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; however,
Britain finally annexed
Saint Lucia,
Tobago, the
Seychelles, and the
Isle de France (now
Mauritius). In 1825
Charles X sent an expedition to
Haïti, resulting in the
Haiti indemnity controversy. The beginnings of the second French colonial empire were laid in 1830 with the
French invasion of Algeria, which was fully conquered by 1903. Historian
Ben Kiernan estimates that 825,000 Algerians died during the conquest by 1875.
Africa (second empire) Morocco through to 1934 The French Colonial Empire established a protectorate in Morocco between the years of 1912 to 1956. France's general approach to governing the protectorate of Morocco was a policy of in-direct rule where they co-opted existing governance systems to control the protectorate. Specifically, the Moroccan elite and Sultan were both left in control while being strongly influenced by the French government. Infrastructure was discriminatory in colonial Morocco. The French colonial government built 36.5 kilometers of sewers in the new neighborhoods created to accommodate new French settlers while only 4.3 kilometers of sewers were built in indigenous Moroccan communities. For example, at the Battle of El Herri in 1914, 600 French soldiers were killed.
Tunisia The French protectorate of Tunisia lasted from 1881 to 1956. The protectorate was initially established after the successful invasion of Tunisia in 1881. The groundwork for occupation was laid on April 24, 1881, when the French deployed 35,000 troops from Algeria to invade several Tunisian cities. As in Morocco, the French governed indirectly and preserved the existing government structure. The bey remained an absolute monarch, Tunisian ministers were still appointed, although they were both subject to French authority. Over time, the French gradually weakened the existing structures of power and centralized power into a French colonial administration.
French Equatorial Africa military expedition sent out from
Algiers in 1898 to conquer the
Chad Basin and unify all French territories in West Africa. French Equatorial Africa was a confederation of French colonial possessions in the Sahel and Congo River regions of Africa. Colonies included in French Equatorial Africa include
French Gabon,
French Congo,
Ubangui-Shari, and
French Chad.
Cameroon Cameroon was initially colonized by the German Empire in 1884. The indigenous people of Cameroon refused to work on German related projects, which turned into force labor. However, after World War One, the colony was partitioned by France and Britain. The French colony lasted from 1916 to until self-rule was achieved in 1960.
Madagascar French colonialism in Madagascar began in 1896 when France established a protectorate by force and ended in the 1960s with the beginning of self-rule. Under French control, the colony of Madagascar included the dependencies of
Comoros,
Mayotte,
Réunion,
Kerguelen,
Île Saint-Paul,
Amsterdam Island,
Crozet Islands,
Bassas da India,
Europa Island,
Juan de Nova Island,
Glorioso Islands, and
Tromelin.
Algeria The French conquest of Algeria began in 1830 with the invasion of Algiers, and was mostly completed by 1852. Not until 1903 was the conquest fully complete. French colonization of Algeria was undertaken through military conquest and the overthrow of existing structures of government. French colonial rule lasted until
Algerian independence in 1962. French colonization of Algeria was defined by its lethality for indigenous Algerians, the dissolution of the Algerian government, and the creation of oppressive and segregationist structures which discriminated against the indigenous population. The French military invasion of Algeria began in 1830 with a naval blockade around Algeria followed by the landing of 37,000 French soldiers in Algeria. The French captured the strategic port of Algiers in 1830 deposing
Hussein Dey, the ruler of the
Deylik of Algiers. They also seized other coastal communities. Around 100,000 French soldiers were deployed in the conquest of Algeria. Algerian armed resistance against the French invasion was mainly divided between forces of
Ahmed Bey ben Mohamed Chérif at
Constantine in the east, who was seeking to reinstate the Deylik of Algiers, and nationalist forces in the west and center. Treaties with the nationalists under
Emir Abdelkader enabled the French to focus on the defeating of the remnants of the Deylik during the 1837
