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Ever since its creation in 1966, ERAP aimed to increase oil from the “franc” zone by diversifying its supply sources. Such an aim became all the more crucial as its acquisitions in the Sahara seemed threatened by tense relations between the French group and Algerian authorities. Still, to secure a share of the world market at that time seemed to a difficult if not an impossible task, the biggest oil-producing spaces having already been occupied by the big corporations called Majors. However, the French state company managed to settle in several oil-producing countries, including Iraq in 1968, until then viewed as a private hunting ground for the Compagnie française des pétroles (CFP). Also, following its failure in Algeria, the Iraq experiment prompted Elf ERAP to set its sights on oil-rich subsaharian African countries and the North Sea. On February 3rd 1968, Elf ERAP signed an agreement with the state oil company INOC to take charge of exploration and exploitation of a part of the territory that was confiscated by the Iraqi government from the powerful Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC). In return for this financial and technical input/support, Elf ERAP would be rewarded with steady supply of Iraqi oil. It was a new kind of partnership termed « service contract ». The latter replaced the old system of concessions and helped the state company succeed in its attempt to penetrate the Middle East. Exploration quickly led to the discovery of oil fields. Production started in 1976 and reached 5 million tons in 1977.This allowed the Elf ERAP, renamed the SNEA, to look with optimism at its energy supply future, the latter being provided in considerable part by the Iraqi market. Surprisingly, however, the French state company backed away from the deal in May 1977, and was replaced by the INOC which took over the project two years before the date planned by the initial contract of 1968. This research project seeks to clarify the operator role played by ERAP in Iraq between 1968 and 1977. To explain the premature departure of Elf Iraq, one needs to determine both the endogenous and exogenous factors that might have motivated such a move. In other words, did the state company suffer the repercussions of its own energy choices, or was the Iraqi oil policy responsible for such an outcome? To what extent was the withdrawal attributable to the international oil situation? With the help of Elf and TOTAL archives, we have come to the conclusion that the compression of the oil market uniting distributors and producers greatly affected the profitability of intermediary contracts « service contracts».

This thesis studies the ways in which infanticide was handled by communities and by the judicial system in New France. It draws on multiple textual and demographic sources, most notably the ten criminal trials for infanticide that occurred in the colony during the Old Regime. The dynamics between the accused, the members of their community and the magistrates during the trials reveal the existence of relations of power and solidarities that characterized collectivities in the early modern period. I therefore examine the roles played by the community in the prosecution of women suspected of infanticide. How did the women and men of New France conceptualize the act? What factors led the community to judicialize infanticide? I also examine the magistrates’ motivations. What goals did they have? What severity did they demonstrate toward accused women? Further, the thesis addresses the resistance that women could exert against these forces. What influence did the accused have on the course of the trials and the sentences pronounced against them? What strategies could they devise and execute in their own defence? Analyzing the role that witnesses played throughout the process illustrates the fundamental participation of the community in the treatment of infanticide as well as the gender and class norms imposed on the accused by their contemporaries (chapter 2). The study of the accused’s strategies and the sentences handed down against them reveals both the weight of the social and marital order reinforced by the judicial institution and the agency shown by the women of New France (chapter 3).

Abstract This thesis focuses on the prevention of early childhood accidents in the Middle Ages. Through the study of three compilations of miracula, we will analyze the thematic of the child that they present. These compilations are the Miracles of the Blessed Virgin by Gautier de Coincy, the Miracles of Nostre-Dame de Chartres by Jean le Marchant and the Rosarius. In this study, we will look at the diversity of normative discourses surrounding this theme. These analyze allow us to take stock of the precautions surrounding children in the Middle Ages. We conclude that the Miracles of Nostre-Dame de Chartres are not representative of the general miracula corpus, cause the miracula it contains present a preventive character more focused on the physical dangers faced by the child.

