 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Louis Antoine de Bougainville" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Louis Antoine de Bougainville | |
|---|---|
 Portrait byJoseph Ducreux, 1790 | |
| Born | 12 November 1729 Paris, France |
| Died | 31 August 1811(1811-08-31) (aged 81) Paris, France |
| Buried | The Panthéon, Paris |
| Allegiance |  France |
| Branch | French Army French Navy |
| Years of service | 1750 - 1763 (Army) 1763 - 1811 (Navy) |
| Rank | Maréchal de camp (Army) Vice Admiral (Navy) |
| Battles / wars | |
| Awards | Order of Saint Louis Legion of Honour |
| Alma mater | University of Paris |
| Spouse | Flore de Montendre |
| Children | 4, includingHyacinthe de Bougainville |
Louis-Antoine, Comte de Bougainville (French:[buɡɛ̃vil]; 12 November 1729 – 31 August 1811) was a French military officer and explorer. After having served in theSeven Years' War and theAmerican Revolutionary War, Bougainville later gained fame for his expeditions, including acircumnavigation of the globe in a scientific expedition in 1763, the first recorded settlement on theFalkland Islands, and voyages into the Pacific Ocean.Bougainville Island ofPapua New Guinea as well as the flowering plantBougainvillea are named in his honour.[1][2]
Bougainville was born in Paris on November 12, 1729, the youngest of three children to Marie-Françoise d'Arboulin and Pierre-Yves de Bougainville. His father had entered into theminor nobility due to his service as notary for the state and his mother died when he was five. He was then raised by his older brother Jean-Pierre with the help of an aunt. His father had pushed his sons to also take up a legal career and Bougainville enrolled in theUniversity of Paris. While here, he took an interest in philosophy and mathematics, studying under mathematicianJean le Rond d'Alembert.[3]
At the age of twenty five, Bougainville published the first volume of his treatise on integral calculus,Traité de calcul intégral. His work was presented to theFrench Academy of Sciences and he received the patronage of Academy member and War Minister, theComte d’Argenson. Several years later in 1756 he published the second volume and that same year he was made a member of theRoyal Society of London while in England on a diplomatic mission.[1][3]
After graduating, Bougainville decided on a military career rather than a legal one and in 1750 he entered theFrench Army in the corps ofMusketeers of the Guard. He was later madeadjutant of the Régiment de Picardie and was recommended to GeneralFrançois de Chevert, serving as his aide-de-camp. In October 1755 he was appointed as the secretary ofMaréchal de Lévis-Mirepoix on his diplomatic mission to London before returning to France in February 1756. He continued to serve under the command of Cheveret and was promoted to lieutenant in the Régiment d’Apchon.[1]
In 1756, Bougainville was stationed in Canada as captain of dragoons andaide-de-camp to theMarquis de Montcalm. He took an active part in thecapture of Fort Oswego in 1756 and the 1757Battle of Fort William Henry. He was wounded in 1758 at thesuccessful defense ofFort Carillon. He sailed back to France the following winter, under orders from the marquis to obtain additional military resources for the colony. During this crossing, he continued to learn about the ways of the sea, skills that would later serve him well. Having distinguished himself in the war against Britain, Bougainville was rewarded with theCross of St Louis and promoted to colonel. When he returned to Canada the following year, he had gained few supplies. The metropolitan officials had decided that, "When the house is on fire, one does not worry about the stables".[citation needed]
During the pivotal year of 1759 (seeSeven Years' War andFrench and Indian War), Bougainville participated in the defence of fortifiedQuebec, the capital ofNew France. With a small elite troop under his command, among which were theGrenadiers and theVolontaires à cheval, he patrolled the north shore of theSt. Lawrence River, upstream from the city; he prevented the British several times from landing and cutting communications withMontreal. He did not have sufficient time, however, to rally his troops and attack the British rear when they successfully ascended thePlains of Abraham and attacked Quebec on 13 September.
