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

Front Cover
Yale University Press, Jul 31, 2012 - History - 416 pages

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.

 

Contents

THE CRISIS OF THE REPUBLIC 16981786
19
THE CRISIS OF THE EMPIRES 17821802
135
EPILOGUE
271
Notes
291
Index
371
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2012)

Richard Whatmore is professor of intellectual history and the history of political thought at the University of Sussex.

Bibliographic information