French colonial empire

Na de **French colonial empire** (French: *Empire colonial français*) consist of de overseas colonies, protectorates, den mandate territories wey cam under French rule from de 16th century onward. Na dem generally make a distinction between de "**First French colonial empire**", wey exist til 1814, by wich time na dem loose anaa dem sell chaw of am, den de "**Second French colonial empire**", wich begin plus de conquest of Algiers insyd 1830. On de eve of World War I, na France ein colonial empire be the second-largest insyd de world after de British Empire.

France begin to establish colonies insyd de Americas, de Caribbean, den India insyd de 16th century buh e loose chaw of ein possessions after ein defeat insyd de Seven Years' War. Na dem loose de North American possessions to Britain den Spain, buh na Spain later return Louisiana to France insyd 1800. Na dem then sell de territory to de United States insyd 1803. Na France rebuild a new empire mostly after 1850, wey na dem concentrate chiefly insyd Africa as well as Indochina den de South Pacific. As e develop, de new French empire take on roles of trade plus de metropole, wey dey supply raw materials den dey purchase manufactured items. Especially after de disastrous Franco-Prussian War, wich see Germany cam be de leading economic den military power of de continent of Europe, wey dey acquire colonies den dey rebuild an empire wey na dem see as a way to restore French prestige insyd de world. Na e sanso be to provide manpower during de world wars.

Na a central ideological foundation of French colonialism be de *Mission civilisatrice*, anaa "civilizing mission", wich aim to spread French language, institutions, den values. Na figures like Jules Ferry promote am, wey speak of a "duty to civilize", na dis vision frame colonialism as a universalist den progressive project. Na ebe nonetheless contested, wey dey include by prominent politicians such as Georges Leygues, wey reject de policy of assimilation : "wen face plus Muslim, Hindu, Annamite populations, all plus a long history of brilliant civilizations, na de policy of assimilation go be de most disastrous den absurd."

Insyd practice, na colonial subjects be governed under unequal legal systems wey dem only rarely grant dem full citizenship, despite de universalist principles of de French Republic. While de French empire sometimes provide greater access to citizenship anaa education dan oda colonial powers, efforts to extend republican institution, such as de possibility of naturalization give Algerian Muslims, dem largely fail, dey face both internal divisions den widespread refusal by colonized populations to fully submit to de laws of de French Republic.

Insyd World War II, na Charles de Gaulle den de Free French use de colonies as a base from wich na dem prepare to liberate France. Historian Tony Chafer dey argue dat: "In an effort to restore ein world-power status after de humiliation of defeat den occupation, na France be eager to maintain ein overseas empire at de end of de Second World War." However, after 1945, na anti-colonial movements begin to challenge European authority. Na revolts insyd Indochina den Algeria prove costly wey na France loose both colonies. After dese conflicts, na a relatively peaceful decolonization take place elsewhere after 1960. Na de French Constitution of 27 October 1946 (Fourth French Republic) establish de French Union, wich endure til 1958. Na dem integrate newer remnants of de colonial empire into France as overseas departments den territories within de French Republic. Dese now total altogeda 119,394&nbsp;km2 (46,098 sq. miles), plus 2.8 million people insyd 2021. Na links between France den ein former colonies persist thru La francophonie, de CFA franc, den joint military operations such as Operation Serval.

Na France send few settlers to chaw colonies, plus de notable exception of Algeria, wer na Europeans, though a minority, hold political den economic dominance. Na de empire generate both collaboration den resistance, wey na chaw future anti-colonial leaders educate insyd France, dey draw on ein republican ideals to challenge colonial rule.

## Territories

### Africa

* French Algeria (1830–1961)
* French Military Territory insyd Libya (1943–1951)
* French Protectorate insyd Morocco (1912–1956)
* French Protectorate of Tunisia (1881–1956)
* French West Africa (1895–1958)
** French Mauritania (1958–1960)
** French Senegal (1958–1960)
** French Guinea (1958–1960)
** French Ivory Coast (1958–1960)
** French Niger (1958–1960)
** French Upper Volta (1958–1960)
** French Dahomey (1958–1960)
** French Togoland (1958–1960)
** French Sudan (1959–1960)
* French Equatorial Africa (1910–1958)
** French Gabon (1958–1960)
** French Congo (1958–1960)
** Ubangui-Shari (1958–1960)
** French Chad (1958–1960)
* French Cameroon (1920–1960)
* French Madagascar (1897–1958)
** Seychelles (1756–1794)
** Île de France (Mauritius) (1715–1810)
** Comoros (1841–1975)
** Mayotte (1843–)
** Réunion (1665–)
** Kerguelen (1924–)
** Île Saint-Paul (1924–)
** Amsterdam Island  (1924–)
** Crozet Islands (1772–)
** Bassas da India (1897–)
** Europa Island (1897 )
** Juan de Nova Island (1897–)
** Glorioso Islands (1892–)
** Tromelin (1722–)
* French Somalia (1896–1967)
* French domains of St Helena (1854–)

