Brief biography
1729-1755 Early life
Louis-Antoine de Bougainville was born on 12 November 1729, the youngest of the three
children of Pierre-Yves de Bougainville and Marie-Francoise d'Arboulin. It is thought that
the family originally came from the Picardy region of France, north of Paris. A small
village a few kilometres east of Amiens is called Bougainville. They lived at 21 Rue de la
Barre du Bec (later called Rue du Temple) near the Chatelet where Bougainville's father
was a notary. Their first child was Jean-Pierre. who was born in 1722 and he was followed
in 1727 by the only daughter, Marie-Francois, named after her mother. Bougainville's
mother died in 1734 when he was only five and the children's Aunt Charlotte, sister of
their father came to look after them. Apparently Aunt Charlotte ran a strict household.
Among their neighbours was the Herault family who had a son, Jean-Baptiste, the same age
as Louis-Antoine. Partly to avoid his Aunt and partly through the encouragement of Madame
Herault, Louis-Antoine came to regard the Herault household as his home. He would address
Madame Herault as chere maman in letters. The Heraults owned a house at
Beaumont-sur-Oise, just north of Paris, and Bougainville, a keen and accomplished
horseman was a regular visitor.
The school Bougainville attended was the College des Quatres-Nations on the south bank of
the Seine opposite the Louvre. He later went on to the University of Paris. He was devoted
to his elder brother, Jean-Pierre, who was a brilliant scholar and it was through him that
he met many acclaimed and learned members of Paris Society. Among the family's neighbours
were d'Alembert, the mathematician and Encyclopediste, and Clairaut, who helped develop
Bougainville into a pre-eminent mathematician.He wrote mathematical treatises about
calculus, which earned him membership of the British Royal Society.
In 1754, France and Britain were on the point of another war and Bougainville joined the
Picardy militia (the Bougainvilles originally had come from Picardy). Soon, he was appointed
aide-de-camp to General Chevert with the French army near Nancy but after one year he left
the army and travelled to London to serve on the staff of the Marechal de Levis-Mirepoix,
the French Ambassador. Bougainville formed several friendships in his time in London with
people who would soon be on the opposite side in battle. It would prove another short
posting as, in February 1755 he returned to the army and General Chevert.In 1756,
Bougainville's father died. He had risen to become an Echevin or councillor of Paris.
1756-1760 Canada
The war broke out in Canada and Louis-Joseph de Montcalm was appointed to command the French
army. Bougainville had been promoted to Captain and secured the position as aide-de-camp to
Montcalm, They sailed from Brest on the "Licorne" in April, Bougainville's first real taste
of sea travel, to land at Quebec. He soon went on via Fort Frontenac to take part in the
successful assault on Fort Oswego, on the south side of Lake Ontario. Over the next two
years he was present at several famous French victories, including those at Fort George and
Fort Ticonderoga.
In November 1758, Bougainville was sent back to France to report on the state of the French
colony and the war and to ask for reinforcements. Although he had been promoted to Colonel,
he sailed back from France in March 1759 with only 300 extra troops. Within a few months
the British troops under General Wolfe defetaed the French in the war's decisive battle at
Quebec in September 1759. It was Bougainville who negotiated the exchange of prisoners and
wounded.
Over the next year Bougainville tried to defend French forts on the River Richelieu but
withdrew to Montreal, where on 7 September he acted for the French when they surrendered
to General Amherst and the British. It was the end for the French in Canada and
Bougainville returned to France as a prisoner.
1762-1765 Iles Malouines (Falkland Islands)
On his return to France, Bougainville was under parole and could not take active roles in
any miltary activity. His parents were both now dead and he moved to live in the Rue
Neuve-des-Bons-Enfants around the corner from his brother Jean-Pierre who was living
nearby in the in the Rue du Croissant. The brothers visited their sister who had married
Louis-Honorat de Baraudin at her home at Loches near Tours in the Loire Valley.
When he was free from his parole in 1762, Bougainville turned his attention to islands in
the South Atlantic Ocean (known now in English as the Falkland Islands), for which he saw
a strategic role in commanding the route to the Pacific round South America. He persuaded
people to back his enterprise and in September 1763 he sailed with two ships and the first
party of settlers to these islands. They arrived in February 1764 and made the first
settlement at Port Louis. The settlers had come from the French port of St. Malo, hence
the islands being known as the Malouines or Malvinas. Bougainville made a side trip to the
Strait of Magellan to find wood for his settlement. Spain objected to the colony and in
1765, the French agreed to hand it over to the Spanish, which caused the abandonment of
the settlement.
