A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century

How France's elites used soft power to pursue their imperial ambitions in the nineteenth century

After Napoleon's downfall in 1815, France embraced a mostly informal style of empire, one that emphasized economic and cultural influence rather than military conquest. A Velvet Empire is a global history of French imperialism in the nineteenth century, providing new insights into the mechanisms of imperial collaboration that extended France's power from the Middle East to Latin America and usher...