Charles de Bussy e gli avventurieri "francesi" in India (1746-­1806)

Titolo Rivista SOCIETÀ E STORIA
Autori/Curatori Massimiliano Vaghi
Anno di pubblicazione 2022 Fascicolo 2021/174 Lingua Italiano
Numero pagine 27 P. 673-699 Dimensione file 241 KB
DOI 10.3280/SS2021-174001
Il DOI è il codice a barre della proprietà intellettuale: per saperne di più clicca qui

Qui sotto puoi vedere in anteprima la prima pagina di questo articolo.

Se questo articolo ti interessa, lo puoi acquistare (e scaricare in formato pdf) seguendo le facili indicazioni per acquistare il download credit. Acquista Download Credits per scaricare questo Articolo in formato PDF

Anteprima articolo

FrancoAngeli è membro della Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA)associazione indipendente e non profit per facilitare (attraverso i servizi tecnologici implementati da CrossRef.org) l’accesso degli studiosi ai contenuti digitali nelle pubblicazioni professionali e scientifiche

Nonostante sia impossibile considerare l’antico impero coloniale della Francia come un insieme omogeneo, l’Autore sostiene che nel subcontinente indiano vi sia una sostanziale continuità fra le politiche asiatiche di Antico regime e quelle della Rivoluzione. In India, in particolare, la rivalità coloniale e commerciale con la Gran Bretagna, infatti, ha prevalso sulla politica rivoluzionaria, con una prassi che è rimasta nella sostanza invariata. In questo articolo si fornisce un approccio comparatistico dell’attività politica e militare degli ufficiali e aventuriers francesi nel contesto delle guerre anglo-franco-indiane. In particolare ci si sofferma sulla figura di Charles de Bussy (1718?-1785), ufficiale della Compagnie des Indes e quindi governatore generale francese in India, tentando di raffrontare la sua politica indiana sia con quella del suo più celebre contemporaneo Joseph-François Dupleix (1697-1763), sia con quella degli avventurieri "francesi" che hanno operato al servizio dei sovrani indiani fra il 1763 e il 1806;

Keywords:Charles de Bussy, India, Francia, avventurieri, colonialismo francese.

