenship and Republican Liberalism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 13–17, 31–9, 62–7, 120–30. 2 In ancient republics, citizens made laws in popular assemblies; in modern republics, elected representatives are thought to make laws. However, as John Stuart Mill wrote, in Considerations on Representative Government (chapter 5), representatives may debate the merits of legislation but bills are dra(cid:286) ed by legal experts to ensure coherence with precedent law and to prevent unforeseen diffi culties and court challenges.
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