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Abstract The origin and formation of the modern state is one of the most widely discussed topics in contemporary humanities and social sciences across both Chinese and Western academic circles. In the field of French historiography, historians such as Fran?ois Guizot, Gabriel Monod, and Bernard Guenée have successively offered interpretations on the origins of modern France. This paper focuses on the following questions: How have French historians from different eras viewed the origins of the modern French state? What transformations have occurred in the historical narratives concerning this issue?
After the French Revolution, romanticist historians like Guizot provided initial interpretations of the origins of the modern French state. They traced the formation and development of the Third Estate, arguing that the modern French state emerged during the High Middle Ages. Their interpretations reflected their inheritance and promotion of the revolutionary spirit. In the late 19th century, positivist historians represented by Ernest Lavisse posited that the modern French state originated in the Late Middle Ages. This perspective emerged against the backdrop of the Franco-Prussian War and exemplified the nationalist characteristics of positivist historiography. In short, from the first half of the 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, French historians’ narratives on the origins of the modern French state underwent a shift from class struggle narratives to nation-state narratives.
In the 1960s, the state officially emerged as a subject of study in history, and the origins of the modern state became a topic of great academic interest. This academic phenomenon originated against the backdrop of the global political and social upheavals of the mid-20th century, reflecting the extension and innovation of traditional French political history research in the first half of the 20th century, and mirroring the shift towards social-state studies in the global social sciences at that time. This wave of research into “state history”, led by scholars such as Bernard Guenée, Philippe Contamine, and Colette Beaune, saw the following research hotspots: First, the history of the state’s monopoly on violence. Beginning in the late Middle Ages, Western European political entities began to attempt to establish standing armies, police forces, and other instruments of violence, and abolished the conscription rights of local nobles. This model helped countries like France gain an advantageous position in the early modern military-political competition. Second, the history of the formation of bureaucracy. In the early and Middle Ages, court officials were typically nobles from various regions. In the late Middle Ages, various highly educated minor nobles and citizens began to serve in the court. They excelled in professional skills such as document writing and legal proceedings, and gradually developed these skills to serve the state and the monarch. This phenomenon signifies the rise of modern bureaucratic systems in Western Europe. Third, the emergence of national consciousness and the formation of the concept of the state. Beginning in the 14th century, the conflict between church and state, the crisis of succession to the throne, and the crisis of the Hundred Years’ War successively occurred in France. To cope with these crises, jurists and political theorists unearthed theories or symbols with Frankish characteristics from the Trojan Myth, such as the Salic Law and the lily. By the 15th century, France’s original beliefs were destroyed in the Hundred Years’ War, while new beliefs emerged during this period. These changes signify the beginning of the distinctiveness of French culture. This study elucidates the construction trajectory of modern France from a certain perspective and overturns the conclusion of previous historians that “the modern state originated in the High Middle Ages”. From a research perspective, the above research clearly reflects the influence of classical sociological theories of the state.
In the 1980s and 90s, influenced by the postmodern cultural turn, power studies, symbolic studies, and discourse studies began to frequently appear in disciplines such as sociology and anthropology. Concepts originating from cultural studies, such as landscape, field, capital, public sphere, and public opinion, became popular social science terms during this period and inevitably entered the historical field of vision. Historians, represented by Claude Gauvard and Mattéoni began to use the new achievements of social science theory to try to explain the origins of the modern French state in the late Middle Ages from the perspectives of the construction of the modern political field and the monopoly of symbolic violence. Gauvard pointed out that in the late Middle Ages, the state gradually extended its power into the judicial system by claiming to “maintain order, reduce crime, defend peace, and stop violence and revenge”. From the perspective of judicial practice, this approach effectively curbed the escalation of private violence and acts of revenge; from the perspective of state history, it reflected the transformation from a judicial order dominated by medieval church ideology to one led by secular governments, signifying the gradual extension of state power into the populace and society through the instrument of justice . The final result was that “the state itself was formed, and the relationships between people changed”, and “the monarchy declared itself the supreme power”. Besides the judiciary, the expansion of symbolic state power was also reflected in various fields such as auditing. According to the interpretations of the origins of the modern French state by scholars such as Gauvard and Mattéoni, consistent with their mentor Grenache, they also believe that the modern French state originated in the late Middle Ages. However, in terms of research approach, they deviated from Guenée’s initial research assumptions; instead, they drew more inspirations from modern social science theories influenced by cultural studies. In the “postmodern” era of academic research in the latter half of the 20th century, scholars began to emphasize the symbolic significance of the state. From this perspective, this represents a breakthrough from Guenée’s structuralist historiography and constitutes an important link in lineage of the “cultural turn” in humanities and social science research in the second half of the 20th century.
As can be seen from the above, this history of interpreting the origins of the French state, spanning over a century, has yielded a vast amount of academic achievements. How should we approach this academic history? I believe that, firstly, the history of interpreting the question of the origins of the state reflects the deepening interdisciplinary collaboration between history and social sciences, and also demonstrates the efforts of historical research to gradually break free from the influence of political power and gradually achieve scientific legitimacy. For the social sciences, the continuous production and updating of knowledge about the history of the state provides them with diachronic knowledge about humanity and society. This diachronic knowledge not only provides factual evidence for their research but also helps them to constantly reflect on the limitations of existing research paradigms. The study of the history of the state has constructed the knowledge foundation for the “rediscovery of the state” trend in Western sociology and political science. In fact, if the history of the origins of the state is considered a branch of state-building research, then Guenée and his students can be regarded as the earliest scholars to advocate “rediscovering the state.”
Secondly, this history of the construction of “state” knowledge is an excellent example for observing the evolution of history itself. I believe that the problem consciousness, theoretical sources, and evolution of social science trends in historical research are inextricably linked. In the case studies presented in this paper, the emergence of research on the origins of the modern state is closely related to the focus on the “state” as a phenomenon and the construction of state theory by disciplines such as sociology. The shift in state history research from structuralism to post-structuralism/postmodernism in the late 20th century is also closely linked to the changing academic trends in 20th-century French academia. In fact, this academic shift shares a similar time frame and connotation with those seen in French sociology and anthropology. This reminds us that we should adopt a broader academic perspective in contemporary research of historiography, clarifying the relationship between historical research in different periods and contemporary philosophical and social science trends, and defining the lineage of history within the history of modern humanities and social sciences.
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Published: 02 January 2026
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