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French Policy in Spanish America: 1830–48

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 February 2009

Iwan Morgan
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Extract

The governments of the Orléans Monarchy pursued a very active policy in Spanish America. In 1838–9 France fought a brief war with Mexico. From 1838 to 1840 she was engaged in a dispute with Governor Rosas of Buenos Aires which escalated into an attempt to overthrow him. The French Navy played a distinctly un—neutral role during the Argentine siege of Montevideo in the early 1840s. In 1845 France and Britain cooperated in an attempt to impose a peace settlement upon the belligerents in the Río de la Plata. These two powers also seriously considered a plan to block American expansion in 1845 by offering certain guarantees to Texas and Mexico. The French were also involved in several minor disputes – involving New Granada, Chile, and Mexico again – which nearly led to blows. The armed forces of France were in more constant action only in North Africa. Yet French political and economic interests in Spanish America were hardly as important as these activities implied. In fact, French policy was based upon a misconception of the potential importance of their interests. The error was made worse by the nature of the French policy-making process. The aims of this paper are ito explain how these erroneous conceptions of French interests were formulated, why they were not rectified, and why it was the French rather than the British, despite their greater interest in Spanish America, who appeared to wave ‘the big stick’ there during this period.

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Articles
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , November 1978 , pp. 309 - 328
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

1 The various disputes are discussed in Cady, John, Foreign intervention in the Río de la Piata, 1838–1850 (Philadelphia, 1929);Google ScholarPuentes, Gabriel, La Intervención Francesa en ci Río de ha Plata: Federales, Unitarios y Romdánticos (Buenos Aires, 1958);Google ScholarColli, Nestor, La Política Francesa en el Río de la Piata: Rosas y el Bioquco de 1838–40 (Buenos Aires, 1963);Google ScholarRobertson, William, ‘An Early Threat of Intervention by Force in South America’, Hispanic American Historical Review, 23 (11 1943), 611–31,CrossRefGoogle Scholar and his ‘French Intervention in Mexico in 1838’, H.A.H.R., 24 (05 1944), 222–52.Google Scholar For an overall analysis of French policy in this period see Morgan, Iwan, ‘Anglo-French Confrontation and Cooperation in Spanish America, 1836–1848’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of London, 1975.Google Scholar

2 The classic study of French policy is Robertson, William, France and Latin American Independence (Baltimore, 1939).Google Scholar

3 See Ibid., pp. 344–403.

4 ‘Notice sur le commerce et sur les derniers événements militaires de I'Amérique du Sud’, 27 June 1825, Archives Affaires Étrangères, Mémoires et Documents (hereafter A.A.E., M. et D.) Amérique, 36 – ‘Colonies Espagnoles, 1824–1830’.

5 ‘Mémoire de M. Varaigne’, A.A.E., M. et D., Amérique, 36.

6 Luis Delpech to Count La Ferronnays, 25 05 1828; Questions dans l'inté de la France et des Améiques’, 25 05 1828; both in A.A.E., M. et D., Amérique, 36.

7 de Brossard, Alfred, Considérations Historiques et Politiqucs sur les Républiqucs de la Plata dans leurs rapports avec la France et I'Angleterre (Paris, 1850), p. 394.Google Scholar See, too, Dutot, S., De l'expatrration consideréc sous ses rapports économiques, politiqucs et moraux (Paris, 1840).Google Scholar

8 These schemes are outlined in de Madariaga, Salvador, Bolivar (London, 1952), pp. 600–12.Google Scholar

9 Anton Deffaudis, ‘Rapport’, 24 08 1830, A.A.E., Correspondance Politique, Colombie, 7; Count Molé, ‘Rapport au Roi’, 08 1830, A.A.E., M. et D., Amérique, 36.

10 ‘Buenos Ayres, Rapport du 5 juillet, 1839’, Papiers Guizot, Archives Nationales, 42 Archives Priuées, Dossier — ‘Buenos Ayres’.

