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Colonialism and the Sovereignty of Peoples: A Dialogue between Hegel and the French Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2024

Eduardo Baker Open the ORCID record for Eduardo Baker [Opens in a new window]
Eduardo Baker*
Affiliation:
Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [email protected]
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Abstract

This article discusses the relation between colonialism and the sovereignty of peoples through a dialogue between Hegel and the thought of the French Revolution. These two sides are relevant to each other not only because of their historical proximity, but also because of the connections that can be established when we approach the topic of colonialism through these two manifestations. Hegel is explicit that his philosophy of history and his philosophy of right are supposed to be philosophies of freedom. Yet despite the importance that he lends to freedom, Hegel also explicitly defends, in the very same text, colonial domination when he deals with the relation between peoples. A similar problem had arisen in the course of the French Revolution. Following the declarations of war, France is confronted on various occasions with the question of how to deal with other peoples and countries. With the foundation of the Republic in 1792, the relation with other peoples becomes central in the revolutionary debates. The topic of colonialism is part of the constituting debates, and not only because of the uprisings in then Saint Domingue leading to the Haitian Revolution. This article is a part of a larger research project that attempts to reassess the relations between Hegel and the French Revolution, and deals with the question of how we can re-read Hegel's interpretation of the French Revolution based on the evolving historiography of the Revolution. After an introduction of both sides of this dialogue, the paper discusses how Hegel's political philosophy can be applied to understand the debates about the emancipation of colonies that take place during the French Revolution. The next part further analyses some issues, such as the notion of sovereignty and, in the concluding remarks, I summarize my discussion and point to some avenues for further research.

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Research Article
Information
Hegel Bulletin , Volume 45 , Issue 2: Themed Issue: Racism and Colonialism in Hegel's Philosophy (Part 2) , August 2024 , pp. 313 - 339
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Hegel Society of Great Britain

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References

Bibliography

For these texts, I use the notation commonly used by historians of the French Revolution to refer to the Archives Nationales of France, the reedition of the Archives parlementaires and the other French public archives.

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