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French colonial empire

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For the French colonial postage stamps, see French Colonies.

France had colonial possessions, in various forms, from the beginning of the 17th century until the 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, its global colonial empire was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire. At its peak, between 1919 and 1939, the second French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 km² (4,767,000 sq. miles) of land. Including metropolitan France, the total area of land under French sovereignty reached 12,898,000 km² (4,980,000 sq. miles) in the 1920s and 1930s, which is 8.6% of the world's land area.

Currently, the remnants of this large empire are hundreds of islands and archipelagos located in the North Atlantic, the Caribbean, the Indian Ocean, the South Pacific, the North Pacific, and the Antarctic Ocean, as well as one mainland territory in South America, totaling altogether 123,150 km² (47,548 sq. miles), which amounts to only 1% of the pre-1939 French colonial empire's area, with 2,564,000 people living in them in 2007. All of these enjoy full political representation at the national level, as well as varying degrees of legislative autonomy. (See Administrative divisions of France.)

Map of the first (light blue) and second (dark blue — plain and hachured) French colonial empires
Animated map showing the French colonial empires

Medieval French empire

France experienced a de facto existence as an empire with overseas possessions across the Mediterranean during the 12th and 13th centuries as a result of the Crusades, although its society did not view it as such. The first incidence of France having an overseas possession was the first Kingdom of Jerusalem, with Baldwin I crowned in 1100. Indeed, the French term Outremer originated with this kingdom. The Fourth Crusade resulted in the partition of the Byzantine Empire of 1204, with Constantinople and surrounding lands in both Europe and Asia incorporated into the Latin Empire, ruled by nobles from Burgundy, Flanders, Hainaut, and Courtenay. This empire survived Greek and Bulgarian attacks until its re-conquest by the Nicaean Greeks in 1261. France also invaded Egypt during the Seventh Crusade in 1249 and occupied the Nile Delta for one year. Angevin rule resumed in the Kingdom of Sicily and Malta from 1266 to the Aragonese conquest of the early 14th century, this time as agents of France. The Lusignan noble family of Poitou had the throne of the Kingdom of Jerusalem until its Mamluk conquest in 1291 and of the Kingdom of Cyprus until 1489.

First French colonial empire

The early voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, as well as the frequent voyages of French fishermen to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland throughout that century, were the precursors to the story of France's colonial expansion. But Spain's jealous protection of its American monopoly, and the disruptions caused in France itself by the Wars of Religion in the later 16th century, prevented any consistent efforts by France to establish colonies. Early French attempts to found colonies in Brazil, in 1555 at Rio de Janeiro (the so-called France Antarctique) and in 1612 at São Luís (the so-called France Équinoxiale), and in Florida (including Fort Caroline in 1562) were not successful, due to Portuguese and Spanish vigilance and prevention.

The story of France's colonial empire truly began on July 27, 1605, with the foundation of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec, which was to become the capital of the enormous, but sparsely settled, fur-trading colony of New France (also called Canada).

Although, through alliances with various Native American tribes, the French were able to exert a loose control over much of the North American continent, areas of French settlement were generally limited to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies. It is only after the arrival of intendant Jean Talon in 1665 that France gave its American colonies the proper means to develop population colonies comparable to that of the British. But there was relatively little interest in colonialism in France, which concentrated rather on dominance within Europe, and for most of the history of New France, even Canada was far behind the British North American colonies in both population and economic development. Acadia itself was lost to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713.

In 1699, French territorial claims in North America expanded still further, with the foundation of Louisiana in the basin of the Mississippi River. The extensive trading network throughout the region connected to Canada through the Great Lakes, was maintained through a vast system of fortifications, many of them centered in the Illinois Country and in present-day Arkansas.

Place d'Armes in Montreal, historic heart of French Canada.

As the French empire in North America expanded, the French also began to build a smaller but more profitable empire in the West Indies. Settlement along the South American coast in what is today French Guiana began in 1624, and a colony was founded on Saint Kitts in 1625 (the island had to be shared with the English until the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, when it was ceded outright). The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique founded colonies in Guadeloupe and Martinique in 1635, and a colony was later founded on Saint Lucia by (1650).

Carte de L'Indoustan. Bellin, 1770.

The food-producing plantations of these colonies were built and sustained through slavery, with the supply of slaves dependent on the African slave trade. Local resistance by the indigenous peoples resulted in the Carib Expulsion of 1660.

The most important Caribbean colonial possession did not come until 1664, when the colony of Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti) was founded on the western half of the Spanish island of Hispaniola. In the 18th century, Saint-Domingue grew to be the richest sugar colony in the Caribbean. The eastern half of Hispaniola (today's Dominican Republic) also came under French rule for a short period, after being given to France by Spain in 1795.

French colonial expansion was not limited to the New World, however. In Senegal in West Africa, the French began to establish trading posts along the coast in 1624. In 1664, the French East India Company was established to compete for trade in the east. Colonies were established in India in Chandernagore in Bengal (1673) and Pondicherry in the Southeast (1674), and later at Yanam (1723), Mahe (1725), and Karikal (1739) (see French India). Colonies were also founded in the Indian Ocean, on the Île de Bourbon (Réunion, 1664), Île de France (Mauritius, 1718), and the Seychelles (1756).

