Fibers of Empire: Cotton Cultivation in France and Italy during the Age of Napoleon

• Other Authors: Horan, Joseph (authoraut)
• Format: Others
• Language: English; English
• Published: Florida State University
• Subjects: History
• Online Access: http://purl.flvc.org/fsu/fd/FSU_migr_etd-8705

This dissertation centers on an extensive project to promote cotton cultivation in France and Italy which took place during the rule of Napoleon I. While this episode has been largely forgotten today, I show that the Napoleonic experiments with cotton cultivation were closely linked to some of the most important trends in modern history. Industrialization of the European textile industry motivated Napoleon to seek a secure source of cotton supply within his territories, particularly as a means of enhancing French competitiveness against the factories of Great Britain. The development of specialized botany and agronomy made the objective of large-scale acclimatization seem feasible to leading figures in French and Italian scientific circles by the early nineteenth century. Finally, the unprecedented scale of the experiments with cotton cultivation which took place between 1807 and 1814 was made possible by the power of the centralized state apparatus created by the Napoleonic regime. Viewed from this perspective, Napoleon's acclimatization project cannot be dismissed as a grandiose and unrealistic scheme, but rather must be understood as product of industrial development, scientific specialization, and state centralization, forces which have since been recognized as crucial to the emergence of the modern world. My dissertation traces the impact of these trends through an examination of French and Italian interaction with cotton, discussing early interest in the plant and its fibers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the development of cotton cultivation in French colonies in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, initial experiments with acclimatization between the 1740's and 1790's, the more extensive experiments of the Napoleonic era, and finally the French links to cotton cultivation between 1815 and 1865. Understanding the ways in which efforts to introduce cotton cultivation to the fields of France and Italy were fundamentally shaped by the leading factors of recent development provides above all an important reminder than even in the modern era it is not always possible to shape the natural environment to suit human purposes. === A Dissertation submitted to the Department of History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. === Fall Semester, 2013. === October 7, 2013. === Cotton Cultivation, Environmental History, French Caribbean, Industrialization, Napoleonic France, Napoleonic Italy === Includes bibliographical references. === Darrin McMahon, Professor Directing Dissertation; Adam Jolles, University Representative; Rafe Blaufarb, Committee Member; Frederick Davis, Committee Member; Edward Gray, Committee Member.