Based on a comparative study of the communities that migrated from India to French Indochina and British Burma, this thesis examines the place of Indian migrants in these two colonies during the first half of the 20th century. Indian minorities had a special place in the colonial system because of their various legal status, political and economic influence, and intermediary roles. These dynamics and the interest in studying them are illustrated by three specific case studies: 1. the dispute between Indian police officers and the municipality of Saigon in 1907; 2. Negotiations during the separation of Burma from the British Raj in 1935; 3. the repercussions of the 1929 stock market crash on government discourse on these communities and their place in colonial settings. The interaction of Indian minorities with colonial administrations indicates their understanding of imperial workings. They illustrate their skillful navigation of government structures and their mobilization to defend their interests. The analysis of their position as intermediaries highlights how minority communities have used their relationships to bypass lines of authority and power and sheds light on the plurality of hierarchical axes in colonial situations. These three case studies provide a more holistic conceptualization of colonial Indian minorities and support their complexity, highlighting their ambiguous allegiances and how they define and redefine themselves. The colonial authorities' speeches on those communities highlighted the link between the desirability of Indian minorities and Indian minorities and the need for their presence in the two colonies. This thesis helps deepen our understanding of what an empire is and the complex place that groups deemed homogenous and marginal may have occupied within it.

This dissertation focusses on the Breve storia, a medical biography published in September 1744 by physician and anatomist Giovanni Bianchi. This novella recounts the life and autopsy of a young Roman servant, Giovanni Bordoni, known in many villages in Tuscany as an enthusiastic seducer and womanizer, until his death on June 28th, 1743. At this point, when the body is stripped for the autopsy, the physician notes female reproductive organs. In fact, even though Bordoni led his adult life under a male identity, his biological sex becomes a subject of discussions and writings after his death, immortalizing him as a woman with same-sex desires, cross-dressed as a man. However, by delving into sexuality and gender as they were understood in early modern Europe, this dissertation deconstructs two main claims: first, that female same-sex desires were intrinsically linked to clitoral hypertrophy, second, that gender existed only in a strict normative link to the biological sex. Thus, by analyzing the Breve storia and Bianchi’s correspondence with his readers, it is possible to shed light on the diverse ways of naming and understanding female homoeroticism in the 18th century, linking it for example with genital anatomy, psychology, and emotions. This master’s thesis highlights that, while the early moderns considered that gender’s essence is found in sex, they could understand it as sometimes fluid, but also as not fully masculine or feminine.

The French Resistance press was born following the defeat of France and the signing of the armistice with Germany in June 1940. It embodied the will of some French citizens to refuse the occupation and to represent an alternative to Vichy France. In addition to countering official propaganda, the underground newspapers published their vision of the France to be rebuilt in the post-war period. Our master’s thesis analyzes the perception of the Allies in the French Resistance press between 1940 and 1944, in order to highlight the extent to which France's place in the world is visible through the vision shown of the three great powers, who are allies, but who could represent threats after the Liberation. The portraits of the Allies allow us to analyze and understand the plans and concerns of the Resistance. Based on a discursive, diachronic and thematic analysis of the clandestine newspapers, we are able to show that the perception of the Allies evolves during the course of the war, moving from a generally positive view between 1940 and 1942 to a more critical perception in the spring of 1944. At the beginning of the war, the Resistance offered a portrait of the Allies based on their military strength. Nevertheless, from 1943 onwards, it had to protect the population and gain legitimacy. This change strengthened the Resistance and allowed it to gradually impose itself as the authority protecting French interests in the face of Allies whose postwar intentions were increasingly criticized.

This thesis explores the rivalries between Jesuit, Recollect and Sulpician missionaries in the 17th century in New France. Specifically, it examines the polemical discourse about the missionaries, whether it came from religious competitors or from members of the colonial administration. Although these missionaries were all part of a common apostolic project, the sources reveal that different networks were struggling at the time so that some missionaries could enjoy a monopoly over the souls of the colony, while others were relegated to the background. In this nascent Church, several disagreements that raged between these three religious families can help to explain the tensions that we find in their writings. The main issues were the francization of the First Nations and the founding of the bishopric of Quebec. Furthermore, the rivalries between the Jesuits, the Recollects and the Sulpicians went far beyond the spiritual framework and regularly led to commercial issues. Certain missionaries, the Jesuits in particular, were accused throughout the century by various actors of enriching themselves in various ways, and of engaging in the fur trade. Rather than focusing on the veracity of these attacks, this thesis proposes to analyze them and to try to understand their origin and function. These accusations must also be put in relation to the rivalries that the missionaries had to face in their other missions during the same period.

