Paměť a propaganda. Dějiny habsburské monarchie jako učebnice vědy o vládě v díle francouzských osvícenských historiků

• Authors: Martina Ondo Grečenková

Title variants

EN

MEMORY AND PROPAGANDA. HISTORY OF THE HABSBURG MONARCHY AS A TEXTBOOK ABOUT RULING IN THE WORKS OF FRENCH ENLIGHTENED HISTORIANS

• Languages of publication: CS

Abstracts

EN

This essay offers one of the plausible interpretations of the history of the Habsburg monarchy and establishment of its society as it was presented to the public by French enlightened historians. It views their works through the eyes of contem-porary readers and elaborates on the information and knowledge of the world and politics which they might have achieved by reading the works. The essay contemplates on the reasons which made French authors deal with the history of the Habsburg monarchy and explains principles which they applied in the process. The central section of the paper concentrates on enlightened interpretational models that described historical events and closes with contemporary argumentation on the “order” of historical progress of the nation. The new political situation and alliance between the Habsburg monarchy and France, which was sealed by a marriage of Maria Theresia’s daughter and the future French king in 1756, called for broad publicity and ideological support from the French public. There was a good reason for official and non-official propaganda to promote an idea of happy future for both nations. Historical discourse served as one of the genres, which facilitated this mission. Although enlightened historiography promoted strict rules for historical writing, the final effect of a historical text on the reader seemed to be more important than adhering to the principles. The historio-graphic work was thus governed by facts that produced the most suitable information about improving the society and its advance towards harmony and order. The proclaimed principle of enlightened criticism and objectivity faded away in favour of promoting history as a school of morality and politics. Historical interpretation was governed by a fundamental enlightened explanatory model based on a conception of the society and the nation performing on the principle of unity of the aggregate and its components. Individual sections of this model (i.e. the people’s manners, the rulers and relations between these categories) were judged by the principle of a bi-polar system of contradictions: e.g. good/bad, they/we, enlightened ruler/tyrant, order/chaos, etc. This system allowed authors of historical works to lead a dialogue with current affairs and apply schemes of enlightened rulers, ideal mannerism and good rule on concrete historical examples. Neither mannerism nor ruling methods were conceived as historical categories, but their assessment corresponded with 18th century concepts. In this way, Empress Maria 230 Theresia could have become the “enlightened” ruler just like the legendary Forefather Čech from the dawn of history. Rather than underlining specificities, such historical interpretations of the Habsburg monarchy involved universal historical and political issues, which might have been identical with the history of a different country. Historians became more involved in the specificities when they started vindicating absolute power within the Habsburg monarchy, in which Bohemian lands and the Hungarian Crown played a major role. Even here, the bi-polar interpretational model (positive/negative, absolute power/estate monarchy) was applied. The French interpretational models, which were applied to the history of the Habsburg monarchy, epitomised a portrait of an enlightened society. They steered interpretation of historical progress towards the principles of enlightened political philosophy – i.e. “scholarship about ruling” as it was often referred to in contemporary terminology.

Keywords

EN

HISTORY

Discipline

• HISTORY: HISTORY

• Publisher: Institute of History, Czech Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Folia historica Bohemica
• Year: 2009
• Volume: 24
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 199-230

Contributors

author

Martina Ondo Grečenková

• Historický ústav AV ČR, Prosecká 76, 190 00 Praha 9, Czech Republic