1766-1769 Round the world
December 1766
Bougainville was greatly disappointed that the French gave up the Iles Malouines but soon
had had an idea for another project, an expedition around the world. The Duc du Choiseul,
the Minister of Marine supported this new venture and Bougainville was given two ships and
Government backing. Only one ship was ready so, on 5 December 1766, Bougainville set sail
from Brest on the "Boudeuse" on a voyage that would last 28 months.
The first part of the voyage involved the handing over of the Iles Malouines to the
Spanish so Bougainville sailed south to Montevideo and on to the islands to complete the
formalities. He needed to make contact with his other ship, the "Etoile" and sailed north
to find it at Rio de Janeiro. The "Etoile" under the command of La Giraudais had a
botanist, Commerson, on board who described a plant found in Brazil and named it
Bougainvillea after the expedition's leader. The two ships left Rio and sailed down to
Motevideo where the ships were found to need repairs, which were carried out across the
River Plate near Buenos Aires.
November 1767
They continued south to enter the Strait of Magellan in early December. They took seven
weeks to negotiate the Strait, stopping at Baie de Bougainville (very close to the
southernmost point on the South America mainland on the Peninsula de Brunswick) and Port
Galant.
January-April 1768
Entering the Pacific the ships sailed northwest without seeing any trace of land until
late March when they reached the first of the Tuamotu Archipelago. For the next two weeks
they threaded their way past the atolls to reach the Island of Tahiti on April 6th. The
ships anchored at Hitiaa on the east coast of Tahiti-nui. The stay was peaceful, friendly
and only lasted 9 days. It had, however, tremendous repercussions as the descriptions
of Tahitian life taken back to France were the basis of the concept of the Pacific
Islanders being the "Noble Savage".
May 1768
The French sailed on westward and in early May they sighted the Samoan Islands
(Bougainville called them Iles Navigateurs) but made no attempt to land and sailed to the
south of the islands. After next sailing to the north of Fiji, Bougainville came to the
islands he termed the Archipelago de Cyclades (present day Vanuatu). The Spanish explorer
Quiros had been here 160 years earlier. Five days were given to a brief exploration of the
central islands before sailing on (there is still a Bougainville Strait).
June-July 1768
On 4 June Bougainville was very close to the Australian Great Barrier Reef, just north of
Cairns (there is still a Bougainville Reef), but turned north and six days later he
approached the south coast of New Guinea. The reefs forced him east before he rounded Rossel
Island and headed north once more. The ships called in briefly at the western end of
Choiseul Island before sailing north past an island the crew named Bougainville Island after
their leader. They needed fresh water and put into a harbour at the southern tip of New
Ireland, where they rested for three weeks.
August 1768-March 1769
They had, to all extents and purposes, now crossed the Pacific and were keen to reach
Batavia (Jakarta) and European contact. They skirted the north coast of New Guinea and the
Moluccas to reach Batavia on 28 September. Three weeks later entered the Indian Ocean and
headed for the Ile de France (Mauritius), where they arrived in early November. Several
crew members disembarked here, including Commerson, before the ships left on 12 December.
They were all keen to be home and, after a short stop at the Cape, they headed up the
Atlantic to reach the port of St. Malo, in France, on 12 March 1769.
Bougainville wrote up his journal and it was published to general acclaim in 1771. The
voyage, while it had discovered little new, was deemed a success in that it had returned
intact and with a healthy crew. It had added to French prestige. The naturalists had
discovered and described new plants and animals.
1778-1782 American War of Independence
After his great voyage Bougainville stayed in the French navy and from 1778 took part in
actions during the American War of Independence, in which the French sided with the
Americans against the British. In 1778 he was inlvolved around Boston before sailing south
at the end of the year to the West Indies. Here, in July 1779, he took part in the capture
of Grenada and the sea battle off that island. By August 1779 he was at Savannah and
Charleston on the American coast and in December was back in France. Mid 1781 saw
Bougainville back in American waters and he was praised for his actions during the Battle off
Chesapeake Bay in the August. The French fleet then sailed back to the West Indies and was
beaten at the Battle off the Iles des Saintes between Dominica and Guadeloupe. Bougainville
would receive muchof the blame for the loss and he went into a semi-retirement.