11 There is no comprehensive survey of Orléanist foreign policy but specialized aspects are discussed in Hall, John, England and the Orléans Monarchy (London, 1912);Google ScholarGuyot, Raymond, La Première Entente Cordiale (Paris, 1926);Google Scholar and Johnson, Douglas, Guizot: Aspects of French History, 1787–1874 (London, 1963).Google Scholar

12 The best comprehensive survey of Orléans France is still Dangin, Paul Thureau—, La Monarchic de Juillet, 7 Vols. (Paris, 1884–1892).Google Scholar Also useful are Charlety, Sebastian, La Monarchie de Juillet (Paris, 1921)Google Scholar and Vigier, Paul, La Monarchie de Juillet (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

13 ‘Note sur le Méxique’, 4 06. 1847, A.A.E., M. et D., Méxique 9; Robertson, op. cit., p. 547.

14 The literature on British policy is quite extensive. Platt, Christopher, Finance, Trade and Politics in British Foreign Policy, 1815–1914 (Oxford, 1968)Google Scholar and Gallagher, John and Robinson, Robert, ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’, Economic History Review, IInd Series, 6 (08 1953), 1–15,CrossRefGoogle Scholar discuss this policy from opposing viewpoints. Ferns, Herbert, Britain and Argentina in the Nineteenth Century (Oxford, 1960)Google Scholar is an excellent specialized study. See, too, Sir Webster, Charles, Britain and the Independence of Latin America, 2 Vols. (Oxford, 1938)Google Scholar and Platt, Christopher, Latin America and British Trade, 1806–1914 (London, 1975).Google Scholar

15 Scobie, James, Argentina, A City and a Nation, 2nd ed. (New York, 1971), pp. 76–111.Google Scholar

16 Cumberland, Charles, Mexico: The Struggle for Modernity (New York, 1968), pp. 175–89;Google ScholarJones, Oakah, Santa Anna (New York, 1968), pp. 60–119.Google Scholar

17 For the story of the fate of some inland settlers during the Plata war of the 1840s, see Poucel, Benjamin, Les Otages de Duranzo, Souvenirs du Río de la Plato pendant l'Intervention Anglo-Française de 1845 à 1845 (Paris, 1864).Google Scholar

18 The sources for these figures are as follows – de Mofras, Duflot, Exploration du Territoire de l'Orégon, des Californies, et de la Mer Vermeille, exécutéc pendant les annécs 1840, 1841 et 1842, 2 Vols. (Paris, 1844), 1, 67;Google Scholar ‘Appcrçu redigé par M. Parchappe sur la République Argentine, 1835’, A.A.E., M. et D., Amérique, 29 – Amérique du Sud, 1819–1850’; Speech by M. Chégaray, deputy for Basses—Pyrennes, I June 1844, Le Moniteur Universel, 2 June 1844, p. 1591.

19 See Pletcher, David, The Diplomacy of Annexation: Texas, Oregon and the Mexican War (Columbia, Mo., 1974) for a discussion of British and French policies.Google Scholar

20 Deffaudis to Adoiphe Thiers, 23 07 1836, D.P. 94, A.A.E., C.P., Méxique, to.

21 For a fuller discussion of these problems see Morgan, , ‘Anglo—French Confrontation…’, unpublished thesis, op. cit., passiln.Google Scholar

22 Admittedly there were attempts to promote a Prussian interest on the part of some individuals but these came to nothing. See Henderson, Gavin, ‘German Colonial Projects on the Mosquito Coast, 1844–1848’ in his Crimean War Diplomacy and Other Essays (Glasgow, 1947), pp. 290–94;Google ScholarHawgood, John, ‘A Projected Prussian Acquisition of Upper California’, in Bourne, Kenneth and Watt, Donald (eds.), Studies in International History (London, 1967), pp. 103–18,Google Scholar and his ‘Friederich von Roenne: A German Tocqueville’, University of Birmingham Historical Journal, 3 (No. I, 1951), 79–94.Google Scholar

