La Reunion (Dallas)
| La Réunion, Texas | |
|---|---|
| Ghost Town | |
 La Réunion
La Réunion
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| Coordinates: 32°45′33.22″N 96°51′24.8″W / 32.7592278°N 96.856889°WCoordinates: 32°45′33.22″N 96°51′24.8″W / 32.7592278°N 96.856889°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Texas |
| County | Dallas |
| Settled | 1855 |
| Founded by | Belgian, French, Swiss Colonists |
| Elevation | 429 ft (131 m) |
| Time zone | CST (UTC-6) |
| FIPS code | 48113 |
| GNIS feature ID | 2034083 |
La Réunion was a utopian socialist community formed in 1855 by French, Belgian, and Swiss colonists on the south bank of the Trinity River in central Dallas County, Texas (US). The colony site is a short distance north of Interstate 30 near downtown Dallas. The founder of the community, Victor Prosper Considerant, was a French democratic socialist who directed an international movement based on Fourierism, a set of economic, political, and social beliefs advocated by French philosopher François Marie Charles Fourier. Fourierism subsequently became known as a form of utopian socialism.
Initially, plans for the colony were loosely structured by design as it was Considerant's intent to make it a "communal experiment administered by a system of direct democracy." The crux of the plan was to allow participants to share in profits derived from capital investments and the amount and quality of labor performed. La Réunion existed for only eighteen months with its demise attributable to financial insolvency, a shortage of skilled participants, inclement weather, inability to succeed at farming, and rising costs. On January 28, 1857, Allyre Bureau, one of the society leaders, gave formal notice of the colony's dissolution. By 1860, what remained was incorporated into the expanding city of Dallas.
The founders of La Réunion intended it to become a socialist utopian colony; they were inspired by the writings of the French philosopher Charles Fourier, who advocated communal production and distribution for communal profit. Unlike other early communist systems, both men and women could vote and individuals could own private property.
La Réunion was founded in Texas by Victor Prosper Considerant, a member of the Fourier movement in Lyon, France. He had been forced into exile after staging protests against Napoléon III's military expedition to Rome. After personally inspecting an area near the three forks of the Trinity River in Texas, he returned to Europe where he formed a group of future settlers. (The site of the community was in the present-day Reunion District of Dallas, about three miles west of the Reunion Tower.)
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