1780-1789 Family life and semi-retirement
In Brittany on 27 November 1780, Bougainville married Flore-Josephe de Montendre from a
Breton naval family and twenty years his junior. The marriage, performed by the Priest
from the Manor of Botderu in Brittany, took place at Kerdreho in Brest. They would have
four sons together. Hyacinthe, the eldest son and who would visit Australia was born in
1783. He was followed by Armand, born 1785, and Alphonse born 1788. In 1780 Bougainville
himself was already over 50 years of age and, though still an active Naval Officer, he was
ready for family life. Bougainville had already purchased a house at La Becquetiere very
close to the Normandy coast at Anneville, near Coutances but it was to another house, La
Brosse just a few kilometres southeast of Paris in the Val de Marne, that Bougainville
soon moved the family. He was elected to the Academie des Sciences in February 1789.
1789-1793 French Revolution
Bougainville like all of France would become involved in the French Revolution. The French
fleet mutinied in 1790 and Bougainville was appointed to restore order. On 30 November he
took over in Brest and though he initially achieved some order he soon realised it was a
hopeless cause and resigned in February 1791. Later that year he was offered the position
of Minister of Marine by the King but declined. Bougainville was back in Paris and had a
house at 56 Rue de Bouloi. He helped defend the King at the Tuileries in June 1792 and
again in August. The Terror was beginning and, fearing for the lives of his family,
Bougainville took them to their house in Normandy. Even here they were not safe and
Bougainville was captured and imprisoned in Coutances. Bougainville arranged for his wife
and children to escape but they were arrested in St. Malo. Before anything else could
happen Robespierre fell and Bougainville was released.
1794-1811 Old age
Bougainville was elected in 1795 to be a member of the Longitudinal Bureau. Napoleon became
a friend and recognised Bougainville's role in French history by making him a Comte,
awarding him the Legion d"Honneur and a pension of 40,000francs.The family's fourth son,
Adolphe, was born In 1799, the Bougainvilles moved from La Brosse a short distance to a
new home at Suisnes in Brie but Louis-Antoine also spent time in Paris. Sadly their second
son, Armand, drowned in the nearby River Yeres on 2 August 1802. Flore-Josephe was affected
deeply by this loss and she never recovered fully before dying four years later on 7 August
1806. By this time Bougainville had moved back to live in Paris. He died on 31 August 1811,
one of only a few explorers to survive to old age and die at home. Bougainville was buried
in the Pantheon though his heart was removed and placed with Flore-Josephe and Armand at
St. Pierre in Montmartre.
The plant bougainvillea was named for him by the Botanist, Commerson, who sailed on the
voyage around the world with Bougainville. Various geographical features around the world
are also named after him including the island between Papua New Guinea and the Solomon
Islands and straits in Vanuatu and Indonesia.
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Links to other Bougainville sites
Select Bougainville Bibliography
- Biographies and accounts of the Voyage
- Boissel, Thierry.Bougainville, ou, L'homme de l'univers. Paris: O.
Orban, 1991.
- Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de.Adventure in the wilderness: the American
journals of Louis Antoine de Bougainville, 1756-1760, translated and edited
by Edward P. Hamilton. Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press, 1964.
- Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de. Voyage autour du monde par la Frigate,
La Boudeuse et La Flute L'Étoile. Paris: La Decouverte, 1997. 2707127094.
- Bougainville, Louis-Antoine de. A Voyage round the world, translated
from the French by John Renhold Forster. Bibliotheca Australiana #12. Amsterdam:
N. Israel, 1967
- Bougainville et ses compagnons autour du monde: 1766-1769, joutnaux de
navigation, etablis et commentes par Etienne Taillemite. 2 vol. Paris:
Imprimerie Nationale, 1977.
- Caseaux, Yves.Dans le sillage de Bougainville et Laperouse.Paris: A.
Michel, 1995.
- Dorsenne,Jean.La Vie de Bougainville.Paris:Gallimard, 1930
- Dunmore, John. French explorers in the Pacific. Volume 1: The Eighteenth
Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1965. (in English)
- L'Importance de l'exploration maritime au Siecle des lumieres: a propos du
voyage de Bougainville: table ronde. organisee par M. Mollat et E.
