Founder of the Icarian movement who coined the term 'communism'
On February 3, 1848, sixty-nine of Cabet's followers boarded a ship at Le Havre. 'To Icaria!' They set sail to build a communist paradise in the New World.
French utopian socialist and founder of the Icarian movement. In 1840 he published Voyage en Icarie, laying out a blueprint for a communist society based on workers' cooperatives, and was the first to establish 'communism' (communisme) as a political term. The most popular socialist advocate of his day, with some 400,000 adherents in France, he fused Christianity and communism in Le Vrai Christianisme, recasting Jesus's teachings as a gospel of social equality. In 1848 he led followers to America, founding Icarian communities in Texas and Illinois that lasted until 1898, the longest-running non-religious communal experiment in U.S. history. A bridge between Enlightenment utopianism and the workers' movement.
Career Timeline
- 1788Born in Dijon. Qualified as a lawyer.
- 1830–1831July Revolution participant. Attorney-general in Corsica, then elected deputy for Côte-d'Or.
- 1833–1834Founded Le Populaire. Convicted of treason; exiled to England.
- 1834–1839Developed communist ideas in England under Robert Owen's influence.
- 1840Published Voyage en Icarie. First to call himself a 'communist'.
- 1841–1847Revived Le Populaire (~400,000 readers). Published Le Vrai Christianisme.
- 1848Emigrated to U.S. Founded Icarian communities in Texas and Illinois.
- 1849–1856Led Nauvoo Icarian community. Died 1856 in St. Louis, Missouri, after internal rift.