The Catholic Church and the colonial policy of France during the Revolutionary period of the late XVIII Century
The article examines the problem of the ideological and policy influence of the Church on colonial politics and the establishment of equality during the 1789 Revolution, based on the material of the Parliamentary Archives, memoirs of contemporaries and an extensive body of scientific literature. The author shows that in the first years after the Revolution neither the Church nor the State sought to provide the inhabitants of the colonies with equal rights with the population of the republic, which caused discontent that threatened the success of further revolutionary transformations. It is concluded that the colonial policy did not implement the revolutionary idea of human natural freedom, and the Catholic Church did not advocate the abolition of slavery. Only a few of its representatives, such as Abbot Gregoire, a member of the Society of Friends of Black and an active abolitionist, tried to find a way to enter the colonies and their populations into the new republic.