From philhellenic partisanship to the “exit to the East”: The Saint-Simonian view of renascent Greece (1825–1835)
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From philhellenic partisanship to the “exit to the East”: The Saint-Simonian view of renascent Greece (1825–1835)
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6 February 2021
Abstract
"Henri Saint-Simon’s (1760–1825) ideas laid the foundations of one of the most significant currents of modern social thinking. Since 1825, the Saint-Simonians provided their own responses to the challenges of an entire era – an era sealed by the end of the Restoration and the rise of the July Monarchy. The cultivation of the scientific spirit, the collective organisation of industrial production and, last but not least, the dissemination of a system of neo-Christian ethics were the three main pillars on which the Saint-Simonians proposed solutions to the social (illiteracy, poverty, inequality of any kind) and the political (organisation of the modern nation-state) problems of their time. One of the issues that attracted their strong interest was the “Greek case”. At the time of Saint-Simon’s death, Messolongi was surrounded by Mehmed Pasha’s (Kütahı’s) forces. The Greek Revolution was at a critical point. French public opinion was already mobilised in support of the Christian descendants of the ancient Greeks. Recent and earlier studies have adequately highlighted the role of French philhellenes during the Greek Revolution and the formation of the Greek state. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered concerning the philhellenic stance of the Saint-Simonians. Our objective is to try to fill this gap. The starting point of the paper lies on the observation that the Saint-Simonians supported the rebellious Greeks in various ways: some of them visited Greece and participated in the Greek War of Independence; many made appeals for financial support to the Greek cause or wrote articles in the “official” Saint-Simonian newspapers and magazines and also commentaries on artworks inspired by 1821; others contacted Greek scholars or even had a personal involvement in the organisation of the new-born Greek state. Our central assumption is that Saint-Simonians’ interest in Greece reflects some of the fermentations that led to the crystallisation of the ideological identity of this movement of thought. To highlight the perception of the Saint-Simonians regarding the formation of the identity of modern Greeks, the paper first focuses on the points of convergence/divergence between the Saint-Simonians and other philhellenes either of a liberal or a conservative ideological origin. The analysis proceeds to examine the motives, the expectations, and, perhaps, the denials of those Saint-Simonians that were involved in the organisation of the Greek state. Not surprisingly, sociopolitical developments that took place in France and the wider region of the east (i.e. Algeria, Egypt, and the Ottoman Empire) during the early 1830s decisively contributed to the smooth incorporation of the Greek issue into the Saint-Simonians’ general perceptual context regarding East-West relations. Still, we need to understand whether French Saint-Simonians received some feedback from their Greek colleagues. To put it differently, did French Saint-Simonians revise their views about Greece, or more generally about East-West relations, after they encountered Greek scholars? Hopefully, our paper sheds some light on this last issue."
(Slightly modified abstract from the Initiative 1821-2021 website)
(Slightly modified abstract from the Initiative 1821-2021 website)
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Bibliographic Citation
https://www.protovoulia21.gr/draseis/ethnika-kinimata-kai-filellinismos/
https://www.blod.gr/lectures/synedria-vi-i-syzitisi-gia-tin-elliniki-epanastasi-sti-dimosia-sfaira/
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00:20:00
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BY-NC-SA Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
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