Making history: exploring the diplomatic archives of the Quai d'Orsay
When recent events fade into the past, to recapture and to understand those events and their place as historical record, we need looks to contemporaneous documents to get a clear picture of what has happened.
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For France and its diplomatic history, it is possible to do that through the many archives located all over France. Take the example of the diplomatic archives of the Quai d'Orsay (the French ministry for foreign affairs) now located in two locations - in La Courneuve in the suburbs of Paris, and in Nantes.
Stored on150 kilometres of shelves, the documents are housed in two buildings that are as discreet as they are mysterious by virtue of the historical treasures they contain.
'Lets make history'
And RFI has been given access to them.
On the back of that access, in 2022, RFI is taking a look at some of these archives and will present them in a multimedia dossier under the global banner Faisons de l'Histoire, or Let’s Make History.
The dossier will be published in ten different languages, and gives RFI the opportunity to offer a number of different perspectives on some of these French diplomatic archives and audiovisual content.
By doing this, it will be possible to illustrate events that the language services will undoubtedly be looking at in the course of their regular work on our radio stations and through our digital environments.
Five centuries of archives
The documents stored in these archives represent more than five centuries of content generated by French diplomacy, notably one million files, 500,000 books, and 300,000 photos across the two sites.
The documents of the central administration, including correspondence, dispatches, notes, telegrams, newspapers, memoranda, or legal acts are all stored at La Courneuve. Of note here is the 25,000 bilateral or multilateral treaties stored here.
Meanwhile, documents generated through diplomatic posts, including mandates from the Levant – the approximate historical geographical term referring to a large area in the eastern Mediterranean region of western Asia – as well as documents form the Protectorates of Tunisia and Morocco created in 1881 and 1912 respectively, are stored in Nantes.
Initially mooted by former French foreign affairs minister Hubert Védrine, and finally inaugurated in 2009 by the then minister for foreign and European affairs, Bernard Kouchner, the documents were gathered from a dozen other sites and brought to the site at La Courneuve in the suburbs of Paris
In doing so, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has built a 20,000 square metres single source of information on France’s historical interactions with the world around it.
While this is a goldmine for historians - it now attracts 2,000 researchers every year - it is also open to members of the general public who can use the large reading room and other auditoriums and exhibition halls.
So, what is the interest for journalists? Are the archives history, or current affairs What kind of relations does France have with the world? And what new frontiers open up by pushing back ever further the boundaries that separate the present from the past? It remains to be seen over the coming year.
Ten languages, ten subjects
This year, like every year, will undoubtedly be dotted with commemorations and anniversaries both recent and historical which still resonates with us.
Each of RFI's ten foreign-language services will take a look at one of those anniversaries, which will enable us to go back in time, and examine cardinal events over the past century.
And the subjects RFI language services will cover?:
The Chinese service will remember the accession to power of Xi Jinping in 2012 and ten years later with Séverine Arsène, a sinologist and digital specialist at the Media Lab of Sciences Po in Hong Kong, will ask how Chinese totalitarianism is responding to the digital.
The Brazilian service will look at the accession to power in 2002 of Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, known as Lula, and why twenty years later, in the middle of a Brazilian election year, Camille Goirand, a professor of political science and a specialist in Brazil, says it is still possible to talk about clashes of populisms.
The English service will examine the Maastricht Treaty of 1992, and thirty years later, ask Olivier de France, a specialist in European geopolitics, if it is still necessary to choose between a Europe of Nations and the United States of Europe.
The Romanian service will remember the Tanase Affair in 1982, and forty years later ask Traian Sandu, a historian specialising in Romania, whether it played a pivotal role in the changing relationship between East and West?
The Vietnamese-language editors will remember the Linebacker bombings of 1972, and now, fifty years later, interview Gaidz Minassian, journalist and writer, on the ravages of the Cold War, and the role Vietnam in this context.
The Spanish service will return to the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, and asks Emilia Robin, a specialist in the Cold War, and Leila Latrèche, a specialist on Cuba and the USSR, whether a return to the Cold War is still possible?
The Persian services looks at the chaotic rise and fall of Mohammad Mossadegh in 1952, and asks Yvonnick Denoel, a historian specialising in intelligence about this first intervention of the CIA against a state.
The Russian services looks at the battle of Stalingrad in 1942, and talks to Jean Lopez director of Guerres & Histoire, on the real price of this victory.
The Portuguese service remembers the ascent of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar in 1932, and asks Yves Leonard, historian, and specialist on Portugal about what Salazarism brings to Portuguese-speaking history.
Finally, the Cambodian service will look at the birth of Norodom Sihanouk in 1922, and questions Marie Aberdam, a historian specialising in Cambodia, about the resistance to the suppression of the Khmer monarchy, the Cambodian people, and the ruins of Angkor.
In sum, over the course of this year RFI's foreign-language newsrooms collectively examine a century of world history and events that shaped the modern world.
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