The Political Thought of Anacharsis Cloots

Scholars interpret the French Revolution as the beginning of nationalism. However, 19th-century scholars emphasised its cosmopolitanism with several actors. Two foreigners who received French citizenship, Anacharsis Cloots (1755-1794) and Thomas Paine (1737-1809), developed a universal republic. What were their ideas and how can we understand them in the intellectual and political context of their time? After presenting the first biography of Cloots in English, I explore the culture of pamphlets and oratory styles in order to demonstrate why we should take Cloots and Paine’s thought seriously. I then present the role of reason and science in constituting a universal solution. The debates of natural law and humanity are the paradigms that form any political thought in the eighteenth century. Finally, I show how their cosmopolitanism could be reconciled with republicanism, a tradition of thought limited to small states. In conclusion, I summarise how they debated cosmopolitan republicanism in the late eighteenth century and what we can learn from this. By arguing for the historical origins of cosmopolitan republicanism in the French Revolution, this book offers an alternative to the Kantian model for political theorists.