Un penseur géostratégique avant la lettre : le baron de Tott

Abstract

François de Tott was a French diplomat and military expert of Hungarian origins. In 1755 he was sent to Constantinople to learn the Turkish language and to gather information about the Ottoman Empire. He returned to France in 1763, and three years later was sent to Neuchâtel as a secret agent by the French government. In 1767, he was appointed French consul in Crimea with a secret mission to incite the Tatars to make war against Russia. After having completed his mission, he left Crimea and moved to Constantinople where he was commissioned by the Ottoman government with the task of defending the Dardanelles against the Russian fleet. After his military success, he played a major role in the modernisation of the Ottoman warfare during the Russo-Turkish War (1768-1774). He also built fortifications on the Bosporus and founded a new mathematics and naval science school. In 1775 he returned to France and was involved in plans for the colonisation of some territories of the Ottoman Empire (such as Egypt). During his last oriental mission (1777-1778) he visited coastal cities around the Mediterranean Sea and elaborated military plans for the occupation of Egypt. This study analyses his works and projects from the point of view of geostrategic thought.