The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1896-11-29
The Colonial Expansion of France.

The Colonial Expansion of France.
Soon after the beginning Of the present
month a strong military expedition started
southwark into the Sahara for the purpose
OF occupying definitely the large and fertile
oasis Of Touat. This is but the latest in a
series OF remarkable facts which have taken
place since GAMBETTA and his friends
acquired power under the Third Republic
in October, 1877; facts which, taken to-
gether, refute the current notion that the
French are unfit for colonization. The
truth Is that during the last nineteen years
the French, notwithstanding the instability
OF their Ministries, which would Mt the
first glance seem fatal to continuity Of
policy, have gone on steadily laying the
foundations of a great colonial empire.
One sometimes hears 1t said that the
French must be constitutionally disquali-
fed for the maintenance Of %conquests and
settlements beyond the sea, because they
were unable to retain what they possessed
In the fret half OF the last century But it
should be remembered that with one ex-
ception france has never lost any of her
t~ransmarine possessions through inability
to govern. 1t was by England. q power
which at the tim happened to command
the sea, that the French were deprived Of
Canada, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick. and
some of the West India Islands; and, again,
it was by England that the French were
practically driven out Of India, although,
rs a rule, they had got Oh quite as we'll with
the native Princes and population as had
the English. II NAPOLEON BONAPARrE
sold the Louisiana Territory to the
United States It was because Eng
land, then mistress of the seas, would
otherwise have annexed it to her own domin-
sons. Hayti is the solitary instance of a
French colony. the inhabitants of which
have rejected French Government. and in
that part of Hispaniola the blacks out
numbered the whites in the proportion Of
sixteen to one. The Hayti incident casts
but a trivial reflection on the French Ca
pacity for t~ransmarine rule. compared
with the impeachment of Great Britain's
former capacity for that function, fur
nished by her loss of her thirteen American
colonies. 1t il true that the French are 4
h"rne-loVing people, not given to emigration;
nnd that, when they acquire possession
of a distant region, they habitually
seek not to people it, but to govern it.
That, however, is precisely what Great
Britain docs in India, and her boast is that
abe Is able to control that vast peninsula,
although the natives OF the British Isles
there resident do not constitute one-sixth of
one per cent. of the total population. That
is the kind Of colonial empire which the
French are competent to gain and keep, so
long as Englishmen let them alone; and,
aIthnnrb, tla, hayn Iaap ,,,,tnl F.or. Mt.
America and India, they are now busily
constructing a new and spacious colonial
dominion in Africa and the Far East.
When the Second Empire fell. in 1870,
France had no outlying possessions except
Cayenne, with n few small West India
islands, and a few trading settlements on
the west coast of Africa, inherited from the
ancten regime; Algeria. for which she was
indebted to the Governments OF CHARLES
X. and LOUIS PHILIPPE: a few islands In
this Pacific. and n weak establishment In
Cochin China, which represented the sole
colonial achievement of NAPOLEON III.
What Is the. situation to day In further
India the French are masters not only Of
Cochin China. but of Cambodia. AMMAN,
Tonquin, and n large section of
Siam their territories are c~onterminous for
many hundreds OF miles with those OF the
Middle Kingdom, and they have become
vigorous competitors OF the English for the
trade Of Yunnan and other land-locked
provinces In southwestern China. 1t is q
veritable empire which they have erected
In this quarter, and although they make no
effort to c~olonize 1t, any more than the Eng
lish make In India. they arc showing them
selves able to govern 1t n develop It.
Another transmarine acquisition which
France owes to tho Third Republic, is the
great island Of Madagascar, about 1000
miles In length, nearly $50 miles across in
the broadcast portion, and having a total
area OF 100000 square miles. almost four
times the supsrhcies of England and Wales.
On the west coast OF Africa the Third Re
public owns French Congo, a vast territory
stretching to within a few hundred miles OF
the Nile. together with a right Of preemp-
tion 10 the Free Congo State, a right which
will be exercised whenever Belgium grows
tired OF her expenditures in that quarter.
Amazing also has been the eastward ex-
tension Of The old West Coast settlements
ever the Ssgion Of the upper Niger and