Taillemite. Paris: Editions de Centre national de la recherche scientifique,
1982
- Kerallain, Rene de. La Jeunesse de Bougainville et la guerre de sept ans.
Paris: Daupeley-Gouverneur, 1896.
- Kimbrough, Mary. Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, 1729-1811: a study in
French naval history and politics. Lewiston: E. Mellen Press, 1990.
0889467447.
- Martin-Allanic, Jean Étienne. Bougainville, navigateur et les découverts
de son temps.2 vol. Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1964.
- Parkman, Francis. France and England in North America. Volume IX: Montcalm
and Wolfe, Part II. New York: Frederick Ungar Publishing, 1965.
- Ross, Michael. Bougainville. London: Gordon & Cremonesi, 1978.
0860330591.
- Taillemite, Étienne. Sur des mers inconnues. Bougainville, Cook,
Laperouse. Paris: Decouvertes Gallimard, 1997. 2070530388.
- Thiéry, Maurice. Bougainville, soldat et marin. Paris: Roger, 1930.
- Touchard, Michel Claude.Les Voyages de Bougainville.Papeete, Tahiti:
Les Editions du Pacifique, 1974.
- Waggaman, Beatrice Elisabeth. Le Voyage autor du monde de Bougainville:
droit et imaginaire. Nancy: Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1992.
286480476X.
- Fiction based upon Bougainville's life
- Brooks, Peter. World elsewhere. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.
0684853337.
- Quefflelec, Henri. La Boudeuse, ou, Le Tour du monde de Bougainville.
Paris: Seghers, 1986. 2232100324.
- Peyramaure, Michel. Pacifique Sud: roman. Paris: Presses de la Cite,
1994. 2258000971.
Proposed Bougainville book
I am preparing material for an atlas about Bougainville showimg all the aspects of his life.
It will take the form of a series of approximately 48 newly prepared maps. The provisional
list of maps will be:
Introduction.