Colonial conflict with Britain

In the mid-18th century, a series of colonial conflicts began between France and the Britain, which would ultimately result in the demise of most of the first French colonial empire. These wars were the War of the Austrian Succession (1744–1748), the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the War of the American Revolution (1778–1783), and the French Revolution (1793–1802) and Napoleonic (1803-1815) Wars. It may even be seen further back in time to the first of the French and Indian Wars. This recurrent conflict is known as the so-called Second Hundred Years' War.

Although the War of the Austrian Succession was indecisive — despite French successes in India under the French Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix — the Seven Years' War, after early French successes in Minorca and North America, saw a French defeat, with the numerically superior British (over one million to about 50 thousand French settlers) conquering not only New France (excluding the small islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon), but also most of France's West Indian (Caribbean) colonies, and all of the French Indian outposts. While the peace treaty saw France's Indian outposts, and the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe restored to France, the competition for influence in India had been won by the British, and North America was entirely lost — most of New France was taken by Britain (also refer to as British North America, except Louisiana, which France ceded to Spain as payment for Spain's late entrance into the war (and as compensation for Britain's annexation of Spanish Florida). Also ceded to the British were Grenada and Saint Lucia in the West Indies. Although the loss of Canada would cause much regret in future generations, it excited little unhappiness at the time; colonialism was widely regarded as both unimportant to France, and immoral.

Some recovery of the French colonial empire was made during the French intervention in the American Revolution, with Saint Lucia being returned to France by the Treaty of Paris in 1783, but not nearly as much as had been hoped for at the time of French intervention. True disaster came to what remained of France's colonial empire in 1791 when Saint Domingue (comprised of the Western third of the Caribbean island of Hispaniola ), France's richest and most important colony, was riven by a massive slave revolt, caused partly by the divisions among the island's elite, which had resulted from the French Revolution of 1789. The slaves, led eventually by Toussaint Louverture and then, following his capture by the French in 1801, by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, held their own against French, Spanish, and British opponents, and ultimately achieved independence as Haiti in 1804 (Haiti became the first black republic in the world, much earlier than any of the future African nations). In the meanwhile, the newly resumed war with Britain by the French, resulted in the British capture of practically all remaining French colonies. These were restored at the Peace of Amiens in 1802, but when war resumed in 1803, the British soon recaptured them. France's repurchase of Louisiana in 1800 came to nothing, as the final success of the Haitian revolt convinced Bonaparte that holding Louisiana would not be worth the cost, leading to its sale to the United States in 1803 (the Louisiana Purchase). Nor was the French attempt to establish a colony in Egypt in 1798–1801 successful.

Second French colonial empire

File:Fr empire 3.jpg
"Three colours, one flag, one empire."

At the close of the Napoleonic Wars, most of France's colonies were restored to it by Britain, notably Guadeloupe and Martinique in the West Indies, French Guiana on the coast of South America, various trading posts in Senegal, the Île Bourbon (Réunion) in the Indian Ocean, and France's tiny Indian possessions. Britain finally annexed Saint Lucia, Tobago, the Seychelles, and the Île de France (Mauritius), however.

The true beginnings of the second French colonial empire, however, were laid in 1830 with the French invasion of Algeria, which was conquered over the next 17 years. During the Second Empire, headed by Napoleon III, an attempt was made to establish a colonial-type protectorate in Mexico, but this came to little, and the French were forced to abandon the experiment after the end of the American Civil War, when the American president invoked the Monroe Doctrine. This French intervention in Mexico lasted from 1861 to 1867. Napoleon III also established French control over Cochin-China (the southernmost part of modern Vietnam including Saigon), as well as a protectorate over Cambodia.

It was only after the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 and the founding of the Third Republic (1871-1940) that most of France's later colonial possessions were acquired. From their base in Cochin-China, the French took over Tonkin and Annam (in modern Vietnam) in 1884-1885. These, together with Cambodia and Cochin-China, formed French Indochina (to which Laos was added in 1887[citation needed], and Kwang-Chou-Wan in 1900). In 1849, the French "concession" in Shanghai was established, lasting until 1946.

French colonies in 1891 (from Le Monde Illustré).
1. Panorama of Lac-Kaï, French outpost in China.
2. Yun-nan, in the quay of Hanoi.
3. Flooded street of Hanoi.
4. Landing stage of Hanoi


Influence was also expanded in North Africa, establishing a protectorate on Tunisia in 1881 (Bardo Treaty). Gradually, French control was established over much of Northern, Western, and Central Africa by the turn of the century (including the modern nations of Mauritania, Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic, Republic of Congo), as well as the east African coastal enclave of Djibouti (French Somaliland). The Voulet-Chanoine Mission, a military expedition, was sent out from Senegal in 1898 to conquer the Chad Basin and unify all French territories in West Africa. This expedition operated jointly with two other expeditions, the Foureau-Lamy and Gentil missions, which advanced from Algeria and Middle Congo respectively. With the death of the Muslim warlord Rabih az-Zubayr, the greatest ruler in the region, and the creation of the Military Territory of Chad in 1900, the Voulet-Chanoine Mission had accomplished all its goals. The ruthlessness of the mission provoked a scandal in Paris. In 1911, after the Agadir Crisis, Morocco became a French protectorate.

