Jean-François Lehuby's Nouvelle-Neustrie; or, The Politics of Colonial Investment During the Second Restoration

Abstract This article reconstructs the life of Jean-François Lehuby (1779–1832) and of his colonial venture, the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-Neustrie (1821–1832), which attempted to establish settlements first in North America and later in Central American Moskitia. By examining overlooked departmental archives, this study builds on new scholarship on France's imperial reconfigurations during the Second Restoration. It illustrates how Lehuby, a merchant and former Bonapartist official, attracted smaller provincial investors to participate in capital exports through colonial ventures that sometimes operated at odds with French foreign policy. The company's repeated failures stemmed not only from Lehuby's opportunistic practices but, significantly, also from targeted police interventions aimed at redirecting investments away from ventures perceived as contrary to official policy. The failed colonial enterprise illuminates both the diverse patterns of French capital export and ways that domestic political conflicts between expansionist and reactionary forces shaped France's colonial aspirations in the Americas.