WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:03.759 Welcome. This is Rebecca Shore for Radio Eye and to 2 00:00:03.839 --> 00:00:07.559 day I will be reading the Smithsonian Magazine dated April 3 00:00:07.599 --> 00:00:11.800 May twenty twenty six. As a reminder, Radio I is 4 00:00:11.800 --> 00:00:14.759 a reading service intended for people who are blind or 5 00:00:14.759 --> 00:00:18.280 have other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material. 6 00:00:18.800 --> 00:00:21.640 Please join me now for the first article, which is 7 00:00:21.719 --> 00:00:25.960 part two of To Finance Their Lifestyle, a young French 8 00:00:26.000 --> 00:00:30.280 couple went to Cambodia to steal antiquities. They did almost 9 00:00:30.359 --> 00:00:35.759 everything wrong by Joshua Hammer. In part one, we learned 10 00:00:35.759 --> 00:00:39.399 how Andrea and Clara Malroe traveled to French end to 11 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:43.000 China in nineteen twenty three under the false pretense of 12 00:00:43.039 --> 00:00:47.280 conducting research, when in fact they intended to steal valuable 13 00:00:47.560 --> 00:00:53.159 Khmer antiquities from Cambodia's Bantier Srie Temple and sell them abroad. 14 00:00:53.880 --> 00:00:57.479 Motivated by money, adventure, and a sense of impunity, the 15 00:00:57.560 --> 00:01:02.560 couple carefully studied the site and colonial regulations, recruited an accomplice, 16 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:07.079 and removed carved sandstone reliefs from the temple. Their plan 17 00:01:07.239 --> 00:01:12.959 quickly unraveled, however, when suspicious colonial officials and museum director 18 00:01:13.599 --> 00:01:18.319 George Grasiers tracked them seized the stolen artifacts and had 19 00:01:18.319 --> 00:01:22.480 them arrested before they could escape to Saigon. Beyond the 20 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:26.280 dramatic heist, Part one places the episode in the broader 21 00:01:26.359 --> 00:01:30.760 context of French colonialism and the long history of Western 22 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:36.159 appropriation of Cambodian cultural heritage. While Molroux later became a 23 00:01:36.200 --> 00:01:41.439 celebrated writer, resistance fighter, and French cultural minister, this scandal 24 00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:45.359 remained a defining contradiction in his life, revealing him as 25 00:01:45.400 --> 00:01:51.120 both intellectually brilliant and morally compromised. The incident also foreshadowed 26 00:01:51.200 --> 00:01:54.439 later debates over who has the right to possess and 27 00:01:54.519 --> 00:01:59.760 protect cultural treasures, especially those taken under colonial rule, and 28 00:02:00.040 --> 00:02:04.560 suggests that Malro's exposure to colonial injustice during the trial 29 00:02:04.680 --> 00:02:08.879 may have helped push him toward later anti colonial politics. 30 00:02:09.719 --> 00:02:15.159 Here now it is Part two. Malro's conviction, wrote the 31 00:02:15.159 --> 00:02:19.840 American literary critic Roger Shattuck in nineteen sixty eight, had 32 00:02:19.919 --> 00:02:24.000 a traumatic effect, forcing Malroe to square off with the 33 00:02:24.120 --> 00:02:28.360 dark angel of his own past. Malro continued to define 34 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:31.840 himself as a foe of authoritarianism and a voice of 35 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:35.400 the oppressed. When civil war broke out in Spain and 36 00:02:35.479 --> 00:02:39.400 July nineteen thirty six. He used his rising influence to 37 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:44.439 secure French aircraft on behalf of the Republicans, then organized 38 00:02:44.479 --> 00:02:48.479 air crews and accompanied them on operations. He joined the 39 00:02:48.479 --> 00:02:52.000 French resistance in nineteen forty four, taking part in the 40 00:02:52.080 --> 00:02:55.639 harassment of an SS division as it moved north to 41 00:02:55.759 --> 00:02:59.319 join the Battle for Normandy. In July of that year, 42 00:02:59.400 --> 00:03:02.599 he was wounded and captured, then was left behind in 43 00:03:02.639 --> 00:03:07.319 a Tuloose prison camp when the Germans retreated. Malroe met 44 00:03:07.360 --> 00:03:09.599 Charles de Gaulle at the end of the war and 45 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:13.360 was captivated by the general, regarding him as another self 46 00:03:13.400 --> 00:03:19.080 made and charismatic man of action. The admiration was mutual. Later, 47 00:03:19.599 --> 00:03:24.520 when de gaul became president, he looked into Malro's background 48 00:03:24.639 --> 00:03:27.919 and saw the crime in Cambodia as no impediment