At this time, the French also established colonies in the South Pacific, including New Caledonia, the various island groups which make up French Polynesia (including the Society Islands, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus), and established joint control of the New Hebrides with Britain.

The French made their last major colonial gains after the First World War, when they gained mandates over the former Turkish territories of the Ottoman Empire that make up what is now Syria and Lebanon, as well as most of the former German colonies of Togo and Cameroon. A hallmark of the French colonial project in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the civilizing mission (mission civilisatrice), the principle that it was Europe's duty to bring civilization to benighted peoples. As such, colonial officials undertook a policy of Franco-Europeanization in French colonies, most notably French West Africa. Africans who adopted French culture, including fluent use of the French language and conversion to Christianity, were granted equal French citizenship, including suffrage. Later, residents of the "Four Communes" in Senegal were granted citizenship in a program led by the Afro-French politician Blaise Diagne.

Collapse of the empire

Main article: Decolonisation

The French colonial empire began to fall apart during the Second World War, when various parts of their empire were occupied by foreign powers (Japan in Indochina, Britain in Syria, Lebanon, and Madagascar, the US and Britain in Morocco and Algeria, and Germany in Tunisia). However, control was gradually reestablished by Charles de Gaulle. The French Union, included in the 1946 Constitution, replaced the former colonial Empire.

However, France was immediately confronted with the beginnings of the decolonization movement. Paul Ramadier (SFIO)'s cabinet repressed the Malagasy insurrection in 1947. In Asia, Ho Chi Minh's Vietminh declared Vietnam's independence, starting the Franco-Vietnamese War. In Cameroun, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon's insurrection, started in 1955 and headed by Ruben Um Nyobé, was violently repressed.

When this ended with French defeat and withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954, the French almost immediately became involved in a new, and even harsher conflict in their oldest major colony, Algeria. Ferhat Abbas and Messali Hadj's movements had marked the period between the two wars, but both sides radicalized after the Second World War. In 1945, the Sétif massacre was carried on by the French army. The Algerian War started in 1954. Algeria was particularly problematic for the French, due to the large number of European settlers (or pieds-noirs) who had settled there in the century and a quarter of French rule. Charles de Gaulle's accession to power in 1958 in the middle of the crisis ultimately led to independence for Algeria with the 1962 Evian Accords.

The French Union was replaced in the new 1958 Constitution by the French Community. Only Guinea refused by referendum to take part to the new colonial organization. However, the French Community dissolved itself in the midsts of the Algerian War; all of the other African colonies were granted independence in 1960, following local referendums. Some few colonies chose instead to remain part of France, under the statuses of overseas départements (territories). Critics of neocolonialism claimed that the Françafrique had replaced formal direct rule. They argued that while de Gaulle was granting independence on one hand, he was creating new ties through Jacques Foccart's help, his counsellor for African matters. Foccart supported in particular the Biafra secession (or Nigerian civil war) during the late 1960s.

Extent of the French colonial empires

Here is a list of all the countries that were part of the French colonial empires in the last 500 years, either entirely or in part, either under French sovereignty or as mandate or protectorate. When only a part of the country was under French rule, that part is listed in parentheses after the country. When there are no parentheses, it means the whole country was formerly part of any one of the French colonial empires. Countries listed are those where French sovereignty applied effectively. Areas that were only claimed, but not effectively controlled (such as Manhattan or Western Australia) are not listed.

"1st" means the country/territory was part of the first French colonial empire. "2nd" means the country/territory was part of the second French colonial empire. "Now" means this is a territory still part of the French Republic today.

The Americas

North America

Caribbean

South America

(see France Antarctique and France Équinoxiale)

Africa

North Africa

West Africa

Equatorial Africa

Indian Ocean

Red Sea

Asia

Middle East

South Asia

East Asia

South East Asia

Oceania

Antarctic Ocean

Unsuccessful colonisations

  • Florida — Huguenots settled near present-day Jacksonville in 1562 and were massacred by the Spanish in 1565.
  • New Zealand — A colony was established at Akaroa on Banks Peninsula in the South Island in April 1840, but Britain had gained sovereignty over New Zealand through the treaty of Waitangi in February.
  • Africa — France and the British Empire competed for possession of continuous territories from along the west to east and south to north axis of the continent respectively. This rivalry, a part of the Scramble for Africa, provoked the Fashoda incident in 1898; its peaceful resolution led to the Entente Cordiale.

Organization of the French Empire in 1931

At the height of the second French colonial empire in 1931, the Empire was organized into the following colonies:

Africa and the Indian Ocean

The Americas

Asia

The Pacific

See also

References

  • Thomas Pakenham, The Scramble for Africa (1991)
  • Maria Petringa, Brazza, A Life for Africa (2006)
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