Siege of Constantine. Abdelkader continued to fight the French in the west until 1847. Between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Algerians, out of a total of 3 million, were killed during the French conquest as a result of war, massacres, disease and famine. Famines and disease epidemics were partially caused by French confiscation of farmland from Algerians and the "scorched earth" tactics of razing farms and villages to quell Algerian resistance. French losses from 1830 to 1851 were 3,336 killed in action and 92,329 dead in the hospital. There were about 100,000 European settlers in the country in 1852, at that time, about half of them French. Under the Second Republic the country was ruled by a civilian government, but Louis Napoleon re-established a military government, much to the annoyance of the colonists. By 1857 the army had conquered Kabyle Province, and pacified the country. By 1860 the European population had grown to 200,000, and lands of native Algerians were being rapidly bought and farmed by the new arrivals. In the first eight years of his rule Napoleon III paid little attention to Algeria. In September 1860, however, he and Empress Eugénie visited Algeria, and the trip made a deep impression upon them. Eugénie was invited to attend a traditional Arab wedding, and the Emperor met many of the local leaders. The Emperor gradually conceived the idea that Algeria should be governed differently from other colonies. In February 1863, he wrote a public letter to Pelissier, the Military Governor, saying: "Algeria is not a colony in the traditional sense, but an Arab kingdom; the local people have, like the colonists, a legal right to my protection. I am just as much the Emperor of the Arabs of Algeria as I am of the French." He intended to rule Algeria through a government of Arab aristocrats. Toward this end he invited the chiefs of main Algerian tribal groups to his chateau at Compiegne for hunting and festivities. Compared to previous administrations, Napoleon III was far more sympathetic to the native Algerians. He halted European migration inland, restricting them to the coastal zone. He also freed the Algerian rebel leader
Abd al Qadir (who had been promised freedom on surrender but was imprisoned by the previous administration) and gave him a stipend of 150,000 francs. He allowed Muslims to serve in the military and civil service on theoretically equal terms and allowed them to migrate to France. In addition, he gave the option of citizenship; however, for Muslims to take this option they had to accept all of the French civil code, including parts governing inheritance and marriage which conflicted with Muslim laws, and they had to reject the competence of religious
Sharia courts. This was interpreted by some Muslims as requiring them to give up parts of their religion to obtain citizenship and was resented. in
Algiers in 1857 by Ernest Francis Vacherot More importantly, Napoleon III changed the system of land tenure. While ostensibly well-intentioned, in effect this move destroyed the traditional system of land management and deprived many Algerians of land. While Napoleon did renounce state claims to tribal lands, he also began a process of dismantling tribal land ownership in favour of individual land ownership. This process was corrupted by French officials sympathetic to the French in Algeria who took much of the land they surveyed into public domain. In addition, many tribal leaders, chosen for loyalty to the French rather than influence in their tribe, immediately sold communal land for cash. His attempted reforms were interrupted in 1864 by an Arab insurrection, which required more than a year and an army of 85,000 soldiers to suppress. Nonetheless, he did not give up his idea of making Algeria a model where French colonists and Arabs could live and work together as equals. He traveled to Algiers for a second time on 3 May 1865, and this time he remained for a month, meeting with tribal leaders and local officials. He offered a wide amnesty to participants of the insurrection, and promised to name Arabs to high positions in his government. He also promised a large public works program of new ports, railroads, and roads. However, once again his plans met a major natural obstacle in 1866 and 1868, Algeria was struck by an epidemic of cholera, clouds of locusts, drought and famine, and his reforms were hindered by the French colonists, who voted massively against him in the plebiscites of his late reign. Up to 500,000 people died from the famine and epidemics. There were roughly 130,000 colonists in Algeria in 1871 and by 1900, there were one million. In 1902, a French military expedition entered
Hoggar Mountains and defeated the kingdom of
Kel Ahaggar. The conquest of Algeria was completed in 1920 when the
Kel Ajjer gave up their resistance to the French colonial power.