to 49 00:03:27.960 --> 00:03:31.560 his appointment as France's first Minister of Cultural Affairs in 50 00:03:31.639 --> 00:03:35.680 nineteen fifty nine. Says Lea Genovez, an expert in French 51 00:03:35.800 --> 00:03:40.360 Endochina and a biographer of the Malrose. He was widely 52 00:03:40.400 --> 00:03:44.680 regarded as an ambitious and effective minister, renovating much of 53 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:50.000 the country's deteriorating state architecture, democratizing the arts by opening 54 00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.960 Maison de la culture, state funded cultural centers in many 55 00:03:54.000 --> 00:03:59.039 provincial cities, and revitalizing the Louver, the Comade Francaise, and 56 00:03:59.159 --> 00:04:04.639 other great insctitutions. Malroe moved easily in circles of power. 57 00:04:05.199 --> 00:04:08.680 He formed a close attachment to the Kennedys, escorted the 58 00:04:08.719 --> 00:04:11.719 First Lady during trips to Paris, and visited her in 59 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:15.560 the United States after her husband's assassination. He bade a 60 00:04:15.599 --> 00:04:19.199 memorable state trip to China in nineteen sixty five, where 61 00:04:19.240 --> 00:04:22.160 he was feted by Premier Jean Lai and met with 62 00:04:22.279 --> 00:04:27.160 Chairman Mau Zidong for several hours. Malroe came away impressed 63 00:04:27.160 --> 00:04:31.839 by Mao's mastery of global affairs, and before Nixon's groundbreaking 64 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:35.399 tripp to China seven years later, the President conferred with 65 00:04:35.519 --> 00:04:39.639 Malroe in the White House about Mao's character and mindset. 66 00:04:40.399 --> 00:04:44.519 One of the few places Malroe found himself unwelcome was Cambodia. 67 00:04:45.240 --> 00:04:48.040 A planned visit with de gaul in nineteen sixty eight 68 00:04:48.360 --> 00:04:53.040 had to be aborted after George Gralier's son, Bernard Philippe, 69 00:04:53.319 --> 00:04:57.160 then the Conservatory of Encor, threatened to quit in protest. 70 00:04:58.160 --> 00:05:02.120 Despite his accomplishments, Malroe remained something of the hustler and 71 00:05:02.199 --> 00:05:06.360 prevaricator of his youth. He had an endless capacity for 72 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:10.839 self mythologizing. In the introduction to the first edition of 73 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:14.160 Man's Fate, he claimed falsely that he had served on 74 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:18.360 a twelve man revolutionary committee in Canton in nineteen twenty 75 00:05:18.399 --> 00:05:23.240 four and participated in hand to hand fighting. In his biography, 76 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:27.839 Olivier Todd wrote that Malroe exaggerated his relationship with Mao 77 00:05:28.199 --> 00:05:31.199 as well as his heroics during World War II, and 78 00:05:31.319 --> 00:05:34.720 may even have made off with resistance funds after the 79 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.920 Nazi surrender. By then, he was separated from Clara, who 80 00:05:38.959 --> 00:05:42.680 survived World War II in hiding and later carved out 81 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:46.680 a successful career as a novelist and memoirist. She died 82 00:05:46.720 --> 00:05:51.000 in nineteen eighty two, half a century after Andrea Malroe's 83 00:05:51.079 --> 00:05:55.399 death in nineteen seventy six. The Cambodian Misadventure divides opinion 84 00:05:55.560 --> 00:05:58.720 about him. Was he a con man and a scoundrel, 85 00:05:59.360 --> 00:06:04.600 a renegade romantic. Many Cambodians still view him as epitomizing 86 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:09.120 the greed and arrogance of the colonial system. Yuk Chang, 87 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:13.120 the founding director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia in 88 00:06:13.240 --> 00:06:18.839 Pennon Pen, which records Cambodia's turbulent recent history, says Malro's 89 00:06:18.920 --> 00:06:21.600 lack of contrition and rise to the top of the 90 00:06:21.639 --> 00:06:25.759 French establishment sent the message from the country's former colonizer 91 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:30.199 that Cambodia still belongs to us. Nor did the theft 92 00:06:30.199 --> 00:06:35.279 of Cambodian antiquities end with Malroe. Far from it. Artifacts 93 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:39.079 were misappropriated throughout the French colonial period, which ended in 94 00:06:39.160 --> 00:06:44.920 nineteen fifty four. The murderous Khmer Rouge regime officially prohibited 