FRENCH IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM

1. The new beginning of colonization and the conquests of territories in North-East Africa and Indochina. 1800-1870

2. The high point of the French Colonial Empire with the colonization of Africa, South-East Asia and some territories in the Pacific. 1870-1930

3. First troubles and almost the complete desintegration of the French Colonial Empire, with France having lost its status after the IIWW, rise of independent movements and wars in Indochina and Algeria. 1930´s onwards

IMPERIALISM VS COLONIALISM

THIRD REPUBLIC IN FRANCE

Justify the colonialism with 3 reasons

1. Economic reasons (trading market, economic growth, industrial sector and the need for resources)

2. The "mission civilisatrice" and France as a civilizing nation for the savages (Civilization vs barbarism)

3. Prestige

CONFLICTS BETWEEN FRANCE AND GREAT BRITAIN

THE GOAL?

Conquering and ruling over other regions in order to exploit their resources to its benefit

Idea of creating an empire, expanding your domination to neighbour regions

Taking as many territories as possible

AFRICA WAS THE MAIN TARGET TO THIS PROCESS OF TERRITORIAL COMPETITION

First French Colonial Empire

Conference on 15th November of 1884 (Berlin)

The idea of "mise en valeur"

End of absolutism

Establish rules for the sharing of African continent

as an example of the benefical value of French colonial action

Beginning -> French Revolution (1789)

Start of the Republic

THE DISCOVERY OF THE NEW WORLD

Napoleon Bonaparte became French Emperor in 1804

Napoleon III became Emperor between 1852 and 1870

colonialism of expansion

Imperialist policy to

Africa

Asia

Pacific

FRANÇOIS I

Decline and fall of the French Empire

1929 - Wall Street crash

France seems to avoid the effects -> relied only in its colonies

Closed its borders

Protectionist measures

First concrete signs of the crisis appeared

1931

Sent Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier to the first exploration trips

Discontent in the colonies increased

Protectionist barriers only postponed the crisis and made it bigger

1936 - Popular Front in France came to power

promises for people from the colonies

BUT

First signs of disintegration of French Colonial Empire

no difference

• II World War (after June 1940)

France fell to the Germans ->Japan seized to enter Indochina

1944 - Several colonies were almost autonomous (Morocco, Tunisia)

• Atlantic Charter
• Ideology

• Prices in agriculture dropped very fast

• Lack of recognition of participants in WWI from the colonies

• Well-educated people from the colonies that lived in France and saw the inequality between the metropolis and the colonies

Comity of National Liberation-January 1944

- Brazzaville (Congo)

‘’Any idea of autonomy, any possibility of evolution outside of the French Empire, is to be forgotten’’

Success against France was possible

Troubled territory

After 1962

French empire almost completely dismantled

Possesions:

-Islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe in West Indies

-Réunion in the Indian Ocean

-New Caledonia and Tahiti in the Pacific

• After Dien-Bien-Phu, Algerians created the "Front de Libération Nationale"
• Conflict with Algeria -> extremely violent

Algeria

- Different status - seen as a part of the metropolis

- Why be separated from France? Repression and violence

Peaceful decolonization

• French territories of Western Africa

almost all territories of Western Africa decided to associate with France

Charles de Gaulle offered a referendum

Indochina

-French presence had almost completely disappeared

-Japanese gave indigenous the control

-Creation "Democratic Republic of Vietnam" 1945

Finally · independence of 14 new African territories

measures were not enough to stop the conflict, after battle of Dien-Bien-Phu -> France left the country

THE MAIN IDEA WAS TO EXPLORE THE NEW WORLD

Algeria

Initially similar to the Egyptian attempt

Beginning of Second Colonial Empire (1830-1870)

loots

rapes

massacres

Violent conquest, even during the "Penetration Pacifique"

Not like other colonies

Possibility of citizenship

Egypt

Under french rule from 1830 BUT 1852 entirely conquered

"We have to reintroduce culture in a country who has turned barbaric"

soft wheat, vine, olives, citrus fruits, tobacco...

Algeria : new producer of cash crops

1864 - Insurrection

best route to trade to the East

Canal connecting Mediterranean and Red Sea

France wanted Egypt because

1. Commercial and agricultural potential

2. Strategic importance to the Anglo-French rivalry

- Idea: create an Science Institute of France in Egypt

- Trade not anymore the most important link

with the colony

foundation of modern research into the history, society and economics of Egypt

Description de L'Egypte

1st July 1798 - French invasion starts in Alexandria. It includes scholars

Education, medicine, arts, hygiene...

Napoleon proclaimed himself as liberator of the egyptians from the Ottoman and Mameluke oppression

He made himself master of Egypt, providing new institutions and a way western way of administration.

This expedition was a turning point:

• Culturally: opened East to West
• Military: Battle of the Pyramids was the clash that established the Western superiority over Eastern

Senegal

1854 - Inland forts in Senegal River

1855 - Conquered Kingdom of Waalo

1860- Forts allow to launch missions to north of Senegal River

Westernization

Banks

Civil administration

Religion

Model of colony with modern economy

Vietnam

Under the rule of Gen. Paul Doumer

French rule imposed at all levels of administration

Economic and social policies

Development of French-Indochina

France very present in Vietnam - Justification: Paris Foreign Missions Society

French Indochina

Formed in 1887 from Annam, Tonkin, Cochin china and the Kingdom of Cambodia. Laos was added after 1893

It lasted until 1954

France left local rulers in power

New Caledonia

Became a penal colony

22000 criminals and political prisoners

between 1860-1897

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FRENCH IMPERIALISM AND COLONIALISM

Africa, Asia and the Pacific