### Asia

* French mandate of Syria (1923–1946)
* Greater Lebanon (1923–1943)
* French India (1673–1950)
* French Indochina (1887–1954)
** French Cochinchina (1862–1946)
** Tonkin (1883–1887)
** Annam (1883–1950)
** French protectorate of Cambodia (1863–1956)
** French protectorate of Laos (1893–1953)
** Leased territory of Guangzhouwan (1898–1945)
* China concessions
** French concession insyd Tianjin (1896–1943)
** Shanghai French Concession (1896–1943)
** Shamian Island, Guangzhou (1896–1943)

### The Caribbean

* Commonwealth of Dominica (1690–1763)
* Grenada (1649–1763)
* Guadeloupe (1635–)
* Haiti (1697–1804)
* Martinique (1635–)
* Saint Barthélemy (1878–)
* Saint Lucia (1674–1814)
* Saint Martin (1648–)
* Dominican Republic (1795–1815)
* Virgin Islands
** Saint Croix (1664–1733)
** Vieques (1698–1811)

### South America

* France Antarctique (1555–1567)
* French Guiana (1503–)
* Equinoctial France (1612–1615)

### North America

* New France (1534–1763)
** Acadia (1604–1713)
*** Île Royale (1713–1763)
**** Magdalen Islands (1713–1763)
**** Isle Saint-Jean (1713–1763)
** Canada (1535–1763)
*** Pays d'en Haut (1610–1763)
*** Domaine du roy (1652–1763)
*** Illinois Country (1675–1722)
*** Baie du Nord (Hudson's Bay) (1686–1713)
*** Ohio Valley (1753–1763)
** Louisiana (1682–1762), (1801–1803)
*** Texas (1684–1689)
*** Illinois Country (1722–1763), (1801–1803)
** Terre-Neuve (1658–1713)
*** French Shore (1713–1904)
*** Saint Pierre and Miquelon (1536–)
* Florida (1562–1565)

### Oceania

* New Caledonia (1853–)
* New Zealand (1840–1849)
* French Polynesia (1842–)
** Windward Islands
** Leeward Islands
** Marquesas Islands
** Austral Islands
** Tuamotu-Gambier
* Wallis and Futuna (1887–)
* Clipperton Island (1858–)
* New Hebrides (1887–1980)

### Antarctica

* Adélie Land (1840–)

## References



## Read further

* Langley, Michael. "Bizerta to the Bight: The French in Africa".  *History Today.* (Oct 1972), pp 733–739. covers 1798 to 1900.
* Horne, Alistair. (1977). *A Savage War of Peace: Algeria, 1954-1962*. Viking Press.
* Hutton, Patrick H. ed. *Historical Dictionary of the Third French Republic, 1870–1940* (2 vol 1986).
* McDougall, James. (2017). *A History of Algeria*. Cambridge University Press.
* McDougall, James. (2006). *History and the culture of nationalism in Algeria*. Cambridge University Press.
* Northcutt, Wayne, ed. *Historical Dictionary of the French Fourth and Fifth Republics, 1946–1991* (1992).

