Against War and Empire: Geneva, Britain, and France in the Eighteenth Century

Description

As Britain and France became more powerful during the eighteenth century, small states such as Geneva could no longer stand militarily against these commercial monarchies. Furthermore, many Genevans felt that they were being drawn into a corrupt commercial world dominated by amoral aristocrats dedicated to the unprincipled pursuit of wealth. In this book Richard Whatmore presents an intellectual history of republicans who strove to ensure Geneva’s survival as an independent state. Whatmore shows how the Genevan republicans grappled with the ideas of Rousseau, Voltaire, Bentham, and others in seeking to make modern Europe safe for small states, by vanquishing the threats presented by war and by empire. The Genevan attempt to moralize the commercial world, and align national self-interest with perpetual peace and the abandonment of empire, had implications for the French Revolution, the British Empire, and the identity of modern Europe. Contents Preface Acknowledgments Part One: Introduction 1. 1782 and After Part Two: The Crisis of the Republic, 1698–1786 2. Geneva and France, 1698–1754 3. Rousseau and Geneva 4. Geneva and Britain Part Three: The Crisis of the Empires, 1782–1802 5. Cosmopolitan Versus Mercantile Empire 6. International Crises and Perpetual Peace 7. Revolution and Empire Part Four: Epilogue 8. The Last Représentant and Philosophic Radicalism Notes Index