Summary of additional colonization in Africa signing treaty with
Famienkro leaders, 1892, in present-day Ivory Coast France also extended its influence in
North Africa after 1870, establishing a protectorate in
Tunisia in 1881 with the
Bardo Treaty. Gradually, French control crystallised over much of North,
West, and
Central Africa by around the start of the 20th century (including the modern states of
Mauritania,
Senegal,
Guinea,
Mali,
Ivory Coast,
Benin,
Niger,
Chad,
Central African Republic,
Republic of the Congo,
Gabon,
Cameroon, the
east African coastal enclave of
Djibouti (
Obock Territory), and the island of
Madagascar.
Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza helped to formalise French control in Gabon and on the northern banks of the
Congo River from the early 1880s. The explorer Colonel
Parfait-Louis Monteil traveled from Senegal to
Lake Chad in 1890–1892, signing treaties of friendship and protection with the rulers of several of the countries he passed through, and gaining much knowledge of the geography and politics of the region. The
Voulet–Chanoine Mission, a military expedition, set out from Senegal in 1898 to conquer the
Chad Basin and to 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 (April 1900) of the Muslim warlord
Rabih az-Zubayr, the greatest ruler in the region, and the creation of the Military Territory of Chad (September 1900), the Voulet–Chanoine Mission had accomplished all its goals. The ruthlessness of the mission provoked a scandal in Paris. As a part of the
Scramble for Africa, France aimed to establish a continuous west–east axis across the continent, in contrast with
the proposed British north–south axis. Tensions between Britain and France heightened in Africa. At several points war seemed possible, but no outbreak occurred. The most serious episode was the
Fashoda Incident of 1898. French troops tried to claim an area in the Southern Sudan, and a British force purporting to act in the interests of the
Khedive of Egypt arrived to confront them. Under heavy pressure, the French withdrew, implicitly acknowledging Anglo-Egyptian control over the area. An agreement between the two states recognised the
status quo. The British were to maintain control over Egypt, while France remained the dominant power in
Morocco. Still, it is commonly believed that France suffered a humiliating defeat overall. During the
Agadir Crisis in 1911, Britain supported France against
Germany, and
Morocco became a
French protectorate. The French made their last major colonial gains after
World War I, when they gained
mandates over the former 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.
Pacific Islands in 1860.
Tahiti was made a French protectorate in 1842, and annexed as a colony of France in 1880. In 1838, the French naval commander
Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars responded to complaints of the mistreatment of French Catholic missionary in the
Kingdom of Tahiti ruled by Queen
Pōmare IV. Dupetit Thouars forced the native government to pay an indemnity and sign a treaty of friendship with France respecting the rights of French subjects in the islands including any future Catholic missionaries. Four years later, claiming the Tahitians had violated the treaty, a French protectorate was forcibly installed and the queen made to sign a request for French protection. Queen Pōmare left her kingdom and exiled herself to
Raiatea in protest against the French and tried to enlist the help of
Queen Victoria. The
Franco-Tahitian War broke out between the
Tahitian people and the French from 1844 to 1847 as France attempted to consolidate their rule and extend their rule into the
Leeward Islands where Queen Pōmare sought refuge with her relatives. The British remained officially neutral during the war but diplomatic tensions existed between the French and British. The French succeeded in subduing the guerilla forces on Tahiti but failed to hold the other islands. In February 1847, Queen Pōmare IV returned from her self-imposed exile and acquiesced to rule under the protectorate. Although victorious, the French were not able to annex the islands due to diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, so Tahiti and its dependency
Moorea continued to be ruled under the protectorate. A clause to the war settlement, known as the
Jarnac Convention or the Anglo-French Convention of 1847, was signed by France and Great Britain, in which the two powers agreed to respect the independence of Queen Pōmare's allies in Leeward Islands. The French continued the guise of protection until the 1880s when they formally annexed Tahiti with the abdication of King
