Empires et nations dans la stratégie diplomatique du Second Empire: quelques observations autour des écrits d’Hippolyte Desprez
Empires et nations in the diplomatic strategy of the Second Empire: some critical remarks on writings of Hippolyte Desprez

Summary/Abstract: Very little research has been undertaken on the intellectual origins of Napoleon III’s foreign policy. This article tries to fill this gap by analysing the writings of Hippolyte Desprez, one of the most influential advisors at the Quai d’Orsay and one with a career of great longevity in French diplomatic service. Desprez wrote about the recovery of France and about a new vision of European politics before the establishment of the Second Empire. His main idea, which was to be put to the test after the Crimean War, was to encourage a political revolution in the Austrian and Ottoman empires in order to bridge the widening gaps between imperial identities and nationalism. If Desprez wrote in the realm of 1848 revolution, it did not prevent himself from criticizing the ways in which the leaders of the various revolutionary movements acted. The political reforms imagined by Desprez were actually meant to weaken the support Russia usually found among Slavic or Orthodox populations living in the two empires. Clearly, Napoleon III was less sympathetic to Austria than Desprez was. But one has to admit that the closely intertwined concepts of empire and nation advocated by Desprez found a practitioner in Napoleon III.

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