95 00:06:44.920 --> 00:06:49.240 the destruction of temples, but cadres often trafficked in antiquities 96 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:53.399 to finance their activities. After the regime fell in nineteen 97 00:06:53.439 --> 00:06:58.319 seventy nine, lawlessness and civil strife engulfed the country, and 98 00:06:58.399 --> 00:07:03.160 looting continued without rest for twenty or more years. Late 99 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:07.160 last year, the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art returned 100 00:07:07.199 --> 00:07:12.160 three Khmer sculptures to Cambodia after determining that they were 101 00:07:12.279 --> 00:07:17.720 likely looted during the nineteen sixties or seventies. In twenty nineteen, 102 00:07:17.839 --> 00:07:22.399 prosecutors in New York indicted Douglas Latchford, a British expat 103 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.800 living in Thailand, charging him with using New York Bank 104 00:07:25.879 --> 00:07:29.920 accounts to facilitate a wide scale theft and smuggling operation 105 00:07:30.480 --> 00:07:34.759 dating to the nineteen nineties. Latchford employed dozens of thieves 106 00:07:34.800 --> 00:07:39.199 to chisel off hundreds of sculptures and snatch bronze figurines 107 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:44.000 from Khmer temples. He reportedly earned tens of millions of 108 00:07:44.040 --> 00:07:48.040 dollars faking providences and selling the art to private collectors 109 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:53.079 and Western museums. Latchford died in twenty twenty before standing trial, 110 00:07:53.480 --> 00:07:56.079 and the extent of his crimes is only now coming 111 00:07:56.120 --> 00:08:00.560 to light. Malrose Vanishing Act in nineteen two twenty three 112 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:04.879 stopped at the border, but Lashford's did not, says Brad Gordon, 113 00:08:05.160 --> 00:08:08.839 an American lawyer who was assisting Cambodia in tracking down 114 00:08:08.879 --> 00:08:14.120 its lost art. He proudly trafficked Cambodia's treasures into prestigious 115 00:08:14.160 --> 00:08:19.480 Western institutions and into the living rooms of billionaires. Genevese, 116 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:25.120 reflecting on what she calls Malroe's juvenile indiscretion, further distinguishes 117 00:08:25.199 --> 00:08:29.199 between the crimes, arguing that in Malroe's case, the friezes 118 00:08:29.480 --> 00:08:33.879 were returned without lasting damage to Bonte Srie unwilling to 119 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:39.320 be generous toward Malroe, she says. Today, Bonte Srie has 120 00:08:39.440 --> 00:08:45.039 emerged as one of Cambodia's most popular attractions. Perhaps ironically, 121 00:08:45.240 --> 00:08:50.360 its fortunes improved profoundly as a result of Malroe's desecration. 122 00:08:51.720 --> 00:08:57.440 In January nineteen twenty four, Enrie Parmentier, the Eco Francaise 123 00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:02.159 Dextreme orient E f e o's head of archaeology, trucked 124 00:09:02.159 --> 00:09:05.480 to the ruins to verify what malrou had stolen, then 125 00:09:05.639 --> 00:09:10.279 oversaw the effort to clear vegetation, inventory artifacts and translate 126 00:09:10.399 --> 00:09:16.039 inscriptions in Sanskrit and Old Khmer. Seven years later, Henrey Marshal, 127 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:21.039 the conservator of Encor, reassembled the toppled temples, using both 128 00:09:21.080 --> 00:09:26.519 the original stones and modern materials. I visited the complex 129 00:09:26.600 --> 00:09:30.000 late on a July afternoon, arriving at the same moment 130 00:09:30.120 --> 00:09:33.679 as a tour group consisting of dozens of Cambodian women 131 00:09:33.799 --> 00:09:38.440 wearing identical purple dresses. Following the throng down a stone 132 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:43.039 corridor described by Malroe in the Royal Way, I emerged 133 00:09:43.080 --> 00:09:45.840 into daylight to see the temples directly in front of me. 134 00:09:46.720 --> 00:09:51.080 The three small prasat that Malroux had defaced intact again 135 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:55.559 glowed in the setting sun. The smiling goddesses perched on 136 00:09:55.720 --> 00:10:00.720 pedestals inside shallow niches, heads tilted, hair pulled tight beneath 137 00:10:00.759 --> 00:10:05.399 elaborate grounds with dangling lotus petal ear rings. Each wore 138 00:10:05.480 --> 00:10:10.000 a sarong and an ornamental sash. The frames around the 139 00:10:10.080 --> 00:10:15.879 niches were rich with curving vines, angelic attendants, crowned