Relations politiques et militaires entre la France et les principautés de Transylvanie, de Valachie et de Moldavie

Cette première analyse des relations politiques et militaires entre la France et les principautés Carpatho-danubiennes de la fin du XVIe siècle à la fin du XVIIIe siècle, montre qu’il s’est forgé un partenariat entre le « Roi Très-Chrétien » (c’est-à-dire le roi de France) et le « Grand Turc ». Depuis le début de l’alliance ottomane, la cour de France s’est efforcée d’établir un lien direct avec la cour de Transylvanie d’Alba Julia et avec les cours romaines de Jassy et Bucarest. L’objectif principal de ces liens était de faire diversion sur le plan militaire en arrière de la monarchie des Habsbourgs. Lors de la guerre de Trente Ans, la cour française signa en 1645 le premier traité militaire avec le prince de Transylvanie György Rákóczi mais la coopération militaire avec le corps expéditionnaire de Walachie et de Moldavie était, elle, plus ancienne (1644). Un autre traité militaire entre la France et la Transylvanie fut signé en 1677, lorsqu’une mission militaire française organisa la diversion de Transylvanie contre les Habsbourgs en « Hongrie supérieure » lors de la guerre de Hollande (1672-1678). Par la trêve de la diplomatie française, la Transylvanie entra dans le traité Nimwergen, comme ce fut le cas pour la paix de Westphalie, en tant qu’allié de la France. Même si les princes Hongrois de Transylvanie avaient pris parti de soutenir l’alliance franco-ottomane anti-Habsbourg, les princes roumains de Walachie et de Moldavie penchaient plutôt vers la politique traditionnelle de croisade. Avec le XVIIIe siècle, la situation changea. Une partie non négligeable de l’élite roumaine soutint la politique française en Europe de l’Est et en mer Noire pour lutter contre l’expansion des Russes et des Habsbourgs. Les cours de Bucarest et de Jassy, les familles princières de Racovitza et Mavrocordato se joignirent aux efforts de l’ambassade de France à Constantinople dans le soutien à la résistance des Polonais et des Tartares contre les tsars. Forte de l’assentiment de la « Sublime Porte », la Moldavie devint même une base pour le soutien français au soulèvement révolutionnaire de Koscinsko de 1794. L’expédition en Égypte de Napoléon Bonaparte (1798) provoqua un véritable bouleversement de la politique traditionnelle en Orient et l’avènement d’une nouvelle ère dans les relations franco-roumaines.Political and Military relations between France and the Principalities of Transylvania, Moldavia and Walachia. This first review of the political and military relations between France and the Carpatho-Danubian Principalities from the second quarter of the 16th Century to the end of 18th states the dependence of these contacts with the special partnership of the “very Christian king” (i.e. the king of France) with the Great Turk. From the beginning of the Ottoman alliance, the French Court tried also to establish a direct relation with the Transylvanian Court of Alba Julia and subsequently of the Romanian Courts of Jassy and Bucharest. The principal aim of these direct relations was to organize a useful military diversion in the rear of the Habsburg Monarchy, during the French competition with the Holly Roman-German Empire. By a geopolitical point of view the Romanian military interventions of 1529 and 1556 in Transylvania against the Habsburg forces were conducive to the military French operations confronted the same enemy. The French Embassy in Constantinople interfered in the election of some of the princes of Walachia and Moldavia – the case of Peter Ear-ring (1583-1585) was well known – in respect to improve the anti-Habsburg diversion and by a Christian alliance in East to avoid the opprobrious partnership with the Enemy of the Holly Cross. During the Thirty Years war, he French Court signed in 1645 the first military treaty with the Transylvanian prince György Rákóczi I, but their army cooperation – with Walachian and Moldavian expeditionary corps too – was elder, dating from 1644. Another military treaty between France and Transylvania was signed in 1677, when a French military mission organized the Transylvanian diversion against the Hapsburg in Upper Hungary, during the war of Holland (1672-1678). By the French diplomacy intermission, Transylvania was included in the Nimwegen Treaty – as it was in the Westphalia Peace – as an ally of France. However if the Hungarian princes of Transylvania were interested to sustain the anti-Habsburg the Ottoman-French alliance, the Romanian princes of Walachia and Moldavia rather leaned to the traditional politic of the Crusade. With the 18th Century, the situation changed. A representative part of Romanian elite supported the French politics in East Europe and in Black Sea, against Russian and Habsburg expansions. The Courts of Bucharest and Jassy, the princely families of Racovitza and Mavrocordato contributed to the French Embassy in Constantinople efforts to sustain the Polish and Tartar resistance against the tsars. With the Sublime Porte assent Moldavia was even a base for the French support to the Kosciusko revolutionary uprising of 1794. Napoleon Bonaparte’s expedition in Egypt (1798) provoked a veritable upset of the traditionally politics in East and the beginning of a new period in the French-Romanian relations

Assessement of tensile strength of graphites by the iosipescu coupon test

Polycrystalline graphites are widely used in the metallurgical, nuclear and aerospace industries. Graphites are particulated composites manufactured with a mixture of coke with pitch, and changes in relative proportions of these materials cause modifications in their mechanical properties. Uniaxial tension tests must be avoided for mechanical characterization in this kind of brittle material, due to difficulties in making the relatively long specimens and premature damages caused during testing set-up. On other types of tests, e.g. bending tests, the specimens are submitted to combined stress states (normal and transverse shear stresses). The Iosipescu shear test, is performed in a beam with two 90° opposite notches machined at the mid-length of the specimens, by applying two forces couples, so that a pure and uniform shear stress state is generated at the cross section between the two notches. When a material is isotropic and brittle, a failure at 45° in relation to the beam long axis can take place, i.e., the tensile normal stress acts parallel to the lateral surface of the notches, controls the failure and the result of the shear test is numerically equivalent to the tensile strength. This work has evaluated a graphite of the type used in rocket nozzles by the Iosipescu test and the resulted stress, ~11 MPa, was found to be equal to the tensile strength. Thus, the tensile strength can be evaluated just by a single and simple experiment, thus avoiding complicated machining of specimen and testing set-up

Cervical lymph node metastasis in adenoid cystic carcinoma of the larynx: a collective international review

Adenoid cystic carcinoma (AdCC) of the head and neck is a well-recognized pathologic entity that rarely occurs in the larynx. Although the 5-year locoregional control rates are high, distant metastasis has a tendency to appear more than 5 years post treatment. Because AdCC of the larynx is uncommon, it is difficult to standardize a treatment protocol. One of the controversial points is the decision whether or not to perform an elective neck dissection on these patients. Because there is contradictory information about this issue, we have critically reviewed the literature from 1912 to 2015 on all reported cases of AdCC of the larynx in order to clarify this issue. During the most recent period of our review (1991-2015) with a more exact diagnosis of the tumor histology, 142 cases were observed of AdCC of the larynx, of which 91 patients had data pertaining to lymph node status. Eleven of the 91 patients (12.1%) had nodal metastasis and, based on this low proportion of patients, routine elective neck dissection is therefore not recommended