23 Cady, op. cit., p. 80; Louis Philippe to Guizot, 13 11 1844, 20 11 1845, Papiers Guizot, A.N., 42 A.P. 286.

24 The rough drafts of the speech are in A.A.E., C.P., Uruguay, 9.

25 Deffaudis to Desages, particulier, 7 03 1835, A.A.E., Papiers Agents, 54, Papiers Desages, 164.

26 Guizot to Deffaudis, 27 11 1845, Papiers Guizot, A.N., 42 A.P. 8.

27 This opposition is noted by Pletcher, op. cit., pp. 889–90.

28 ‘Résumé’, Note in Papiers Mackau, A.N., 156 A.P. 1/29.

29 ‘Note pour le Ministre’, 22 09 1842, Papiers Guizot, A.N., 42 A.P. 5.

30 Guizot to de Mackau, 30 09 1842; de Mackau to Guizot, 6 10 1842, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, 15; ‘La Plata’, undated memoir (but about 12 1844), Papiers Mackau, A.N., 256 A.P. 1/32.

31 Desages to de Cyprey, 27 05 1844, A.A.E., P.A., 54, Papiers Desages, 164.

32 Louis Philippe to Guizot, 20 11 1845, Papiers Guizot, A.N., 42 A.P. 286.

33 Le Commerce, 9 05 1840. ‘Rapport par M. Salvandy, 8 06 1840’, Procès Verbaux des Séance: de la Chambre des Députés: Session 1840, VII (Paris, 1840), 600–62.

34 Duc de Dalmatie, Minister for Foreign Affairs, to de Cyprey, Instructions, 31 Oct. 1839, A.A.E., C.P., Méxique, 18.

35 Dunham, A. L., The Industrial Revolution in France, 1815–1848 (New York, 1955), pp. 376–83;Google ScholarKemp, T., Economic Forces in French History (London, 1971), pp. 11–16;Google ScholarStearns, P., ‘British Industry Through the Eyes of French Industrialists (1820–1848)’, Journal of Modern History, 32 (03 1965), 50–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

36 Theodore Pichon, consul-general at Montevideo, to Guizot, 29 May, 29 July 1842, D.C.C. 2 and, A.A.E., Correspondance Consulaire et Commerciale, Montevideo, 7.

37 Nantes Chamber of Commerce to Guizot, i March 1842, copy, Archives Ministère de la Marine, A.N., B.B.4/592.

38 Le Commerce, 10 02.,2 03 1839; Le Moniteur Universel, 25 04 1845, pp. 1113–17.

39 Le Moniteur Universel, 29, 30 05 1844, pp. 1544, 1555–8; Le Siècle, 30 05, 1 06 1844; Le Constitutionnel, 35 05, 1, 2 06 1844.

40 Le Moniteur Universel, 25 06, 2 08 1839, pp. 1086, 1574–5, 28 04, 2 06 1840, pp. 833–5, 1240–1.

41 Information concerning the careers of the French agents was obtained on request from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs archivist.

42 ‘Mémoire sur le situation du Mexique en Mars, 1844’, A.A.E., C.P., Méxique, 26.

43 Henri Buchet de Martigny to Molé, 20 11. 1838, D.P. 3, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, 9; Deffaudis to Guizot, 8, 12, 15, and 29 Sept. 1845, D.P. 26–9, series entitled ‘Véritable Etat de Choses’, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, 19.

44 Mandeville to Palmerston, 1 June 1836, Broadlands Papers, GC/MA/259.

45 Count Walewski to Guizot, Confidentielle et Réservéc, 21 07 1847, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, 23.

46 Deffaudis to Molé, 23 March 1838, D.P. 173, A.A.E., C.P., Mexique, 12.

47 Buchet de Martigny to Mole, II Feb. 1839, D.P. 15, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, 9, 2 and 28 Feb. 1840, D.P. 73, 76, A.A.E., C.P., République Argentine, II.

48 Alberdi, Juan, Escritos Postumos, 16 Vols. (Buenos Aires, 1897–1901), XV, 433–6, 468–70.Google Scholar