birds, scrolls, 140 00:10:16.000 --> 00:10:19.679 curly cues, and rosettes, all carved from the same reddish 141 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:25.879 pink sandstone. The tenth century Khmer sculptors had created these 142 00:10:25.960 --> 00:10:30.279 devatas with such detailed vibrancy that they seemed ready to 143 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:34.440 leap off of the facade. After they carved the eyes 144 00:10:34.480 --> 00:10:37.879 and finished the statue, they believed that the essence of 145 00:10:37.919 --> 00:10:42.919 the god was now incarnated. Olivier Cuneen, a French archaeologist 146 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.879 who had studied the temple for a quarter century, told 147 00:10:45.879 --> 00:10:50.279 me in sem Reepp Malreaux had snatched away the deities 148 00:10:50.519 --> 00:10:54.559 in an act of avarice and sacrilege. Now the gods 149 00:10:54.600 --> 00:11:00.399 were smiling again, and accompanying this article did as you know. 150 00:11:01.039 --> 00:11:08.240 A timeline of the Khmer Empire. In AD eight oh two, Jayavarman, 151 00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:13.600 the second united fragmented Cambodian kingdoms, founding the Empire and 152 00:11:13.759 --> 00:11:20.519 establishing several important settlements. Surya Varman the second dramatically expanded 153 00:11:20.519 --> 00:11:24.919 the Empire's territory between eleven thirteen and eleven fifty and 154 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:31.799 commissioned its architectural masterpiece on Garvat. His cousin, Jayavarman the 155 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:36.879 seventh later built the Buddhist Bayon complex major road networks 156 00:11:36.919 --> 00:11:41.720 and hospitals. In fourteen thirty one, a neighboring Thai kingdom 157 00:11:41.799 --> 00:11:45.559 based near modern day Bangkok, sacked a weak and already 158 00:11:45.559 --> 00:11:52.519 declining encore, and within decades the capital was largely abandoned. Next, 159 00:11:53.240 --> 00:11:57.279 the spirited revolutionary who led the fight for independence in 160 00:11:57.360 --> 00:12:03.639 Corsica also inspired America as colonial rabble rousers. Pasquale Paoli 161 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:08.320 was a small fish fighting an entire empire four thousand 162 00:12:08.399 --> 00:12:11.720 miles away. The founding fathers were watching and taking notes 163 00:12:12.480 --> 00:12:17.679 by Anna Richards. In seventeen fifty five, tensions were beginning 164 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:21.120 to rise in the American colonies following the outbreak of 165 00:12:21.159 --> 00:12:24.320 the French and Indian War. Yet one of that year's 166 00:12:24.320 --> 00:12:29.159 most consequential developments for American independence happened on a Mediterranean 167 00:12:29.200 --> 00:12:33.519 island more than four thousand miles away. After more than 168 00:12:33.559 --> 00:12:37.679 two decades of struggle, the Corsican people declared independence from 169 00:12:37.720 --> 00:12:41.600 their Genoese overlords, who had laid claim to the island 170 00:12:41.639 --> 00:12:46.080 for five hundred years. Would be revolutionaries in America soon 171 00:12:46.159 --> 00:12:52.039 followed the situation in Corsica with interest. Colonial rabble rousers 172 00:12:52.080 --> 00:12:56.080 were especially fired up by the exploits of Pasquale Paoli, 173 00:12:56.679 --> 00:13:00.960 Chosen as the leader of independent Corsica, particularly in the 174 00:13:01.000 --> 00:13:05.720 seventeen sixties, Paoli became a media sensation in America, and 175 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:09.600 inspired by this Paoli fever, patriots went on to name 176 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:14.080 towns and even children after the Great Corsican. In seventeen 177 00:13:14.120 --> 00:13:17.279 sixty seven, the New York Journal dubbed him the greatest 178 00:13:17.320 --> 00:13:21.919 man on Earth. Paoli's name thus became a byword in 179 00:13:21.960 --> 00:13:25.279 the colonies, and with good reason. By any measure, he 180 00:13:25.399 --> 00:13:29.200 was a courageous innovator. With his return to Corsica, the 181 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.399 island became independent for the first time since the early 182 00:13:32.440 --> 00:13:36.080 Middle Ages, and he even helped push through a constitution, 183 00:13:36.759 --> 00:13:41.679 likely the first ever written down in groundbreaking fashion. Paoli's 184 00:13:41.720 --> 00:13:47.200 constitution separated powers into executive and legislative branches and allowed 185 00:13:47.279 --> 00:13:51.799 male citizens above the age of twenty five