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Which civilizations did Voltaire include in Essai sur les moeurs?
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Voltaire
Voltaire, plaster sculpture by Jean-Antoine Houdon; in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, California.
In his work Essai sur les moeurs (1756), the French philosopher Voltaire sought to create a truly universal history that moved beyond traditional Eurocentric narratives.
Rather than beginning with biblical figures or classical Greek poets like Homer, Voltaire structured his analysis to include the following civilizations:
- Chinese
- Indian
- Persian
- Arab
By incorporating these cultures, Voltaire aimed to study not just political events, but also customs, commerce, finance, agriculture, and population, establishing a foundation for what would later be known as total history.1