France

Noel ‘Gracchus’ Babeuf, Prophet of Elitism

The legend that Babeuf had created and the doctrines of Babouvism became a powerful force in nineteenth-century Europe. W.J. Fishman writes how, among those whom it inspired, were the authors of the Bolshevik Revolution.

The Origins of Fascism in France

Chris Millington examines a period of bitter political division in France, dating from the 1930s and coinciding with the Nazi Occupation, which raises questions about the nature and roots of French fascism.

The Walcheren Failure, Part II

Widespread fever followed military sloth, writes Antony Brett-James, and the fiasco on Walcheren brought down the tottering British Government.

The Spy in the Committee of Public Safety

Throughout the Terror in 1793-94, writes Vera Watson, the British Government were being supplied with detailed reports on French Cabinet meetings. Who was the Spy among the thirteen members of the Committee of Public Safety?

The Siege of Paris

During 1870-1871, the France of the Second Empire underwent one of those catastrophes from which nations strangely re-arise to greatness.

The Imperial Guard at Waterloo

At the crisis of the battle Napoleon withheld the Imperial Guard, writes Michael Barthorp, only to commit it piecemeal at a later stage to its first and last defeat.

Offenbach

Joanna Richardson describes how after he had moved to Paris, Jacques Offenbach, the son of a cantor at the synagogue in Cologne, created an operatic epitome of the Second Empire.

New Orleans Under French Rule

For some sixty years during the eighteenth century, writes Sarah Searight, Louisiana was a colony owing allegiance to the King of France.