Antoine Larcher’s ‘Project of Expedition to Salvador (Brazil) 1797’ and the Global Competition for the South Atlantic during the Revolutionary Wars, 1792-1802

Speaker: Marília Arantes, Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Studies

Chair: Alan James, Senior Lecturer in War Studies

This seminar series is hosted by the ‘Laughton Naval History Unit’ of the ‘Sir Michael Howard Centre for the History of War’ in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. It is organised by the British Commission for Maritime History (www.maritimehistory.org.uk) in association with the Society for Nautical Research (https://snr.org.uk/).

The paper explores the career of the French seaman Antoine René Larcher (1742-1808), contextualising the route of his journey to Brazil in 1796 and emphasising those aspects relevant to the case of the Bahian Conspiracy [Conjuração Bahiana] of 1798. Larcher is known to have founded the masonic society Cavaleiros da Luz [Knights of the Light] and sought a coalition with influential members of the local elite to plot a republican coup against Portuguese rule in Bahia. His ‘Project of expedition to Salvador 1797’, addressed to the French Ministry of the Navy and Colonies in 1797, touted commercial and geostrategic benefits for France during the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802) in the hope of garnering French Naval support for a siege of Salvador by sea.

In this thesis, the so-called ‘Larcher Project’ is analysed in the context of grand imperial competition for the South Atlantic ‘historical-geographical complex’ through which Brazil was intrinsically connected to the Indian Ocean. New documents on Larcher’s career unearthed in French archives are indicative of intensifying oceanic interconnections during the 1790s. This global boom of circulations strengthened the Portuguese ancient route carreira da India that sustained Salvador as a key hub, thereby influencing events in its environs. By these means, the paper sheds light on the veiled interests behind the Bahian Conspiracy (1798), revealing the wider perspectives of a particular local elite group. Ultimately, Larcher’s career enable a re-evaluation of previous historiographies and a challenge to the notion of an ‘Age of Democratic Revolutions’ in the Atlantic World.

Marília Arantes Silva Moreira began her studies of History and International Relations, through the lens of maritime history, at the 'Greenwich Maritime Summer School' in 2005. She graduated from the Pontifical University of São Paulo (PUC-SP) in 2008 and completed her Masters at the University of São Paulo (USP) in 2014. She is currently finishing her PhD in Latin American Studies (ILAS) at the School of Advanced Studies (SAS), University of London. Her thesis explores interconnections between the historical-geographical complex of the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, manifested in the course of the eighteenth century. From a global history perspective, it analyses the 'Larcher Project' and possible participation of the French Navy in the Bahian Conspiracy (1798) in the context of the Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802).

 

For further information about the King’s Maritime History Seminar, contact Dr Alan James, War Studies, KCL, WC2R 2LS (alan.2.james@kcl.ac.uk).