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In this week's letter...
We have an important and groundbreaking new book of the month by Fondation Napoléon director, Thierry Lentz, about the Congress of Vienna. Then we have news about the conservation of the Waterloo battlefield and the progress of the project. We've also got a new article in our Words and Music section. Contemporaneous with the Congress of Vienna, the French popular composer Désaugiers wrote a potpourri of satirical songs criticising the Emperor of the Hundred Days, and our Librarian Chantal Prévot has written a short piece on this song-cycle that these days would probably grace “Saturday Night Live” or “The Now Show”. We also bring details of an event of the highest importance for anyone intending to come and do historical research in Paris: the Archives Nationales (at least as far as Napoleonic material is concerned) has moved new site just outside Paris. If you're in London (England), there's a talk tonight about the Royal Navy at the time of Nelson at the British Library. But if you're stuck to your desk, we bring you a fine crop of new publications, as well as some interesting articles (in German) about the 1813 campaign and St Helena. To round it all off, you can listen to a series of podcasts about Napoleon and his legacy, and an interesting blog article about history writing in the digital age. Enjoy!
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Book of the Month
Le Congrès de Vienne: Une réfondation de l'Europe 1814-1815, by Thierry Lentz
We are proud to announce that this month's book is by the Director of the Fondation Napoléon, Thierry Lentz. It is a detailed study of this important diplomatic event that sought to reestablish Europe after the disruption of two decades of Europe-wide warfare.
In the period September 1814 to June 1815, when hundreds of representatives of all the European states, whether extant or dissolved, assembled in Vienna. The negotiations led by the four main powers, England, Russia, Austria and Prussia, were often rough, and the disagreements were sometimes great, but when the Final Act was signed on 9 June, 1815 it ushered in nearly a century without a general conflict in Europe.
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Conservation of Waterloo
The Association for the Conservation of Napoleonic Monuments started work on a large conservation project at the Waterloo battlefield in 2009, and the project is on track to be finished for the bicentenary of the battle in 2015. We have put together an article detailing the plans for the site and the work that has already been carried out.
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What's On
The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson, the British Library, London tonight.
A talk at the British Library in London (UK) brings together letters by some of Britain's most famous admirals from the age of Nelson, in order to illustrate the nature and extent of British naval dominance in the period 1795-1815.
Archives Nationales, Paris
The Archives Nationales opened their new site at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine on 21 January; it holds their Napoleonic documents and is offering guided tours (in French). If you happen to be in Paris, it looks to be an interesting day out!
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200 Years Ago
On 3 February, 1813 in Prussia, a cabinet order calling for the arming and training of Freikorps to fight against the French was issued and taken up with alacrity.
General Yorck had returned to Prussia (see Bulletin no. 653) and was engaged in firing this nationalist uprising (we had something about Yorck in a recent letter; put the ref in...); after an impassioned speech to the Landtag (Parliament) on 7 February, it was decided that a militia would be created to defend Prussia against the French. On 9 February, general conscription in Prussia was introduced.
150 Years Ago
On 6 February, 1863, a letter from Napoleon III to the Governor General of Algeria, the Duke of Malakoff, was published. In it, the Emperor spoke of the Algerians as an “intelligent race, proud, warlike and agricultural”, as a people to be won over, as a people with whom the French would have to collaborate in order to get the most out of wealth of the country. Such an argument, inasmuch as it was traditional, had nothing in it to disturb French colonists. But Napoleon III went further, developing the following new idea: “Algeria is not a strictly speaking a colony, but an Arab kingdom. The indigenous people have just as much right to my protection as the colonists, and I am no less Emperor of the Arabs than I am Emperor of the French [...] I have charged Marshal Randon with preparing a senatus consulte, the principal article of which will make the territories occupied by tribes, or parts of tribes, incommutable with the territories in which they have have fixed habitation and which they have traditionally enjoyed the use of, in any way whatsoever.” This desire to give Algeria a special status — whereby it was more an actual part of France than just a colony — was to determine the course of relations between the two countries for a long time to come.
Read the full text of the Emperor's letter - (p.189, external link in French).
Wishing you an excellent "Napoleonic" week,
Peter Hicks and Andrew Miles
Historians and web editors
THE NAPOLEON.ORG BULLETIN, N0 656, 01-07 FEBRUARY, 2013
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© This Napoleon.org weekly bulletin is published by the Fondation Napoléon. Reproduction or all or part of this bulletin is forbidden, without prior agreement of the Fondation Napoléon
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OPERATION ST HELENA
The Fondation Napoléon and the Souvenir Napoléonien , in association with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, have announced the prolongation of its international fund-raising campaign to restore and save Napoleon I's residence on the island of St Helena. All the details regarding the campaign as well as donation forms and advice for donating from outside France, can be found on napoleon.org
You can still donate online to the project via the Friends of the Fondation de France in the US here
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MAGAZINE
Just Published
- Under the Volcano: Revolution in a Sicilian Town, by Lucy Riall
- With Trumpet, Drum and Fife: A Short Treatise Covering the Rise and Fall of Military Musical Instruments on the Battlefield, by Mike Hall
- Learning from Foreign Wars: Russian Military Thinking, 1859-73, by Gudrun Persson
- British Liberators in the age of Napoleon:Volunteering under the Spanish Flag in the Peninsular War, by Graciela Iglesias Rogers
- The Volcano Lover, by Susan Sontag
Seen on the web (external links)
- British Navy Records Online
- Podcast: The Life and Legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte
-How can historians develop an effective social media presence?
Press Review
- Sankt Helena - Napoleons Letztes Exil
(a travel article about St Helena and Napoleon's Exile, in German).
- Schwarzpulver, Säbelrasseln und kulinarische Genüsse: eine Zeitreise durch Leipzig.
(A travel article about the Napoleon's legacy in Leipzig, in German).
EVENTS
On now and coming up
A selection of events taking place now or in the coming weeks, taken from our What's on listings.
Talks
- The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson [London, England 01/02/2013]
Tours
- Guided tours (in French) of the Archives Nationales new site at Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.
NAPOLEON.ORG
The best of the month:
- Book of the month
- Painting of the month
- Objet d'Art of the month
- Article of the month
NAPOLEONICA.LA REVUE
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Contact
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