Following the death of the Marquis de Montcalm and the fall of Quebec on 18 September 1759 – after the colonel's aborted attempt to resupplythe besieged city – Bougainville was dispatched to the western front by his new commanding officer, theChevalier de Lévis. He attempted to stop thethree-pronged attack against Montréal from his entrenchments atÎle-aux-Noix. He was among the officers who accompanied Lévis toSaint Helen's Island off Montreal for the last French stand in North America before the general capitulation of September 1760. Of the war, Bougainville wrote in his journal: "It is an abominable kind of war. The very air we breathe is contagious of insensibility and hardness".[4]
Shipped back to Europe along with the other French officers, all deprived of military honors by the victors, Bougainville was prohibited by the terms of surrender from any further active duty against the British. He spent the remaining years of the Seven Years' War (1761 to 1763) as a diplomat, helping to negotiate theTreaty of Paris. Under this France ceded most of New France east of the Mississippi River to Great Britain.
After the peace, the French decided to colonise the "Îles Malouines" (theFalkland Islands) in theSouth Atlantic. These islands were at that time almost unknown. At his own expense, Bougainville undertook the task of resettlingAcadians who had been deported to France by the British because of their refusal to sign loyalty oaths.
On 15 September 1763, Bougainville set out from France with the frigateL'Aigle (Eagle) (captained by Nicolas Pierre Duclos-Guyot) and the sloopLe Sphinx (Sphinx) (captained by François Chenard de la Giraudais).[5] This expedition included the naturalist and writerAntoine-Joseph Pernety (known as Dom Pernety), the priest and chronicler accompanying the expedition, together with the engineer and geographer Lhuillier de la Serre.[6]
The expedition arrived in late January 1764 in French Bay (later renamed Berkeley Sound) in theFalkland Islands. They landed atPort Louis, named after KingLouis XV. A formal ceremony of possession of the Islands was held on 5 April 1764, after which Bougainville and Pernety returned to France. Louis XV formally ratified possession on 12 September 1764.[5]
Although the French colony did not number more than 150 people, for financial motivations (Bougainville having paid for the expeditions) and diplomatic reasons (Spain feared that the Falklands would become a rear base to attack her Peruvian gold), Bougainville was ordered by the French government to dismantle his colony and sell it to the Spanish. Bougainville received 200,000 francs in Paris and an additional 500,000 francs in Buenos Aires. Spain agreed to maintain the colony in Port Louis, thus preventing Britain from claiming title to the islands.[5] Spain had claimed dominion before the French settlement in association with its colonies on the mainland. On 31 January 1767 atRío de la Plata, Bougainville met Don Felipe Ruiz Puente, commanding the frigateLa Esmeralda andLa Liebre ("the Hare") and future governor of Islas Malvinas, to transfer possession and evacuate the French population.
Bougainville wrote:
It was not before 1766, that the English sent a colony to settle in Port de la Croisade, which they had namedPort Egmont; and captain Macbride, of the Jason frigate, came to our settlement the same year, in the beginning of December. He pretended that these parts belonged to his Britannic majesty, threatened to land by force, if he should be any longer refused that liberty, visited the governor, and sailed away again the same day.[7]
In 1766, Bougainville received from Louis XV permission tocircumnavigate the globe. He would become the 14th navigator, and the first Frenchman, to sail around the world (though some are led to believe that Richard of Normandie, who was part of the fleet of Ferdinand Magellan during his circumnavigation, was the first Frenchman to do so). Completion of his mission bolstered the prestige of France following its defeats during theSeven Years' War. This was the first expedition to circumnavigate the globe with professional naturalists and geographers aboard.