  1. D’Souza F. (1995), Quand la France découvrit l’Inde. Les écrivains-voyageurs français en Inde (1757-1818), Paris, l’Harmattan.
  2. Abbattista G. (2002), L’espansione europea in Asia (secc. XV-XVIII), Roma, Carocci.
  3. Agmon D. (2014a), The Currency of Kinship: Trading Families and Trading on Family in Colonial French India, in «Eighteenth-Century Studies», 47 (2), pp. 137-155.
  4. Agmon D. (2014b), Striking Pondichéry: Religious Disputes and French Authority in an Indian Colony of the Ancien Régime, in «French Historical Studies», 37 (3), pp. 437-467.
  5. Arasaratam S. (1995), Maritime Trade, Society and European Influence in Southern Asia: 1600-1800, Aldershot, Variorum.
  6. Ballhatchet K.A. (1982), L’Asia, in Storia del mondo moderno. Vol. VIII, a cura di A. Goodwin, Milano, Garzanti, pp. 275-301.
  7. Barua P. (1994), Military Developments in India, 1750-1850, in «The Journal of Military History», 58 (4), pp. 599-616.
  8. Bayly C.A. (1988), Indian Society and the Making of the British Empire, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  9. Behr H.G. (1985), I moghul imperatori dell’India, Milano, Garzanti.
  10. Besson M. (1931), Les aventuriers français aux Indes (1755-1820), Paris, Payot.
  11. Bose A. (2019), Unneighbourly Empires from Europe: France, Britain and Stakes in India during the Age of the Revolution and thence, in The Revolution and the French Establishments in India (1790-1793), a cura di A. Bose, Calcutta-Delhi, Setu Prakashani, pp. 19-31.
  12. Boutier J. (2012), Le procureur général de Bourbon: entre attributions judiciaires et compétences extra judiciaires. Gilbert Boucher et Charles Ogé Barbaroux, in «Cahiers aixois d’histoire des droits de l’outre-mer français», 4, pp. 35-68.
  13. Bührer T. (2019), Intercultural Diplomacy at the Court of the Nizam of Hyderabad, 1770-1815, in «The International History Review», 41 (5), pp. 1039-1056 -- (url: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/07075332.2018.1509883; ultima consultazione 11/03/2021).
  14. Carton A. (2008), Shades of Fraternity: Creolization and the Making of Citizenship in French India, 1790-1792, in «French Historical Studies», 31 (4), pp. 581-607.
  15. Castonnet des Fosses H.L. (1885), La Révolution et les clubs dans l’Inde française, Nantes, Forest et Grimaud.
  16. Cooper R.G.S. (2003), The Anglo-Maratha Campaigns and the Contest for India. The Struggle for Control of the South Asian Military Economy, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  17. Crouzet F. (2008), La guerre économique franco-anglaise au XVIIIe siècle, Paris, Fayard.
  18. Das S. (1992), Myths and Realities of French Imperialism in India, 1763-1783, New York, Peter Lang.
  19. Deleury G. (1991), Les Indes florissantes, anthologie des voyageurs français (1750-1820), Paris, R. Laffont.
  20. De Martens G.F. (a cura di) (1791), Recueil des principaux traités (…) conclus par les Puissances de l’Europe (…), t. I (1761-1778), Gottingue, J.C. Dieterich.
  21. De Poyen H. (1896), La guerre aux îles de France et de Bourbon, 1803-1810, Paris, Imprimerie Nationale.
  22. Fabre E.J. (1883), La guerre maritime dans l’Inde sous le Consulat et l’Empire, Paris, Berger-Levrault.
  23. Farrère C. (1935), L’Inde perdue, Paris, Ernest Flammarion éditeur.
  24. Fisher M.H. (2012), Diplomacy in India, 1526-1858, in Britain’s Oceanic Empire. Atlantic and Indian Ocean Worlds, c. 1550-1850, a cura di H.V. Bowen e E. Mancke, J.G. Reid, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, pp. 249-281.
  25. Fourcade M., Zupanov I.G. (2013), a cura di, L’Inde des Lumières. Discours, histoire, savoirs (XVIIe-XIXe siècle), Paris, éd. EHESS.
  26. Gainot B., Vaghi M. (a cura di) (2015), Entre la Révolution et l’Empire: une nouvelle politique dans l’Océan Indien, «La Révolution française [En ligne]», 8 [numero speciale] -- (url: https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/1236; ultima consultazione 04/03/2021).
  27. Gainot B., Vaghi M. (a cura di) (2014), Les Indes Orientales au carrefour des Empires, «Annales historiques de la Révolution française », 375 [numero speciale].
  28. Gaudart de Soulanges M., Randa Ph. (2005), Les dernières années de l’Inde française, Coulommiers, Dualpha.
  29. Giunchi E. (2021), Il pashtun armato. La diffusione delle armi da fuoco in Afghanistan e il declino dell’Impero britannico (1880-1914), Milano, Mondadori.
