Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Institute of Modern Languages Research
School of Advanced Study
University of London
Senate House
Malet Street
London WC1E 7HU
Antoine Rene Larcher’s ‘Project of Expedition to Salvador (Brazil) 1797’ and the Global Competition for the South Atlantic
My thesis explores Antoine René Larcher’s microhistory to make sense of his ‘Project of Expedition to Salvador 1797’, unearthed at the French Navy Archives, in 1990. It contextualises the route of Larcher’s journey to Brazil in 1796, emphasising those aspects relevant to the case of the Bahian Conspiracy [Conjuração Bahiana] of 1798. Colonial historiography suggested that Larcher would provide evidence for an elitist stage of this social unrest, usually known as the Tailors’ Rebellion.
In 1797, peak of the French and British rivalry in the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802), Larcher addressed his project to the French Ministry of the Navy and Colonies in the hope of garnering the French Navy support for a siege of Salvador by sea. Most significantly, the so-called ‘Larcher Project’ revealed that a republican coalition was being negotiated with influential members of the local elite that, in Larcher’s words, were willing to depose the Portuguese rule in Bahia.
My thesis analyses the so-called ‘Larcher Project’ from a wider context, considering a grand imperial competition for the South Atlantic, reading Brazil from its ‘historical-geographical complex’, through which it held intrinsically connected to the Indian Ocean. New documents on Larcher and his activities are indicative of intensifying oceanic interconnections during the 1790s. While South Atlantic maritime currents integrated the West African coast, this boom of circulations strengthened the Portuguese ancient route to Asia Carreira da India also sustaining Salvador as a key hub, thereby influencing political events. By these means, my thesis sheds lights on veiled interests behind the Bahian Conspiracy (1798), revealing global prospections of a local elite group.
You can search for experts and projects by name, by subject area, by institute or division, or in the case of experts by position held. You can narrow your search by entering keywords.
Journalists
Please email sas.info@sas.ac.uk if you cannot find the person or project you are looking for, or call on +44 (0)20 7862 8859.