to elect representatives, 186 00:13:51.919 --> 00:13:55.600 regardless of race and whether they owned property. A woman 187 00:13:55.639 --> 00:13:58.360 could even vote, as long as she was over twenty 188 00:13:58.399 --> 00:14:02.279 five and single, or a whims. As Paoli declared in 189 00:14:02.320 --> 00:14:07.559 the preamble, Corsica's new government, now legitimately master of itself, 190 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:11.879 having reconquered its liberty, would ensure the happiness of the 191 00:14:11.960 --> 00:14:18.799 nation before independence, says Marchandria Perrot, a historian at the 192 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:24.360 University of Corsica. Eager American patriots latched onto Paoli. He 193 00:14:24.519 --> 00:14:28.000 was a symbol, a small fish fighting an entire empire 194 00:14:29.320 --> 00:14:33.320 outside the island itself. Little remains in public memory of 195 00:14:33.360 --> 00:14:38.080 the Corsican Revolution today, but Corsica's drive toward freedom proved 196 00:14:38.080 --> 00:14:42.399 a potent inspiration for independence efforts in the American colonies, 197 00:14:42.720 --> 00:14:48.039 stirring up revolutionary spirit among rebels. This small island had 198 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.080 shown that a humble vassal state could throw off an 199 00:14:51.159 --> 00:14:54.799 empire and write its own rules, building its independence on 200 00:14:54.879 --> 00:15:01.200 a foundation of inherent universal ideals of equality. Beca's strategic 201 00:15:01.279 --> 00:15:06.919 location between the Mediterranean, Tyrehnian and Ligurian seas had long 202 00:15:06.960 --> 00:15:11.879 attracted would be conquerors. The Greeks arrived around five sixty BC. 203 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:17.480 Then the Carthaginians and Etruscans vied against the Greeks for 204 00:15:17.559 --> 00:15:21.159 the island for more than three hundred years before Corsica 205 00:15:21.279 --> 00:15:24.879 entered the Roman Empire's sphere of influence in two fifty 206 00:15:24.960 --> 00:15:29.240 nine BC. After the fall of Rome, Corsica was briefly 207 00:15:29.320 --> 00:15:32.679 part of the Vandal Empire beginning in four fifty five, 208 00:15:33.159 --> 00:15:36.759 then came under the control of the Byzantine Empire early 209 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:40.559 the next century five thirty four. The Lombards, under the 210 00:15:40.559 --> 00:15:47.039 direction of Charlemagne, then took over in seventy four. During 211 00:15:47.039 --> 00:15:49.879 the ninth century, Corsica was the subject of a number 212 00:15:49.919 --> 00:15:53.840 of Saracen invasions. The island then passed through the hands 213 00:15:53.879 --> 00:15:56.240 of the Pope and the bishop of the city state 214 00:15:56.320 --> 00:16:00.840 of Pisa, before falling in twelve eighty four under the 215 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:04.519 influence of the maritime Republic of Genoa, which held the 216 00:16:04.600 --> 00:16:10.320 territory for nearly five hundred years. When Paoli's father, Jiacento 217 00:16:10.720 --> 00:16:14.080 was born at the end of the seventeenth century, Corsican 218 00:16:14.120 --> 00:16:17.840 autonomy must have been a distant memory. Yet by the 219 00:16:17.879 --> 00:16:21.720 turn of the eighteenth century, discontent was rife and living 220 00:16:21.759 --> 00:16:26.840 conditions extremely poor, and Corsicans began to resent Genoese's rule. 221 00:16:27.799 --> 00:16:31.039 Born in seventeen twenty five, Paoli grew up in a 222 00:16:31.159 --> 00:16:36.440 land defined by rebellion. In seventeen twenty nine, Corsican peasants 223 00:16:36.759 --> 00:16:40.279 refused to pay taxes to Genoa after a poor harvest, 224 00:16:40.360 --> 00:16:45.120 and thus began the Corsican Revolution. Jacento became one of 225 00:16:45.120 --> 00:16:49.679 its leaders. In seventeen thirty four, when Paoli was just fourteen, 226 00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:54.559 Jacento went into exile and settled in Naples. Paoli went 227 00:16:54.639 --> 00:16:58.240 with his father, and in April seventeen fifty five, at 228 00:16:58.279 --> 00:17:02.480 age thirty, he returned to Corsica. In July of that year, 229 00:17:02.879 --> 00:17:07.000 leaders of the insurrection appointed him general Chef de la Nacion. 