  30. Gobalakichenane M. (2000), The “French Revolution” of the Tamils in Pondicherry (1790-1793), in «East and West», 50 (1-4), pp. 295-308.
  31. Gommans J. (1999), Warhorse and gunpowder in India, c. 1000-1850, in War in Early Modern World, 1450-1815, a cura di J. Black, London, UCL Press, pp. 105-127.
  32. Gordon S. (1994), Marathas, Marauders, and State formation in Eighteenth-century India, Delhi-New York, Oxford University Press.
  33. Gottmann F. (2016), Global Trade, Smuggling, and the Making of Economic Liberalism: Asian Textiles in France 1680-1760, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.
  34. Gottmann F. (2013), French-Asian connections: The Compagnies des Indes, Frances’s Eastern trade, and new directions in historical scholarship, in «The Historical Journal», 56 (2), pp. 537-552.
  35. Gunny A. (1981), L’Ile Maurice et la France dans la deuxième moitié du siècle, in «Dix-huitième Siècle», 13, pp. 297-316.
  36. Hatalkar V.G. (1958), Relations between the French and the Marathas, 1668-1815, Bombay, T.V. Chidambaran.
  37. Haudrère Ph. (2014), Les Français dans l’océan Indien, XVIIe-XIXe siècle, Rennes, Presses universitaires de Rennes.
  38. Haudrère Ph. (1989), La Compagnie française des Indes au XVIIIe siècle, 4 t., Paris, Librairie de l’Inde.
  39. Jasanoff M. (2012), La compagnia delle Indie. La prima multinazionale, Milano, Il Saggiatore.
  40. Keene H.G. (1907), Hindustan under Free Lances, 1770-1820: Sketches of Military Adventure in Hindustan during the Period Immediately Preceding British Occupation, London, Brown-Langham.
  41. Krishnan C. (2020), A benevolent look at India of the 18th century. The Indian subcontinent in a few pages drawn from Duperron, in «Synergies Inde», 9, pp. 45-61 -- (url: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9745-2764; ultima consultazione 04/03/2021).
  42. Labernadie M.V. (1930), La Révolution et les établissements français dans l’Inde, 1790-1793, Paris, E. Leroux.
  43. Lafont J.M. (2000), Indika: Essays in Indo-French Relations, 1630-1976, New Delhi, Manohar-Centre de Sciences Humaines.
  44. Lal K.S. (1939), The Battle of Kharda and its significance, in «Proceedings of the Indian History Congress», 3, pp. 1340-1359.
  45. Le Tréguilly P. (1995), Les aventuriers, in L’Inde et la France, deux siècles d’histoire commune (XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles), a cura di P. Le Tréguilly, M. Morazé, Paris, CNRS éd., pp. 51-63.
  46. Ludden D. (2011), Storia dell’India e dell’Asia del Sud, Torino, Einaudi.
  47. Maestri E. (a cura di) (2002), Esclavage et abolitions dans l’océan Indien, 1723-1860: actes du colloque de Saint-Denis de la Réunion, 4-8 décembre 1998, Paris-Saint Denis de la Réunion, l’Harmattan-Université de la Réunion.
  48. Magedera I.H. (2010), Arrested Development: The Shape of French India after the Treaties of 1763 and 1814, in «Interventions», 12 (3), pp. 331-343.
  49. Magedera I.H. e Marsh K. (2005), Les cinq noms sonores: The French voice in the story of British India, 1763-1954, in «Journal of Romance Studies», 5 (1), pp. 65-77.
  50. Malleson G.B. (1899), Dupleix, and the Struggle for India by the European Nations (Rulers of India), Oxford, Clarendon Press.
  51. Manning C. (1996), Fortunes à faire. The French in Asian Trade: 1719-48, Aldershot, Variorum.
  52. Mansingh G. (2006), French Military Influence in India, New Delhi, Knowledge World.
  53. Marquet J. (2020), Accommodating the law in a colonial situation. The role of the consultative committee of Indian law in the 19th century, in «Revue d’histoire du XIXe siècle», 60 (1), pp. 257-273.
  54. Marquet J., Smith B. e Singaravélou P. (a cura di) (2015), L’Inde et les Français: pratiques et savoirs coloniaux, «Outre-mers. Revue d’histoire», 388-389 [numero speciale].
  55. Marsh K. (2009), India in the French Imagination: Peripheral Voices, 1754-1815, London, Pickering & Chatto.
  56. Marshall P.J. (1987), Bengal: The British Bridgehead. Eastern India, 1740-1828, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  57. Marshall P.J. (1980), Western Arms in Maritime Asia in the Early Phases of Expansion, in «Modern Asian Studies», 14 (1), pp. 13-28.
  58. Martelli A. (2005), La lunga rotta per Trafalgar. Il conflitto navale anglo-francese, Bologna, il Mulino.
