The essay deals with the conduct of the Congregation de Propaganda fide during two crises (1679-86 and 1794-95) provoked by four apostolic missionaries due to their anti-slavery positions: the four Capuchin missionaries doubted the doctrine of "just title servitude", preached, and acted-while giving no absolutions to slaves' owners-against the slave trade and against the exploitation of Native Americans and Africans in the Americas, the Antilles and on the coasts of West-Central Africa. The Capuchins were silenced by various players in the overseas empires and in Europe. Their questioning of slavery provoked divergent and opposing reactions in Rome, as the Congregation of the Holy Office, Propaganda fide, and the popes had different and uneven reactions, taking different decisions for or against slavery.
Between the autumn of 1843 and the spring of 1844, relations between the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Regency of Tunis experienced a sharp deterioration. Driven by commercial disputes and exacerbated by the intransigence of both parties, this crisis had several repercussions on Tunisian politics and the relations of Tunisia with great powers, such as France and Great Britain, who were engaged in a fierce contest for influence over the country. After a paragraph dedicated to the relations between Sardinia and Tunisia from 1816, the article will present the events of the crisis-its causes, development and final mediation-through analysis of documents preserved in Italian, French, British and Tunisian archives. These events also highlight the influence gained by Ligurian merchants in Tunis and their ability to affect the actions of the consulate and of the Sardinian government.
Bonaparte's expedition to Egypt was fundamental for the change in relations between Europe, the Middle East and South Asia at the end of the 18th century; moreover, it is proof of Bonaparte's colonial dream: to expel the British from the Indian subcontinent. This article examines the controversial question of continuity of the French policy in South Asia, a major theatre of the French-British global rivalry throughout the 18th century. In this regard, Charles-Stanislas Lefebvre (1770-1849), nephew of the famous Pierre Pigneau de Behaine and aide-de-camp to General Decaen, writes some intelligent and original considerations about the strategic importance of India in the global struggle between France and Great Britain. He witnesses France's & laquo;Indian dream & raquo;, a dream that lives on despite the failure of Bonaparte's adventure in Egypt.
This article reflects on the historiographical and methodological dimensions of the book by Anastasia Stouraiti War, Communication, and the Politics of Culture in Early Modern Venice, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2023.
Aiming to reconstruct the health issues arising from the increasing use of pesticides in the Italian countryside in the second half of the 20th century, this article offers an overview of the history of the harmfulness of agricultural labor in its most intensely industrialized phase, while delving into the actions undertaken by institutions to reform prevention regulations. In this perspective, the relations that took place between health institutions and trade unions in the season of regional decentralization and the establishment of the National Health Service are analyzed. Looking at the strategies contracted in the health-environment field by the various actors involved, the research proposes a provisional balance of the initiatives adopted in the field of prevention of work-related diseases in rural areas.