230 00:17:07.519 --> 00:17:11.319 He then realized his father's dream of making Corsica an 231 00:17:11.319 --> 00:17:16.279 independent state, and, perhaps most consequentially for his American followers, 232 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:23.079 successfully enshrined the Corsican constitution. A young James Boswell, the 233 00:17:23.119 --> 00:17:27.279 Scottish writer who became famous for his biography of Samuel Johnson, 234 00:17:27.839 --> 00:17:31.119 first wrote about Corsica during his Grand tour of Europe, 235 00:17:31.359 --> 00:17:35.200 begun in seventeen sixty four. He set out hoping to 236 00:17:35.240 --> 00:17:37.640 meet some of the most notable men of the age, 237 00:17:37.920 --> 00:17:42.160 and secured audiences with two luminaries of French thought and literature, 238 00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:48.319 visiting Voltaire and France, and Jean Jacques Rousseau in Switzerland. Rousseau, 239 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:53.119 an avowed admirer of the Corsican experiment, wrote Boswell a 240 00:17:53.240 --> 00:17:58.240 letter of recommendation to present to Paoli, which Boswell considered invaluable. 241 00:17:59.039 --> 00:18:02.599 In October seventeen sixty five, the twenty four year old 242 00:18:02.640 --> 00:18:06.440 Boswell made for Corsica. He spent just a few days 243 00:18:06.440 --> 00:18:10.640 in Paoli's company and only a month or so in Corsica. Overall, 244 00:18:11.400 --> 00:18:14.759 traveling about the island would have been slow and complicated. 245 00:18:15.240 --> 00:18:18.200 There were very few roads on Corsica at the time, 246 00:18:18.640 --> 00:18:22.720 but the freedom inscribed in the country's document inspired Boswell. 247 00:18:23.720 --> 00:18:27.279 He wrote a memoir of his trip, An Account of Corsica, 248 00:18:27.559 --> 00:18:30.680 The Journal of a Tour to that Island and Memoirs 249 00:18:30.720 --> 00:18:35.519 of Pascal Paoli, was published in London in seventeen sixty eight. 250 00:18:36.319 --> 00:18:40.119 The book presented a glowing account of Paoli, his constitution, 251 00:18:40.519 --> 00:18:44.680 the Corsican Revolution, and the island in general. It was 252 00:18:44.720 --> 00:18:49.400 a sympathetic, warmly propagandistic portrait of a people yearning to 253 00:18:49.440 --> 00:18:52.920 be free, while its depiction of Paoli was superlative and 254 00:18:52.960 --> 00:18:57.640 closely observed. As Boswell described their first meeting, I had 255 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:00.279 stood in the presence of many a prince, but I 256 00:19:00.359 --> 00:19:03.559 never had such a trial as in the presence of Paoli. 257 00:19:04.359 --> 00:19:08.559 In consequence of his being in continued danger from treachery 258 00:19:08.599 --> 00:19:13.240 and assassination, he has formed a habit of studiously observing 259 00:19:13.319 --> 00:19:16.960 every new face. For ten minutes, we walked backward and 260 00:19:17.039 --> 00:19:20.599 forward through the room, hardly saying a word, while he 261 00:19:20.680 --> 00:19:24.279 looked at me with a steadfast, keen and penetrating eye, 262 00:19:24.680 --> 00:19:29.240 as if he searched my very soul. The book proved 263 00:19:29.240 --> 00:19:33.640 a roaring success in Britain. It sold thousands of copies 264 00:19:33.640 --> 00:19:37.839 and became a bestseller, but its publication in the colonies 265 00:19:37.920 --> 00:19:41.079 later that year, just three years after the Stamp Act 266 00:19:41.200 --> 00:19:45.599 was imposed, resonated all the more among a population chafing 267 00:19:46.000 --> 00:19:51.720 under British taxes. American newspapers reported eagerly on events in Corsica, 268 00:19:52.200 --> 00:19:58.119 even quoting liberally from Boswell's memoir, but Corsica's independence was 269 00:19:58.200 --> 00:20:03.160 already slipping. On May fifteenth, seventeen sixty eight, just three 270 00:20:03.160 --> 00:20:07.680 months after Boswell's account, of Corsica was published, Louis the 271 00:20:07.720 --> 00:20:12.480 fifteenth of France annexed to the island, and Paoli fled. Yet, 272 00:20:12.519 --> 00:20:15.640 even while Paoli was on his back foot, support for 273 00:20:15.759 --> 00:20:21.400 him and the colonies only seemed to increase. Ebenezer Macintosh, 274 00:20:21.880 --> 00:20:25.079 one of the Boston based leaders of the Stamp Act protests, 275 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.160 perhaps most famous for parading an effigy of a British 276 00:20:29.200 --> 00:20:33.039 tax collector through the streets, welcomed a son in seventeen 277 00:20:33.119 --> 00:20:38.599 sixty nine, naming him Paschal Paoli Macintosh after his revolutionary hero. 278 00:20:39.400 --> 00:20:43.359 In the same year, an entrepreneur inspired by Corsican independence 279 00:20:43.720 --> 00:20:47.599 founded the General Paoli Tavern, around which grew a town 280 00:20:47.720 --> 00:20:51.920 to deign known as Paoli, Pennsylvania. In the century and 281 00:20:51.920 --> 00:20:57.920 a half that followed, town's Dame Paoli would appear in Oklahoma, Colorado, Indiana, 282 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:03.400 