Near the end of the 7th century, in the anglo-saxon world, Aldhelm of Malmesbury published his opus geminatum, the Prosa and Carmen de uirginitate. He dedicated his work to the nuns of the double monastery of Barking, particularly the abbess Hildelith. The De uirginitate is a treaty on virginity, which includes a theoretical part and catalogs of virginal figures found in hagiographical as well as in Biblical sources. Historiography has tended to underestimate the role of these catalogs within the treaty, portraying them as a mere florilegium without logic. This dissertation will propose that the virginal figures mentioned in the catalogs served as exempla. More specifically, we propose that these characters are exemplary figures whose function is to mirror the theoretical part of the De uirginitate. Ald-helm’s treaty will then appear to possess a double function, which is to defend the double monas-teries and the nuns’ authority in an increasingly hostile environment as well as to serve as a guide to sexual renunciation.

The cultivation of hemp in Canada under the French and British Regimes has long attracted the attention of historians. Until recently, the focus has been on repeated attempts by administrators to develop this culture in Canada. Another element remained largely ignored: the discourse formulated by the colonial authorities on the subject of hemp, an agricultural product as unloved by the Canadian peasantry as it was cherished by the colonial administrators. Whether French or British, the official program, centred on naval supplies (hemp was used in particular for the manufacture of sails and ropes) and associated with mercantilist designs, aimed to replace with Canadian hemp that which successive metropolises import from abroad, mainly from Northern Europe. However, this policy responded only with difficulty to colonial conditions. Despite everything, from Quebec, the colonial administrators, both French and English, persisted for a long time in introducing it, devoting long passages to it in their correspondence with the various ministries in Paris or Versailles, and later in London. By listing the obstacles to hemp culture, they developed a fundamentally stereotyped discourse on the Canadian peasantry, and even on the Creole population in general. These images will have a long life, surviving then change of regime at the Conquest and influencing both contemporary authors and the historical narratives that would be produced until the middle of the 20th century. Nevertheless, there was a learning process. It manifested itself in two stages: in the more lucid formulations of the administrators of the late French Regime and, nearly half a century later, in the agronomic discourse emerging in the vicinity of the Colonial Assembly, more sensitive to the possibilities of local agriculture.

The reign of Charles VI (1380-1422) of France is characterized by several upheavals, the first one being the king's madness, declared in 1392. Despite the military, economic and social crises that shake the kingdom, it is nevertheless a strong time for the establishment of the monarchical State. The instability actually allowed the royal authority to strengthen its positions and to impose its power more effectively, especially in matters of justice. This strengthening is grounded on the Roman law, which had been studied since the 12th century by royal officers, important members of the administration. The present work analyzes the way legal principles inherited from Antiquity are received and engaged in medieval literature to support thoughts on justice. It is based on the study of the writings of four influential royal officers: Nicolas de Clamanges, Jean de Montreuil, Laurent de Premierfait and Guillaume de Tignonville. The concepts borrowed from the classical works are expressed through a double affirmation: a more severe application of royal justice and a more systematic use of the death penalty. If the authors expectations are sometimes incompatible with an exercise of justice guided by clemency, the royal authorities nevertheless tend to sanction more rigorously. The relationship between legal theories and their application is complex, but tends to converge towards the same path, in the context of the affirmation of sovereignty and the fight against crimes that threaten public peace.

In December 1968, Quebec’s provincial government passed two laws introducing universal suffrage in all municipalities on its territory. Residents who are twenty-one or older, provided they were Canadian citizens domiciled in the city for at least a year, were now allowed to vote in the municipal elections. This was also the case for non-residents who owned or rented an apartment block, business, or office in the city. Initially, the City of Montreal refused to abide by the provisions of these laws. It maintained a version of the municipal right to vote on its territory which limited its exercise to certain owners or taxpaying tenants. What was the City's motivation for refusing to follow the provincial government's lead and adopt this reform? My thesis aims to uncover the reasons why the municipality embraced such a choice, which was met at the time with discontent by several activist groups in Montreal. Why limit the exercise of such a fundamental right? To answer this question, I examined the minutes of parliamentary debates, newspaper articles and legislative texts, as well as various historiographical sources. My thesis therefore considers that the City of Montreal supports a form of urban citizenship during the period studied that is meritorious and exclusivist in nature. It opposes the Quebec government’s proposed form of citizenship, which is universal and inclusive but retains certain meritorious characteristics. Furthermore, my thesis argues that Montreal activist groups of the time, grouped within the political party « Front d’action politique », supported a form of urban citizenship that ensured real political equality for Montreal residents, and confronted the political authorities on their definition of citizenship in Montreal.

