Abstract

The authoress remaps the main concept of Europe, as it was construed in XVIII by French Enlightment. Historical discourse, the concept of "civilisation" and the specular relation with the East (or with the figure of the 'savage') on one hand, and the works of Montesquieu and Voltaire on the other, offer two different viewpoints that concur in showing how European identity emerges as functional both to the production of universal concepts and the colonial and imperialist expansionism of European 19th century foreign policy.