French Literature Reviews - 2026
Andrea Daher, Les singularités de la France équinoxiale. Histoire de la mission des pères capucins au Brésil (1612-1615)
History, Politics and Society
Andrea Daher
Les singularités de la France équinoxiale. Histoire de la mission des pères capucins au Brésil (1612-1615)
Paris, Classiques Garnier, coll. Géographies du monde, 2022 (reprint of the 2002 edition)
This study of the Capuchin experience in Equinoctial France sheds light on the specific methods of Christianization and Westernization employed in this French mission to Brazil—a colonial enterprise born from the messianic dreams that pervaded the French monarchy in the wake of the Wars of Religion.
Andrea Daher examines the colonial project known as Equinoctial France, focusing on the historical records of the Capuchin mission in seventeenth-century Brazil. Situated within the broader currents of early modern expansion and religious zeal, the volume explores how French missionaries sought to implement specific methods of Christianization and Westernization in the New World. This analysis sheds light on the intersection of religious conversion, political ambition, and geographical imagination during a crucial period of overseas exploration.
The study is particularly valuable for historians and scholars interested in early modern colonialism, transatlantic exchanges, and the ideological underpinnings of the French monarchy. By revisiting the primary sources of the 1612-1615 mission, Daher offers a nuanced perspective on the complex realities faced by European religious orders in non-European territories. It serves as an essential resource for understanding how messianic aspirations translated into administrative and spiritual practices in the early colonial era.