French Political Thought in Southeastern Europe. Patterns and Limits of Reception

French political thought in its liberal and republican expressions from the Enlightenment to the twentieth century formed the broader framework within which the aspirations of cultural and political change, modernization and individual and national liberty in the societies of Southeastern Europe were articulated. Exemplary exponents of liberal and radical political reflection who wrote under the impact of the ideas of the French Revolution included primarily Adamantios Korais and Rhigas Velestinlis and the anonymous author of Hellenic Nomarchy (1806) among the Greeks and D. Sturdza and Ionică Tăutu among the Romanians. Quite late in his life A. Korais discovered the importance of the writings of Benjamin Constant, several of whose works are present in Korais’ s library at Chios and bear the marks of his study. He was particularly interested in Constant’s probably most important work, De la religion, which he read and annotated. Arguments from French liberalism were used in support of constitutionalism and the rule of law in the new nation states of the Balkans, while translations of Tocqueville’s works contributed to the enunciation of political criticism in Greece and Romania. The apex of the appeal and impact of French liberal and constitutional ideas in Southeastern Europe came with the 1848 revolutionary movement in the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia. In the twentieth century two towering personalities in political and intellectual life in Greece and Romania, Eleftherios Venizelos and Nicolae Iorga, acknowledged both the critical significance of the contribution of France in the attainment of the national aspirations of their respective countries and the weight of French civilization in shaping their cultural traditions since the Middle Ages.