Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia

Ernest ScottProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.3
Word count
494K words
Chapters
50

Tags

English Originals World History Historical ReappraisalImperial RivalryExpeditionArchive ResearchSocial Observation

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Terre Napoleón; a History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia by ScottAuthor: Scott, Ernest, Sir, 1868-1939,Language: English, Class: DU: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: History of Oceania (South Seas), Release Date: Feb 1, 2005

Editor's review

This book is Ernest Scott's historical work on French exploration and colonial projects in Australia; the title Terre Napoléon points to the Napoleonic-era French imagination of and designs on southern Australia. Its value lies in bringing to the fore a perspective often overlooked in English-language narratives: how French voyagers, scientific expeditions, and colonial schemes intersected with British expansion in Australia. As a historian, Scott works with voyage records, planning documents, and imperial rivalry; the narrative is academic and information-dense, suited to readers interested in the history of maritime exploration, imperial contest, and early Australian history. Because this is a public-domain electronic edition without maps or annotations, readers had best come with some grasp of Australian geography; the returns will be noticeably greater.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Start with the table of contents and introduction to establish the timeline and main figures before the main text
  2. Keep an Australian map at hand and mark the bays, straits, and place names mentioned
  3. Record French plans alongside concurrent British actions to build comparative notes

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50

FAQ

Is this book mainly about France or Britain? The main thread is French exploration and colonial projects in Australia, but the background is inseparable from Anglo-French rivalry. British expansion in Australia comes into the account; readers should understand it as imperial rivalry history from a French perspective, not simply a French voyage narrative.
Can I read it without a history background? Yes, but it will be demanding. Scott writes academically, and this edition has no annotations or maps. It is advisable first to grasp the general outline of Australian colonization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and to have a map ready; otherwise it is easy to get lost among people and place names.
What does Terre Napoléon in the title refer to? It refers to a Napoleonic-era French naming and imagining of southern Australia, connected to French exploration and colonial designs. The specific reference and extent should be judged from the book's account; do not over-infer from the title alone.

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About the author

Ernest Scott Author · Australian · 1867–1939

Sir Ernest Scott (1867–1939) was born in Northampton, England, and moved to Australia in 1892. He was an Australian historian who focused on French maritime exploration and colonial projects in Australia and the Pacific. His major works, Terre Napoléon: A History of French Explorations and Projects in Australia, Laperouse, and The Life of Captain Matthew Flinders, draw on rigorous sources to trace the journeys of navigators and their historical contexts, in a solid and clearly narrated style. From 1913 he was Professor of History at the University of Melbourne, where he trained many historians, and he was knighted in 1939. Three of his works are held in this collection. Public information is limited, so biographical details are omitted here, with emphasis placed on his exploration histories as a reflection of his scholarly profile.