• Cabet was largely influenced in his ideal of utopia by Thomas More
    • Cabet read More’s Utopia while in exile in England
    • It provided the groundwork for Icarie
  • Icarians looked primarily to Voyage en Icarie for utopian inspiration
  • France during the 1800s was extremely tumultuous
    • Just gotten done with the Revolution of 1789
    • King Charles X
    • Louis Phillipe
  • France and her problems fostered strong idealism in the Icarians
    • Liberty, fraternity, equality
    • Themes can be found in Cabet’s writings and the community
  • Overall, there were 5 American Icarian communities
    • I focused on Texas and Nauvoo, Illinois
  • At one point, the Icarians lived with the Mormons in Nauvoo
    • The joint community had up to 15,000 people
      • Chicago only at 8,000 at the time
  • Cabet was kicked out of his own creation
    • After dealing with fraud charges and becoming increasingly dictatorial, Cabet became the central problem
    • Two factions emerged:
      • Cabetists and Dissidents
    • The Dissidents kicked the Cabetists (and Cabet) out
    • Cabet died just days after