Bougainville leftNantes on 15 November 1766 with two ships:Boudeuse (captain : Nicolas Pierre Duclos-Guyot) and theÉtoile (commanded by François Chenard de la Giraudais). This was a large expedition, with a crew of 214 aboardBoudeuse and 116 aboardÉtoile. Included in the party was the botanistPhilibert Commerçon (who named the flowerBougainvillea) and his valet. Commerson's valet was later revealed to be a womanJeanne Barret (also Baré or Baret); she would become the first woman known to circumnavigate the globe. Other notable people on this expedition were the astronomerPierre-Antoine Veron; the surgeon ofBoudeuse Dr. Louis-Claude Laporte; the surgeon of theÉtoile Dr. François Vives; the engineer and cartographer aboard the Étoile Charles Routier de Romainville; and the writer and historian Louis-Antoine Starot de Saint-Germain.[6]
He saw islands of theTuamotu group on the following 22 March, on 2 April saw the peak ofMehetia and visited the island ofOtaheite shortly after. He narrowly missed becoming their discoverer; a previous visit and claim had been made by British explorerSamuel Wallis inHMSDolphin less than a year previously. Bougainville claimed the island for France and named itNew Cythera. During this part of his expedition, one of his crew members,Jeanne Barret, was discovered to be a woman and confessed.[citation needed]
His expedition left Tahiti and sailed westward to southernSamoa and theNew Hebrides, then on sightingEspiritu Santo turned west still looking for theSouthern Continent. On 4 June he almost ran into heavy breakers and had to change course to the north and east. He had almost found theGreat Barrier Reef. He sailed through what is now known as theSolomon Islands but, because of the hostility of the people there, avoided landing. He namedBougainville Island for himself.[citation needed] The expedition was attacked by people fromNew Ireland so the French expedition made for theMoluccas. AtBatavia, they received news ofWallis andCarteret who had preceded Bougainville in discovering Tahiti.
On 16 March 1769, the expedition completed its circumnavigation and arrived atSaint-Malo. It had lost only seven of its 340 crew, an extremely low level of casualties. This result was considered a credit to the enlightened management of the expedition by Bougainville.[8]
Bougainville brought to France a Tahitian namedAhutoru who volunteered to come with him. In France, Bougainville introduced Ahutoru to the high society, including introducing him to the King and Queen atVersailles. Bougainville also underwrote part of the costs for Ahutoru's return to Tahiti after a two-year absence. The voyage took place underMarion Dufresne, but Ahutoru died en route ofsmallpox in October 1771.[8]: 122–123
In 1771, Bougainville published his travel log from the expedition under the titleLe voyage autour du monde, par la frégateLa Boudeuse, et la flûteL'Étoile (a.k.a.Voyage autour du monde andA Voyage Around the World). The book describes the geography, biology and anthropology ofArgentina (then a Spanish colony),Patagonia,Tahiti, andIndonesia (then aDutch colony). The book was a sensation, especially the description of Tahitian society. Bougainville described it as an earthly paradise where men and women lived in blissful innocence, far from the corruption of civilization.
Bougainville's descriptions powerfully expressed the concept of thenoble savage, influencing theutopian thoughts of philosophers such asJean-Jacques Rousseau before the advent of theFrench Revolution.Denis Diderot's bookSupplément au voyage de Bougainville retells the story of Bougainville's landing on Tahiti, narrated by an anonymous reader to one of his friends. Diderot used his fictional approach, including a description of the Tahitians as noble savages, to criticize Western ways of living and thinking.[8]: 117, 121
After several years of absence, Bougainville again accepted a naval command. In 1777, he was captain of the74-gunBien-Aimé.[9] He took part in theWar of American Independence, playing a crucial part in the French victory at theBattle of the Chesapeake.
At theBattle of the Saintes, Bougainville commanded the 80-gunAuguste. He managed to rally eight ships of his own division, and bringing them safely intoSaint Eustace after the defeat ofComte de Grasse. He was promoted tochef d'escadre. When he re-entered the French Army, he was commissioned asmaréchal de camp.
AfterPeace of Paris in 1783, Bougainville returned to Paris. He obtained the place of associate of theAcadémie de Marine. He proposed a voyage of discovery to theNorth Pole, but did not gain the support of the French government.
In 1787, he became a member of theFrench Academy of Sciences. He obtained the rank of vice-admiral in 1791.
In 1794, having escaped from theReign of Terror, he retired to his estate inNormandy. Returning to Paris, he was one of the founding members of theBureau des Longitudes. In 1799,Napoleon Bonaparte, at the time serving asFirst Consul of the Republic, made him a senator. He died in Paris on 31 August 1811, during Napoleon's reign of theFirst French Empire.
The heart of Louis Antoine De Bougainville is buried at the Cimetière du Calvaire in Paris, the rest of his body is buried at thePanthéon, also in Paris.
Notes
References
Bibliography
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
| People | |
| Other | |