  59. Martineau A. (1935), Bussy et l’Inde française, 1720-1785, Paris, Société de l’histoire des colonies françaises-E. Leroux.
  60. Martineau A. (a cura di) (1932), Journal de Bussy, commandant général des forces de terre et de mer dans l’Inde, 13 nov. 1781-31 mars 1783, Pondichéry-Paris, Bibliothèque publique-E. Leroux.
  61. Martineau A. (1931a), Le général Perron, généralissime des Armées de Scindia et du Grand Mogol, 1753-1834, Paris, Société d’éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales.
  62. Martineau A. (1931b), Le général Perron, généralissime des Armées de Scindia et du Grand Mogol, 1753-1834, in «Revue de l’histoire des colonies françaises», 19 (80), pp. 113-180.
  63. Martineau A. (1929), L’Inde de 1720 à nos jours, in Histoire des colonies françaises et de l’expansion de la France dans le monde, a cura di G. Hanotaux, A. Martineau, 6 voll., Paris, Librairie Plon, vol. V, pp. 91-309.
  64. Martineau A. (1920-1928), Dupleix et l’Inde française: 1749-1754, 4 voll., Paris, Société d’éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales-Honoré Champion.
  65. Mikaberidze A. (2020), The Napoleonic Wars: A Global History, Oxford-New York, Oxford University Press.
  66. Mole G. (2015), L’Économie politique de Joseph Dupleix: commerce, autorité et deuxième guerre carnatique, 1751-1754, in «Outre-Mers. Revue d‘Histoire», 388-389, pp. 79-96.
  67. Muzaffar A. (2013), Crisis of empire in Mughal North India: Awadh and the Punjab, 1707-1748, New Delhi, Oxford University Press.
  68. Osterhammel J. (2018), Unfabling the East: The Enlightenment’s Encounter with Asia, Princeton-Oxford, Princeton University Press.
  69. Pandey U.S. (2020), European Adventurers in North India: 1750-1803, London-New York, Routledge.
  70. Parkinson C.N. (1954), War in the Eastern Seas, 1793-1815, London, George Allen & Unwin.
  71. Peabody S. (2017), Madeleine’s Children. Family, Freedom, Secrets, and Lies in France’s Indian Ocean Colonies, Oxford, Oxford University Press.
  72. Platania M. (2017), Una monarchia commerciante: critica e apologia dell’espansione francese nelle Indie orientali, 1648-1798, Roma, Edizioni di storia e letteratura.
  73. Prentout H. (1901), L’île de France sous Decaen, Paris, Hachette.
  74. Raj K. (2000), L’orientalisme en Inde au tournant du XIXe siècle: la réponse du mondialisme britannique à l’universalisme de la Révolution française, in «Annales historiques de la Révolution française», 320, pp. 89-99.
  75. Rao V.N., Shulman D. e Subrahmanyam S. (2004), Textures du temps. Écrire l’histoire en Inde, Paris, Le Seuil.
  76. Reinhard W. (2016), Die Unterwerfung der Welt. Globalgeschichte der europäischen Expansion, 1415-2015, Munich, C.H. Beck, 2016.
  77. Reinhard W. (2002), Storia del colonialismo, Torino, Einaudi.
  78. Richards J.F. (1993), The Mughal Empire, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
  79. Roy K. (2011a), War, Culture, and Society in Early Modern South Asia, 1740-1849, Abingdon-New York, Routledge.
  80. Roy K. (2011b), The hybrid military establishment of the East India Company in South Asia: 1750-1849, in «Journal of Global History», 6 (2), pp. 195-218.
  81. Roy K. (2006), Technology and Transformation of Sikh Warfare: Dal Khalsa against the Lal Paltans, 1800-1849, in «Indian Journal of History of Science», 41 (4), pp. 383-410.
  82. Roy K. (2005), Firepower-Centric Warfare in India and the Military Modernization of the Marathas: 1740-1818, in «Indian Journal of History of Science», 40 (4), pp. 597-634.
  83. Ruggiu F.J. (2011), India and the Reshaping of the French Colonial Policy (1759-1789), in «Itinerario», 35 (2), pp. 25-43.
  84. Sen S.P. (1958), The French in India (1763-1815), Calcutta, Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay.
  85. Shovlin J. (2020), Les compagnies de commerce français et britannique au XVIIIe siècle. Rivalités et conciliations, in Une diplomatie des lointains. La France face à la mondialisation des rivalités internationales, XVIIe-XVIIIe siècles, a cura di É. Schnakenbourg, F. Ternat, Rennes, Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 163-184.
  86. Shovlin J. (2017), Securing Asian Trade: Treaty Negotiations between the French and English East India Companies, 1753-1755, in The Politics of Commercial Treaties in the Eighteenth Century, a cura di A. Alimento e K. Stapelbroek, Cham, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 267-293.
