Civilisation and Colonisation: Enlightenment Theories in the Debate between Diderot and Raynal

The Enlightened theory of civilization was expressed through the formula of “doux commerce”: it described a form of commerce, which acknowledged the need of conquest of non-European lands and nations to Europeans, and the opportunity to imitate European civilization to other peoples. Montesquieu was the first to express this idea speaking of the “projet sensé” of Alexander the Great and condemning the Spanish conquest and empire. In the Histoire des deux Indes, this idea was dramatically discussed: Raynal wanted to defend it; Diderot dismantled this project showing that civilization was but the mask of violent conquest. In this way he offered an extraordinary refutation of both Enlightened ideology and its strategy of civilization.