At the turn of the 19th century, after the fall of the Second Empire, France underwent a period of institutional uncertainty. By trying to consildate the new regime, the founders of the Third Republic engaged the country in a period of colonial expansion. The main promoters of the colonial policy, of which Jules Ferry and Léon Gambetta, try to justify it by integrating universalists republicans principles into the colonial discourse. This method of political persuasion will brought to light its share of contradictions. Historiography on the subject tend to consider that there was a consensus among contemporaries. However, several political actors of the Third Republic will oppose colonial expansion, giving rise to an anti-colonialist current, also inspired by republican thought. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how two different ideological currents, seemingly contradictory, can define their discourse on the basis of the same philosophical roots. Republican ideology is based upon the principles of the Déclaration des droits de l’homme of 1794, which put forward the concepts of equality and liberty. While these principles were upheld in the colonialist discourse, their application in the colonies was constantly put off. In order not to betray their republican heritage, Third Republic thinkers distorted it, through the concepts of « hiérarchie raciale » and « mission civilisatrice ». Colonialist and anti-colonialist speeches will be analyzed in periodicals and contemporary publications, in addition to numerous speeches from the Chambre des députés (Chamber of Deputies). This dissertation examines studies how republican thought supports both colonialist and anti-colonialist discourse. In that perspective, the analysis of the arguments opposing colonization demonstrates that a stable and lasting anti-colonialist current was clearly present under the Third Republic.

This master's thesis examines the creation in the United States of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and its deployment in Europe, and analyzes the relationship that developed between its director, George Creel, and President Woodrow Wilson. The archives used for this research are letters and documents, dated from 1916 to 1920, from the Woodrow Wilson Papers in the Library of Congress in Washington. Upon the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, the government - following a trend of thought emerging in the nineteenth century on the power of public opinion - became aware of the importance of maintaining enthusiasm for the war among its population, which led to the creation of the CPI. This "propaganda" committee was not originally intended to extend beyond American borders. It was only after the revolution in Russia in the fall of 1917 and the fear of seeing this ally leave the war that the idea of exporting American democratic values and Wilsonian ideas around the world took shape in order to keep the allied populations mobilized and prepare the ground for the post-war period. Far from restricting itself to Russia, the committee extended its work to other Entente countries and neutrals, with the aim of eventually reaching the populations of the central empires. An analysis of the exchanges between the President and George Creel highlights the close collaboration between the two men and the interdependence that developed between them during the war. The CPI found in the President a valuable support in order to assert its authority and thus reach a wider public, despite the sharp criticism coming from the diplomatic personnel posted abroad who was suspicious of the committee's objectives and methods. In return, the President benefits from an organization dedicated to showcasing his ideals in the United States and around the world. This dissertation is the first research to examine the work of the CPI on the European continent globally.

This M.A thesis studies the Paris 1900 World’s Fair through the analysis of newspaper articles in La Presse and La Patrie. In doing so, this research situates itself at the crossroads of numerous historiographical fields. In the second half of the 19th century, both the press and the World’s Fair undergo significant changes. These changes affects newspapers in the way they look and are printed, but also in their content. For the World’s Fair, they evolve and culminate in the celebration of the 19th century in Paris in 1900. The changes affecting the press and the World’s Fair beg questions such as : How is the press talking about the presence of Quebec and French Canada at the Fair? What place do the Others take in the press discourse regarding the Fair? Is there a difference between the discourse surrounding the European nations, and those that are viewed as « Oriental » nations at the Fair? Firstly the newspaper articles that make up our body of sources are separated into four different categories: advertising, political articles, entertainment articles and chronicles. This analysis, though not exhaustive, will examine the significance that the Paris 1900 Wold’s Fair had in the La Presse and La Patrie newspapers. Secondly, the discursive analysis of these articles helps us understand the way Canada presents itself at the Fair. The press reveals how the Canadian exhibits were displayed, and consequently how the country tried to present itself on the international stage. The newspaper’s discourse also illustrates Canada’s will to appear on the same level as other euroamerican « civilized » nations, such as France, Germany or even the United- States, both culturally and economically. Also, the newspaper exposes how Canada perceived the Occident and it’s racialized view of other races. The later are often exhibited during the Fair in « human spectacles » that occasionally take place throughout the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. Canada’s presentation of itself at the World’s Fair and the broad strokes of Canada’s ideals at the time, as shown through the newspaper articles, demonstrates unequal racial power relationships stemming from the justification of Occident’s colonial domination grounded in a European scientific racialism.