### Policies den colonies

* Aldrich, Robert. *Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion* (1996)
* Aldrich, Robert. *The French Presence in the South Pacific, 1842–1940* (1989).
* Anderson, Fred. *Crucible of War: The Seven Years' War and the Fate of Empire in British North America, 1754–1766* (2001), covers New France in Canada
* Baumgart, Winfried. *Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880–1914* (1982)
* Betts, Raymond. *Tricouleur: The French Overseas Empire* (1978), 174pp
* Betts, Raymond. *Assimilation and Association in French Colonial Theory, 1890–1914* (2005) excerpt and text search
* .
* 
* Clayton, Anthony. *The Wars of French Decolonization* (1995)
* Cogneau, Denis, et al. "Taxation in Africa from Colonial Times to Present Evidence from former French colonies 1900-2018." (2021): online
* Conklin, Alice L. *A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930* (1997)
* Curtis, Sarah A. *Civilizing habits: Women missionaries and the revival of French empire* (Oxford UP, 2010); role of nuns
* Evans, Martin. "From colonialism to post-colonialism: the French empire since Napoleon". in Martin S. Alexander, ed., *French History since Napoleon* (1999) pp: 391–415.
* Gamble, Harry. *Contesting French West Africa: Battles over Schools and the Colonial Order, 1900–1950* (U of Nebraska Press, 2017).  378 pp. online review
* Jennings, Eric T. *Imperial Heights: Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina* (2010).
* 
* Lawrence, Adria. *Imperial rule and the politics of nationalism: anti-colonial protest in the French empire* (Cambridge UP, 2013).
* .
* Klein, Martin A. *Slavery and colonial rule in French West Africa* (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
* Manning, Patrick. *Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa 1880-1995* (Cambridge UP, 1998).
* Neres, Philip. *French-speaking West Africa: From Colonial Status to Independence* (1962)
* Priestley, Herbert Ingram. *France overseas: a study of modern imperialism* (1938) 464pp.
* Quinn, Frederick. *The French Overseas Empire* (2000)
* .
* Poddar, Prem, and Lars Jensen, eds., *A historical companion to postcolonial literatures: Continental Europe and Its Empires* (Edinburgh UP, 2008), excerpt also entire text online
* .
* Priestley, Herbert Ingram. (1938) *France overseas;: A study of modern imperialism* 463pp; encyclopedic coverage as of late 1930s
* Roberts, Stephen H. *History of French Colonial Policy (1870-1925)* (2 vol 1929)  also ; Comprehensive scholarly history
* Schnerb, Robert. "Napoleon III and the Second French Empire." *Journal of Modern History* 8#3 (1936), pp. 338–55. online
* .
* Strother, Christian. "Waging War on Mosquitoes: Scientific Research and the Formation of Mosquito Brigades in French West Africa, 1899–1920". *Journal of the history of medicine and allied sciences* (2016): jrw005.
* Thomas, Martin. *The French Empire Between the Wars: Imperialism, Politics and Society* (2007) covers 1919–1939
* Thompson, Virginia, and Richard Adloff. *French West Africa* (Stanford UP, 1958).
* Wellington, Donald C. *French East India companies: A historical account and record of trade* (Hamilton Books, 2006)
* Wesseling, H.L. and Arnold J. Pomerans. *Divide and rule: The partition of Africa, 1880–1914* (Praeger, 1996.)
* Wesseling, H.L. *The European Colonial Empires: 1815–1919* (Routledge, 2015).
* White, Owen,  and James Patrick Daughton, eds. *In God's Empire: French Missionaries in the Modern World* (Oxford University Press, 2012). online
* Winnacker, R. A. (1938). "Elections in Algeria and the French Colonies under the Third Republic." *The American Political Science Review*, 32(2), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.2307/1948669

### Decolonization

* Betts, Raymond F. *Decolonization* (2nd ed. 2004)
* Betts, Raymond F. *France and Decolonisation, 1900–1960* (1991)
* Chafer, Tony. *The end of empire in French West Africa: France's successful decolonization* (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002).
* Chamberlain, Muriel E. ed. *Longman Companion to European Decolonisation in the Twentieth Century* (Routledge, 2014)
* Clayton, Anthony. *The wars of French decolonization* (Routledge, 2014).
* Cooper, Frederick. "French Africa, 1947–48: Reform, Violence, and Uncertainty in a Colonial Situation". *Critical Inquiry*  (2014) 40#4 pp: 466–478. in JSTOR
* Ikeda, Ryo. *The Imperialism of French Decolonisation: French Policy and the Anglo-American Response in Tunisia and Morocco* (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015)
* Jansen, Jan C. & Jürgen Osterhammel. *Decolonization: A Short History* (princeton UP, 2017). online
* Jones, Max, et al. "Decolonising imperial heroes: Britain and France". *Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History* 42#5 (2014): 787–825.
* Lawrence, Adria K. *Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism:  Anti-Colonial Protest in the French Empire* (Cambridge UP, 2013) online reviews
* McDougall, James. "The Impossible Republic: The Reconquest of Algeria and the Decolonization of France, 1945–1962", *The Journal of Modern History* 89#4 (December 2017) pp 772–811 excerpt
* Rothermund, Dietmar. *Memories of Post-Imperial Nations: The Aftermath of Decolonization, 1945–2013* (2015) excerpt; Compares the impact on Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy and Japan
* Rothermund, Dietmar. *The Routledge companion to decolonization* (Routledge, 2006), comprehensive global coverage; 365pp
* Shepard, Todd. *The Invention of Decolonization: The Algerian War and the Remaking of France* (2006)
* Simpson, Alfred William Brian. *Human Rights and the End of Empire: Britain and the Genesis of the European Convention* (Oxford University Press, 2004).
* Smith, Tony. "The French Colonial Consensus and People's War, 1946–58." *Journal of Contemporary History* (1974): 217–247. in JSTOR
* Thomas, Martin, Bob Moore, and Lawrence J. Butler. *Crises of Empire: Decolonization and Europe's imperial states* (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015)
* Von Albertini, Rudolf. *Decolonization: the Administration and Future of the Colonies, 1919–1960* (Doubleday, 1971), scholarly analysis of French policies, pp 265–469..