Pōmare V on 29 June 1880. The Leeward Islands were
annexed through the Leewards War which ended in 1897. These conflicts and the annexation of other Pacific islands formed
French Oceania. On 24 September 1853, Admiral
Febvrier Despointes took formal possession of
New Caledonia and
Port-de-France (Nouméa) was founded 25 June 1854. A few dozen free settlers settled on the west coast in the following years, but New Caledonia became a
penal colony and, from the 1860s until the end of the transportations in 1897, about 22,000 criminals and political prisoners were sent to New Caledonia. In contravention of the Jarnac Convention of 1847, the French placed the Leeward Islands under a provisional protectorate by falsely convincing the ruling chiefs that the
German Empire planned to take over their island kingdoms. After years of diplomatic negotiation, Britain and France agreed to abrogate the convention in 1887 and the French formally annexed all the Leeward Islands without official treaties of cession from the islands' sovereign governments. From 1888 to 1897, the natives of the kingdom of
Raiatea and
Tahaa led by a minor chief,
Teraupo'o, fought off French rule and the
annexation of the Leeward Islands. Anti-French factions in the kingdom of
Huahine also attempted to fight off the French under Queen
Teuhe while the kingdom of
Bora Bora remained neutral but hostile to the French. The conflict ended in 1897 with the capture and exile of rebel leaders to New Caledonia and more than one hundred rebels to the Marquesas. These conflicts and the annexation of other Pacific islands formed French Polynesia.
Napoleon III: 1852–1870 , the Algerian military leader who led a struggle against the
French invasion of Algeria Napoleon III doubled the area of the French overseas Empire; he established French rule in
New Caledonia, and
Cochinchina, established a protectorate in
Cambodia (1863); and colonized parts of Africa. To carry out his new overseas projects, Napoleon III created a new Ministry of the Navy and the Colonies and appointed an energetic minister,
Prosper, Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, to head it. A key part of the enterprise was the modernization of the French Navy; he began the construction of 15 powerful new battle cruisers powered by steam and driven by propellers; and a fleet of steam-powered troop transports. The
French Navy became the second most powerful in the world, after Britain's. He also created a new force of colonial troops, including elite units of naval infantry,
Zouaves, the Chasseurs d'Afrique, and Algerian sharpshooters, and he expanded the Foreign Legion, which had been founded in 1831 and won fame in the Crimea, Italy and Mexico. By the end of Napoleon III's reign, the French overseas territories had tripled in the area; in 1870 they covered a , with more than 5 million inhabitants.
Asia (second empire) Napoleon III also acted to increase the French presence in Indochina. An important factor in his decision was the belief that France risked becoming a second-rate power by not expanding its influence in East Asia. Deeper down was the sense that France owed the world a civilizing mission. French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the 17th century, when the Jesuit priest
Alexandre de Rhodes opened a mission there. In 1858 the Vietnamese emperor of the
Nguyen dynasty felt threatened by the French influence and tried to expel the missionaries. Napoleon III sent a naval force of fourteen gunships, carrying three thousand French and three thousand Filipino troops provided by Spain, under
Charles Rigault de Genouilly, to compel the government to accept the missionaries and to stop the persecution of Catholics. In September 1858 the expeditionary force captured and occupied the port of
Da Nang, and then in February 1859 moved south and captured
Saigon. The Vietnamese ruler was compelled to cede three provinces to France, and to offer protection to the Catholics. The French troops departed for a time to take part in the expedition to China, but in 1862, when the agreements were not fully followed by the Vietnamese emperor, they returned. The Emperor was forced to open treaty ports in
Annam and
Tonkin, and all of
Cochinchina became a French territory in 1864. In 1863, the ruler of
Cambodia, King
Norodom, who had been placed in power by the government of