and beyond. Benjamin Franklin offered enthusiastic praise for the rebellious 283 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:07.200 spirit of the Corsicans, and lamented that France, while it 284 00:21:07.319 --> 00:21:11.720 boasts of enjoying freedom itself, would ruin Corsica for vindicating 285 00:21:11.759 --> 00:21:16.599 their common right to it. George Washington, too, stayed abreast 286 00:21:16.640 --> 00:21:20.799 of the developments from Corsica, thanks to Andrew Burnaby, the 287 00:21:20.839 --> 00:21:24.519 English travel writer serving as a chaplain to the British 288 00:21:24.599 --> 00:21:28.559 mission in Livorno, Tuscany, who sent the future first President 289 00:21:28.640 --> 00:21:32.000 news of the island, even reporting in one letter that 290 00:21:32.039 --> 00:21:36.960 the French common soldiers were deserting to Paoli in great numbers. 291 00:21:37.720 --> 00:21:41.440 Founding Father John Hancock named one of his merchant ships 292 00:21:41.440 --> 00:21:45.839 the Paoli in seventeen sixty nine. The vogue for Paoli 293 00:21:45.960 --> 00:21:49.400 gave educated elites in the Western world a new way 294 00:21:49.480 --> 00:21:54.480 to envision political leadership, writes David A. Bell, a historian 295 00:21:54.559 --> 00:21:57.880 of France in his twenty twenty book Men on Horseback, 296 00:21:58.240 --> 00:22:01.000 The Power of Charisma in the us Age of Revolution. 297 00:22:02.119 --> 00:22:05.759 For a brief moment in the seventeen sixties and seventeen seventies, 298 00:22:06.079 --> 00:22:09.000 Paoli stood out as one of the most revered and 299 00:22:09.079 --> 00:22:12.079 well known figures in the Western world, and the most 300 00:22:12.119 --> 00:22:16.720 important exemplar before George Washington of a new and potent 301 00:22:16.799 --> 00:22:22.440 form of political charisma. But ideals require power in order 302 00:22:22.480 --> 00:22:27.480 to spread, and Corsica's strength was limited. Once French forces 303 00:22:27.519 --> 00:22:31.759 defeated Paoli's troops at the Battle of Pontinovou in May 304 00:22:31.839 --> 00:22:37.799 seventeen sixty nine, Paoli fled to Britain in exile. Corsican independence, 305 00:22:37.880 --> 00:22:43.480 after fourteen short years, was over. France's occupation of Corsica 306 00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:48.279 didn't dampen American interest in Paoli, including among the future 307 00:22:48.400 --> 00:22:54.000 Founding Fathers. In seventeen seventy five, Alexander Hamilton and fellow 308 00:22:54.039 --> 00:22:58.480 students at King's College later Columbia University were part of 309 00:22:58.519 --> 00:23:02.480 a militia initially known as the Corsicans, and though the 310 00:23:02.519 --> 00:23:08.200 Founding Fathers didn't explicitly cite Paoli's Constitution as an inspiration, 311 00:23:08.839 --> 00:23:13.519 the American Constitution, written in seventeen eighty seven, bears marked 312 00:23:14.119 --> 00:23:19.400 similarities to Paoli's seventeen fifty five document. Both were based 313 00:23:19.480 --> 00:23:25.359 on Enlightenment principles. Paoli, through his close collaborator Matteo Budifuco, 314 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:29.759 had even asked Rousseau to help draft the island's new laws, 315 00:23:29.839 --> 00:23:33.680 which the Great Thinker undertook but didn't publish during his lifetime, 316 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:39.079 and separated powers into executive and legislative branches, with representatives 317 00:23:39.119 --> 00:23:42.759 elected by a remarkably free vote for the period, enacting 318 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:46.880 the will of the people. Of course, the Corsican struggle 319 00:23:46.880 --> 00:23:51.039 for independence was hardly over. In seventeen ninety After the 320 00:23:51.039 --> 00:23:55.559 beginning of the French Revolution, Paoli returned to Corsica, where 321 00:23:55.599 --> 00:23:58.839 he was instated as the president of the regional government 322 00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:04.480 seventeen ninety two, though his relationship with French revolutionaries was 323 00:24:04.519 --> 00:24:08.880 turning sour, and in April seventeen ninety three, the French 324 00:24:08.920 --> 00:24:13.079 government ordered his arrest, alleging that he had conspired to 325 00:24:13.200 --> 00:24:18.200 hand Corsica over to Britain. Two months later, Corsica was 326 00:24:18.240 --> 00:24:22.960 in full rebellion against France, and by September seventeen ninety three, 327 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:26.640 the Republicans were left with only a few positions on 328 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:31.599 the coast. Corsica was clinging to independence by a thread. 