  87. Sil R. (1989), Images de la Révolution française dans la colonisation et la décolonisation en Inde, in L’image de la Révolution française: communications présentées lors du Congrès mondial pour le bicentenaire de la Révolution (Sorbonne, Paris, 6-12 juillet 1989), 4 t., a cura di M. Vovelle, Oxford-Paris-New York, Pergamon Press, t. III, pp. 1812-1822.
  88. Sinha A. (2002), The Politics of Trade, Anglo-French Commerce on the Coromandel Coast, 1763-1793, New Delhi, Manohar.
  89. Smith B. (2015), Les États-Unis de l’Inde : la différence indienne vue par la diplomatie française à la fin du dix-huitième siècle, in «La Révolution française [En ligne]», 8 -- (url: https://journals.openedition.org/lrf/1254; ultima consultazione 04/03/2021).
  90. Stein B. (1989), Thomas Munro: The Origins of the Colonial State and his vision of Empire, Delhi-New York, Oxford University Press.
  91. Subrahmanyam S. (2017), Europe’s India: Words, People, Empires, 1500-1800, Cambridge-London, Harvard University Press.
  92. Tandon R.K. (2009), European Adventurers and Changes in the Indian Military System, in Responding to the West: Essays on Colonial Domination and Asian Agency, a cura di H. Hägerdal, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, pp. 29-44.
  93. Torri M. (2000), Storia dell’India, Roma-Bari, Laterza.
  94. Truschke A. (2017), Aurangzeb: The Life and Legacy of India’s Most Controversial King, Stanford, Stanford University Press.
  95. Vaghi M. (2019a), Una storia connessa. Asia meridionale ed Europa in età moderna (secoli XVI-XX), Milano, FrancoAngeli.
  96. Vaghi M. (2019b), Le relazioni euro-indiane alla morte di Muhammad Shah (1748): note sul “nabobism”, in Una storia, tante storie. Studi di storia internazionale, a cura di M. Merlati, D. Vignati, Milano, FrancoAngeli, pp. 23-38.
  97. Vaghi M. (2018), Le relazioni fra la Francia imperiale e la Persia (1807-1809): il trattato di Finkestein e la missione di Claude-Mathieu de Gardane, in «Storia urbana», 160, pp. 29-55.
  98. Vaghi M. (2016), La France et l’Inde. Commerces et politique impériale au XVIIIe siècle, [Paris], Éditions Mimésis.
  99. Vaghi M. (2008), Joseph-François Dupleix e la prima espansione europea in India: “Le trône du grand Mogol tremble au seul bruit de votre nom”, Milano, Unicopli.
  100. Valdameri E. (2015), The Influence of Liberalism in the Definition of the Idea of Nation in India, in «La Révolution française [En ligne]», 8 (url: https://
  101. journals.openedition.org/lrf/1333; ultima consultazione 06/03/2021).
  102. Van Damme S. (2014), Capitalizing Manuscripts, Confronting Empires: Anquetil-Duperron and the Economy of Oriental Knowledge in the Context of the Seven Years’ War, in Negotiating Knowledge in Early Modern Empires. A Decentered View, a cura di L. Kontler, A. Romano, S. Sebastiani, B.Z. Török, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 109-128.
  103. Vartavarian M. (2019), Warriors and States: Military labour in southern India, circa 1750-1800, in «Modern Asian Studies», 53 (2), pp. 313-338.
  104. Vasa R.C. (1935), Le Protectorat français aux Indes sous le marquis de Bussy, Paris, Picart.
  105. Wanquet C. (1998), La France et la première abolition de l’esclavage (1794-1802). Le cas des colonies orientales. Ile de France (Maurice) et La Réunion, Paris, Karthala.
  106. Wanquet C. (1980-1981), Histoire d’une Révolution. La Réunion (1789-1803), 2 t., Marseille, Laffitte.
  107. Wanquet C. e Julien B. (a cura di) (1996), , Révolution française et Océan Indien: prémices, paroxysmes, héritages et déviances. Actes du colloque de Saint-Pierre de la Réunion, Paris-Saint Denis de la Réunion, l’Harmattan-Université de la Réunion.
  108. Weber J. (a cura di) (2002), Les relations entre la France et l’Inde de 1673 à nos jours, Paris, Les Indes Savantes.
  109. Weber J. (1996), Pondichéry et les comptoirs de l’Inde après Dupleix. La démocratie au pays des castes, Paris, Denoël.
  110. Weber J. (1988), Les Établissements français en Inde au XIXe siècle: 1816-1914, 5 t., Paris, Librairie de l’Inde.
  111. Eraly A. (2011), Il trono dei Moghul: la saga dei grandi imperatori dell’India, Milano, Il Saggiatore.

Massimiliano Vaghi, Charles de Bussy e gli avventurieri "francesi" in India (1746-­1806) in "SOCIETÀ E STORIA " 174/2021, pp 673-699, DOI: 10.3280/SS2021-174001