The word civilization appeared with the Marquis de Mirabeau, and came into common usage in the decade of 1790, replacing the idea of "regeneration". It evokes the progress of science and art. From the Egyptian expedition of 1798, it became a central concept in Napoleon's discourse, always in the sense of a process of progress and pacification. In reaction, it gave rise to the German notion of culture based on the irreducible aspect of the genius of each people. In the second third of the XIXth century, moment of the triumph of the orientalism, one passes from the civilization as process to the state of civilization then of the civilization as cultural area.