#LA REUNION PROFESSIONAL#

… One senses that a hunger for the world was early a factor in the Dallas psyche and a component of its competitiveness.” Notable La Réunion Residents Julien Reverchon “The frontier ethic alone did not embody that inquisitiveness. “Why did fairs begin in Dallas as early as four years after the utopian Fourierists arrived?” Pratt wonders. There is no way to quantify what effects the colony of French intellectuals had on Dallas, though Pratt speculates that the European connection expanded the frontier hamlet’s concept of itself.

#LA REUNION PROFESSIONAL#

Some moved back to France, and a few stayed in Dallas and played significant roles in the establishment of some of the city’s early professional trades and institutions. But after a freak ice storm in May 1856, colonists, disillusioned by internal strife and financial mismanagement, began to abandon the effort. If it had held out, the colony would have been bolstered by Texas’ planned extension of a railroad line through the site. Locals visited to gawk at the impressive architecture of the colony’s few buildings, and they attended Sunday dances.ĭespite Considérant’s skepticism of the La Réunion location, the prairies, woodlands, and creek bottoms on the west bank of the Trinity were primed for settlement.

By 1856, the colony was already influencing life in Dallas. Auguste Savardan, who often clashed with him.

As he tells it, the Europeans built extensive gardens, sawmills, and a winery under the direction of two of Considérant’s associates, François Cantagrel and Dr. For Sabotaged, he pored over letters and journals, producing one of the best-researched accounts of the experiment. Pratt, an accomplished Dallas architect, died in 2018. A small cemetery near Fish Trap Lake is all that remains. Take Me to The River: La Réunion once controlled the entire west bank of the Trinity. Pratt’s book raises an intriguing historical “What if?” But for poor leadership, La Réunion could have survived. He also paints a portrait of Considérant as impetuous and underhanded, determined to undermine the success of La Réunion before he even arrived. Pratt describes a settlement that, despite internal divisions and difficult conditions, managed to establish a beachhead on the west bank of the Trinity that supported about 150 settlers. But James Pratt’s new book, Sabotaged: Dreams of Utopia in Texas, challenges these assumptions. La Réunion’s crash is often attributed to the intellectual French settlers’ inability to farm, their ill-preparedness for North Texas’ harsh climate, and financial insolvency. Considérant’s utopian experiment, called La Réunion, failed after 18 months. He raised about $16 million (accounting for inflation) and arranged for the Atlantic passage of hundreds of followers. While in exile, he wrote a book called Au Texas, which laid out a vision for an egalitarian society in an untouched corner of the state that Considérant depicted as a new Eden. Before coming to Texas, Considérant had been driven into exile in Belgium after a failed insurrection against Napoleon III in 1849. The culture is a blend of European, African, Indian, Chinese and insular traditions.I n 1855, Victor Considérant, a renowned disciple of the French socialist philosopher Charles Fourier, led French, Swiss, and Belgian settlers into North Texas to establish a socialist utopian colony on the banks of the Trinity River. Imports include manufactured goods, beverages and food, tobacco, raw materials, machinery and transportation equipment and petroleum products.įact 10 Reunion Island is a part of the Indian Ocean Commission.

The major industries include sugar, rum, handicrafts and flower oil extraction.įact 9 The main exports of Reunion include sugar, seafood, rum and vanilla. Sugarcane industry dominates the economy. Reunion Island is cool and dry from May to November, hot and rainy from November to April.įact 7 Piton des Neiges forms the highest point in at 10,069 ft and the lowest point in Reunion Island is formed by the Indian Ocean at 0 ft.įact 8 Natural resources are fish, arable land and hydropower. The temperatures moderate with elevation. Reunion Island remained French colony throughout except for a brief occupation by British from 1810 to 1815.įact 3 The official currency of the country is the Euro.įact 4 The majority of the people in this country are Catholics, followed by Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists.įact 5 The official language is French though Reunion Creole, derived from French, is the most widely spoken language in Reunion Island.įact 6 The climate varies from humid to dry tropical to Mediterranean. Fact 1 Reunion Island is one of the twenty-six regions of France and an integral part of the Republic as an overseas region.įact 2 The capital is Saint-Denis.

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