Back to Previous Page

Curtis Sarles

Theories of state formation recognize that nation-states gained influence in citizens' everyday lives during the nineteenth century, but disagree about the reasons and mechanisms behind this change. One influential line of thought, represented by Tocqueville, contends that the absolutist period was the crucial time for the nation-state’s infrastructural expansion. Another, represented by James Scott, contends that modernizing states were excessively ambitious and had to incorporate elements of local knowledge in order to succeed. Using the case of France's nineteenth century forest policy, this study argues against prior accounts. It provides an account of the French state's infrastructural power and contends that the nineteenth century was the period when the state gained the ability to transform the everyday lives of citizens. This newfound power was not, however, gained by taking on elements of local knowledge. Instead, the state created its own forms of knowledge along with institutions to promote them. These institutions gave the state extensive knowledge of local terrain, and promoted practices that supplanted prior forms of local knowledge.  

To explain how the state gained the ability to transform the national territory, this study considers the afforestation of the Landes, a vast region in southwest France that was threatened with desertification at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Counter to the argument that the state had to take on elements of local knowledge for its policies to succeed, it shows that the cessation of local land management strategies allowed the state’s afforestation effort to succeed where other efforts had failed. Moreover, contrary to the argument that reversibility and incremental advance are the hallmarks of effective land management policy, the state’s decision to drain and afforest the entirety of the Landes was the key to the project’s success.  

Along with this example of land management, the study considers the forms of knowledge underlying the state’s policies and the institutional production of this knowledge. Two nineteenth-century innovations allowed the state to increase its infrastructural power: first, regarding forests as resources that could be created or consumed, as opposed to stationary places serving a variety of local needs; second, creating techniques to maximize the productivity of these resources. These innovations were advanced by durable institutions created by the state, notably the elite schools (grandes écoles) dedicated to forestry and civil engineering. Through examining the activities of these schools, the study builds a theory of how infrastructural power is created, focusing on the following activities: civic structures, land management techniques, police functions, and public relations.  

The conclusion of this study relates the foregoing analysis to previous theories of state-formation. It argues that the transformation of nature is an essential domain of the nation-state’s expansion, and that this transformation must be considered alongside finance, war, and economic expansion in studying the rise of nation-states. In addition, it contends that the transformation of nature exemplifies the state’s territorial ambitions and considers how this transformation can be used to unify as well as divide the national territory.  

This study is based on historical sources including departmental and national archives, university archives, state-commissioned studies, legislation, periodicals, biographies, and secondary literature.  

Curriculum Vitae