### Images den impact on France

* Andrew, Christopher M., and Alexander Sydney Kanya-Forstner. "France, Africa, and the First World War". *Journal of African History* 19.1 (1978): 11–23.
* . online
* Andrew, C. M., and A. S. Kanya-Forstner. "The French 'Colonial Party': Its Composition, Aims and Influence, 1885–1914". *Historical Journal* 14#1 (1971): 99–128. online.
* August, Thomas G. *The Selling of the Empire: British and French Imperialist Propaganda, 1890–1940* (1985)
* Chafer, Tony, and Amanda Sackur. *Promoting the Colonial Idea: Propaganda and Visions of Empire in France* (2002)
* .
* Conkin, Alice L. *A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930* (1997) * Dobie, Madeleine. *Trading Places: Colonization & Slavery in 18th-Century French Culture* (2010)
* .
* Rosenblum, Mort. *Mission to Civilize: The French Way* (1986) online review
* Rothermund, Dietmar. *Memories of Post-Imperial Nations: The Aftermath of Decolonization, 1945–2013* (2015) excerpt; Compares the impact on Great Britain, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Portugal, Italy and Japan.
* Singer, Barnett, and John Langdon. *Cultured Force: Makers and Defenders of the French Colonial Empire* (2008)
* Thomas, Martin, ed. *The French Colonial Mind, Volume 1: Mental Maps of Empire and Colonial Encounters* (France Overseas: Studies in Empire and D) (2012); *The French Colonial Mind, Volume 2: Violence, Military Encounters, and Colonialism* (2012).

### Historiography den memoir

* Bennington, Alice. "Writing Empire? The Reception of Post-Colonial Studies in France". *Historical Journal* (2016) 59#4: 1157–1186. abstract
* Dubois, Laurent. "The French Atlantic", in *Atlantic History: A Critical Appraisal,* ed. by Jack P. Greene and Philip D. Morgan, (Oxford UP, 2009) pp.&nbsp;137–61.
* Dwyer, Philip. "Remembering and Forgetting in Contemporary France: Napoleon, Slavery, and the French History Wars", *French Politics, Culture & Society* (2008) 26#3 pp 110–122.
* .
* Greer, Allan. "National, Transnational, and Hypernational Historiographies: New France Meets Early American History", *Canadian Historical Review,* (2010) 91#4 pp 695–724, in Project MUSE
* Hodson, Christopher, and Brett Rushforth, "Absolutely Atlantic: Colonialism and the Early Modern French State in Recent Historiography", *History Compass,* (January 2010) 8#1 pp 101–117
* Pernsteiner, Alexis (translator). (2017). *The Colonial Legacy in France: Fracture, Rupture, and Apartheid* (N. Bancel, P. Blanchard, & D. Thomas, Eds.). Indiana University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt20060bg.
* Lawrence, Adria K. *Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism: Anti-Colonial Protest in the French Empire* (Cambridge UP, 2013) online reviews

## External links

* French Colonial Historical Society
* H-FRANCE, daily discussions and book reviews Archived 15 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine
* French Colonial Historical Society
* ''French Colonial History''—an annual volume of refereed, scholarly articles