A. Early life and Canada.
| B01 |
1729-1750 |
a |
Childhood in Paris |
| |
|
b |
France |
| |
|
c |
Around Paris |
| B02 |
Mid 1750s |
a |
The Army and London |
| |
|
b |
Moselle |
| B03 |
1756 |
a |
To Canada |
| |
|
b |
Ile Royale and Newfoundland |
| |
|
c |
Brittany |
| B04 |
1750s |
a |
Quebec and St. Lawrence |
| |
|
b |
Quebec |
| B05 |
1750s |
a |
Montreal |
| |
|
b |
Around Montreal |
| B06 |
1756 |
a |
On to Oswego |
| |
|
b |
Fort Frontenac |
| B07 |
1756 |
a |
Oswego |
| |
|
b |
Eastern Lake Ontario |
| B08 |
1757 |
a |
Fort William Henry |
| |
|
b |
River Richelieu |
| |
|
c |
Lake St. Sacrament |
| B09 |
1758 |
a |
Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga) |
| |
|
b |
River Richelieu |
| B10 |
1758-1759 |
a |
To France and back |
| |
|
b |
Lower St. Lawrence River |
| |
|
c |
Paris and Versailles |
| B11 |
1759 |
a |
Battle of Quebec |
| |
|
b |
Around Quebec |
| B12 |
1760 |
a |
French defeat in Canada |
| |
|
b |
Fort Ile-aux-Noix |
| |
|
c |
Fort St. Jean |
| |
|
d |
Fort Chambly |
B. Iles Malouines (Falkland Islands).
| B13 |
1760-1763 |
a |
Under parole in Europe |
| |
|
b |
Bellevue |
| |
|
c |
Bad Hersfeld |
| B14 |
1763-1765 |
a |
To and from the Iles Malouines |
| |
|
b |
Santa Catarina |
| |
|
c |
Montevideo |
| |
|
d |
South American coast |
| B15 |
1764-1765 |
a |
Iles Malouines |
| B16 |
1764-1765 |
a |
Port Louis |
| |
|
b |
Berkeley Sound |
| B17 |
1765 |
a |
Strait of Magellan |
| |
|
b |
Baie de Bougainville |
C. The Voyage. Part I: France to Vanuatu
| B18 |
1766 November-1767 March |
a |
The Voyage south begins |
| |
|
b |
Brittany |
| |
|
c |
River Plate |
| B19 |
1767 March-December |
a |
South Atlantic Ocean |
| |
|
b |
Rio de Janeiro |
| |
|
c |
Berkekley Sound |
| B20 |
1767July-November |
a |
River Plate |
| |
|
b |
Buenos Aires |
| |
|
c |
Punta Lara |
| B21 |
1767 December-1768 January |
a |
Strait of Magellan |
| |
|
b |
Baie de Bougainville (after Bougainville) |
| B22 |
1767 December-1768 January |
a |
Eastern Strait of Magellan |
| |
|
b |
Central Strait of Magellan |
| B23 |
1768 January-April |
a |
Into the Pacific |
| |
|
b |
Western Strait of Magellan |
| |
|
c |
Tuamotu Archipelago |
| B24 |
1768 April |
a |
Nouvelle Cythere (Tahiti) |
| |
|
b |
Tahiti |
| |
|
c |
Hitiaa |
| B25 |
1768 April-May |
a |
Across the Pacific |
| |
|
b |
Central Pacific (after Bougainville) |
| |
|
c |
Futuna |
| B26 |
1768 May |
a |
Samoa |
| |
|
b |
Tau |
| |
|
c |
Tutuila |
| B27 |
1768 May |
a |
Grandes Cyclades (Vanuatu) |
| |
|
b |
Aoba |
| |
|
c |
Bougainville Strait |
D. The Voyage. Part II: Vanuatu back to France
| B28 |
1768 May-August |
a |
To Australia |
| |
|
b |
Bougainville Reef |
| B29 |
1768 June |
a |
Louisiade Archipelago |
| |
|
b |
Orangerie Bay |
| B30 |
1768 June-July |
a |
Bougainville Island |
| |
|
d |
Choiseul |
| B31 |
1768 July-August |
a |
New Ireland |
| |
|
b |
Port Praslin |
| |
|
c |
Anchorite Islands |
| B32 |
1768 August-September |
a |
Selat Bougainville |
| |
|
b |
Buru |
| |
|
c |
Boano |
| |
|
d |
New Guinea to Buru |
| B33 |
1768 September |
a |
Buru to Batavia |
| |
|
b |
Buton |
| |
|
c |
North Java coast |
| |
|
d |
Batavia (Jakarta) |
| B34 |
1768 October-1769 January |
a |
Batavia to Cape Town |
| |
|
b |
Ile de France (Mauritius) |
| |
|
c |
Table Bay |
| B35 |
1769 January-March |
a |
Back to France |
| |
|
b |
Atlantic Ocean |
E. American War of Independence.
| B36 |
1778 |
a |
Back to North America |
| |
|
b |
Leaving France |
| |
|
c |
Delaware Bay |
| B37 |
1778-1779 |
a |
Boston |
| |
|
b |
Massachusetts Bay |
| |
|
c |
South to Martinique |
| B38 |
1779 |
a |
West Indies |
| |
|
b |
Martinique |
| |
|
c |
Grenada |
| B39 |
1779 |
a |
Back to France |
| |
|
b |
Savannah and Charleston |
| |
|
c |
Savannah |
| B40 |
1781 |
a |
Chesapeake Bay |
| |
|
b |
North Atlantic Ocean |
| B41 |
1781-1782 |
a |
To the West Indies |
| |
|
b |
St. Kitts to Guadaloupe |
| |
|
c |
St. Kitts |
| B42 |
1782 |
a |
Iles des Saintes |
| |
|
b |
St. Eustatius |
| |
|
c |
Lorient and Port Louis |
F. Married life and old age.
| B43 |
1760s-1780s |
a |
Homes in Paris |
| |
|
b |
Normandy |
| |
|
c |
La Becquetiere |
| B44 |
1780s |
a |
Marriage and Normandy |
| |
|
b |
Kerdrehu |
| B45 |
1780s-1800s |
a |
Homes around Paris |
| |
|
b |
River Yerres |
| B46 |
1789-1795 |
a |
French Revolution |
| |
|
b |
Brest |
| |
|
c |
Coutances |
| B47 |
1790s-1811 |
a |
Paris |
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