329 00:24:32.039 --> 00:24:35.079 In the Age of Empire, Paoli needed the protection of 330 00:24:35.119 --> 00:24:39.519 a bigger partner. He wrote to British Prime Minister William Pitt, 331 00:24:39.799 --> 00:24:43.279 Captain Samuel Hood, then commander of a ship in Britain's fleet, 332 00:24:43.680 --> 00:24:48.119 and George the Third, asking for military support. Finally, in 333 00:24:48.240 --> 00:24:53.279 June seventeen ninety four, Paoli allied with Britain to form 334 00:24:53.319 --> 00:24:59.920 the Anglo Corsican Kingdom, a constitutional monarchy under the British Empire. 335 00:25:00.039 --> 00:25:04.319 Arrangement was not to last. In seventeen ninety five, Paoli 336 00:25:04.519 --> 00:25:07.799 was forced back into exile in Britain, where he lived 337 00:25:07.880 --> 00:25:11.119 until his death in eighteen o seven, and the island 338 00:25:11.160 --> 00:25:14.960 fell back under the Sway of France, which resumed control 339 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:19.920 in seventeen ninety six. Corsica remains a part of France today. 340 00:25:21.319 --> 00:25:24.640 News reports on Corsica seem to have dried up in 341 00:25:24.720 --> 00:25:29.680 the newly formed United States of America after the Revolution. Nonetheless, 342 00:25:30.799 --> 00:25:36.440 four towns named after Paoli are still there. Paoli Pennsylvania 343 00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:40.960 has kept particularly close links with Corsica, and in twenty 344 00:25:41.000 --> 00:25:46.119 twenty five even organized visits to Marisaglia, where Paoli was born, 345 00:25:46.599 --> 00:25:50.680 for the three hundredth anniversary of his birth. The American 346 00:25:50.799 --> 00:25:54.359 visitors donated a plaque on behalf of the town, and 347 00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:59.200 one of their civic leaders, Edward Abel, declared that Paoli 348 00:25:59.319 --> 00:26:03.640 had abode embodied an ideal of liberty, an example for 349 00:26:03.799 --> 00:26:08.880 Americans fighting for their own independence. For US, Paoli's name 350 00:26:09.240 --> 00:26:17.200 symbolizes democracy and accompanying this article, did you know Corsica? 351 00:26:17.519 --> 00:26:23.400 During World War II, in November nineteen forty two, the 352 00:26:23.440 --> 00:26:28.359 Italian Army occupied Corsica, just three days after the Allies 353 00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:33.480 landed in North Africa for Operation Torch. The following September, 354 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:37.319 thanks to Italian and French freedom fighters, Corsica was the 355 00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:43.640 first French territory freed from axis rule. Finally, ask Smithsonian, 356 00:26:43.960 --> 00:26:47.720 you've got questions, We've got experts. Why do so few 357 00:26:47.799 --> 00:26:51.680 bammels go through menopause? The answer is from Janine Brown, 358 00:26:51.880 --> 00:26:58.720 research physiologist, National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute. Menopause happens 359 00:26:58.720 --> 00:27:02.759 when the older female of a species remain physically capable 360 00:27:02.799 --> 00:27:06.640 of contributing to their group's survival even as their ovarian 361 00:27:06.720 --> 00:27:10.680 follicles become depleted. This is a rare occurrence among wild 362 00:27:10.720 --> 00:27:16.079 animals because natural selection favors continued reproduction. More offspring means 363 00:27:16.119 --> 00:27:19.759 more descendants in the gene pool. According to the dominant theory, 364 00:27:19.880 --> 00:27:23.160 menopause is believed to evolve only in species where the 365 00:27:23.240 --> 00:27:27.559 payoff from helping existing children and grandchildren exceeds the benefits 366 00:27:27.559 --> 00:27:31.200 of producing more offspring. These are species that have long 367 00:27:31.200 --> 00:27:35.720 life spans, extended periods of offspring dependency, and stable multi 368 00:27:35.839 --> 00:27:40.680 generational social groups, where post reproductive females can meaningfully increase 369 00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:45.160 their descendant's survival. Menopause has been found in one population 370 00:27:45.240 --> 00:27:50.440 of chimpanzees and in one individual captive orangutan generally, though 371 00:27:50.519 --> 00:27:56.480 only humans and certain toothed whales meet the stringent requirements. 372 00:27:58.039 --> 00:28:01.920 This concludes readings from the Smithsonian Magazine for today. Your 373 00:28:01.960 --> 00:28:05.119 reader has been Rebecca Shore. Thank you for listening, and 374 00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:06.200 have a great day.