Thailand, rebelled against his sponsors and sought the protection of France. The Thai king granted authority over Cambodia to France, in exchange for two provinces of
Laos, which were ceded by Cambodia to Thailand. In 1867, Cambodia formally became a protectorate of France. File:Prise de Saigon 18 Fevrier 1859 Antoine Morel-Fatio.jpg|
Capture of Saigon by
Charles Rigault de Genouilly on 18 February 1859, painted by
Antoine Morel-Fatio File:Reception of Siamese Ambassadors by Napoleon III 1861 Gerome.png|Napoleon III receiving the
Siamese embassy at the palace of Fontainebleau in 1864 File:Presidential Palace of Vietnam.jpg|The
Presidential Palace of Vietnam in Hanoi was built between 1900 and 1906 to house the French Governor-General of Indochina. It was only after its defeat in 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 Cochinchina, the French took over
Tonkin (in modern
northern Vietnam) and
Annam (in modern
central Vietnam) and made them become French protectorates with the
Treaty of Hue between France and Vietnam's Nguyen dynasty in 1883. These, together with Cambodia and Cochinchina, formed
French Indochina in 1887 (to which
Laos was
added in 1893 and
Guangzhouwanin 1900). In 1849, the
French Concession in Shanghai was established, and in 1860, the
French Concession in Tientsin (now called
Tianjin) was set up. Both concessions lasted until 1946. The French also had smaller
concessions in
Guangzhou and
Hankou (now part of
Wuhan). The
Third Anglo-Burmese War, in which Britain conquered and annexed the hitherto independent
Upper Burma, was in part motivated by British apprehension at France advancing and gaining possession of territories near to Burma.
Middle East In the spring of 1860,
a war broke out in
Lebanon, then part of the
Ottoman Empire, between the
Druze population and the
Maronite Christians. The Ottoman authorities in Lebanon could not stop the violence, and it spread into neighboring
Syria, with the massacre of many Christians. In
Damascus, the Emir Abd-el-Kadr protected the Christians there against the Muslim rioters. Napoleon III felt obliged to intervene on behalf of the Christians, despite the opposition of London, which feared it would lead to a wider French presence in the Middle East. After long and difficult negotiations to obtain the approval of the British government, Napoleon III sent a French contingent of seven thousand men for a period of six months. The troops arrived in Beirut in August 1860, and took positions in the mountains between the Christian and Muslim communities. Napoleon III organized an international conference in Paris, where the country was placed under the rule of a Christian governor named by the Ottoman Sultan, which restored a fragile peace. The French troops departed in June 1861, after just under one year. The French intervention alarmed the British, but was highly popular with the powerful
Catholic political faction in France, which had been alarmed by
Louis Napoleon's dispute with the Pope over his territories in Italy. led by General
Beaufort d'Hautpoul, landing in Beyrouth on 16 August 1860 Despite the signing of the 1860
Cobden–Chevalier Treaty, a historic free trade agreement between Britain and France, and the joint operations conducted by France and Britain in the Crimea, China and Mexico, diplomatic relations between Britain and France never became close during the colonial era.
Lord Palmerston, the British foreign minister from 1846 to 1851 and
prime minister from 1855 to 1865, sought to maintain the balance of power in Europe; this rarely involved an alignment with France. In 1859 there were even briefly fears that France might try to invade Britain. Palmerston was suspicious of France's interventions in Lebanon, Southeast Asia and Mexico. Palmerston was also concerned that France might intervene in the
American Civil War (1861–65) on the side of the South. The British also felt threatened by the construction of the
Suez Canal (1859–1869) by
Ferdinand de Lesseps in Egypt. They tried to oppose its completion by diplomatic pressures and by promoting revolts among workers. The Suez Canal was successfully built by a French-backed company, which was to remain under French control even after the British government acquired almost half of the shares. Both nations saw it as vital to maintaining their influence and respective empire in East Africa and Asia. In 1882, ongoing civil disturbances in Egypt prompted Britain to intervene, extending a hand to France. France's leading expansionist
Jules Ferry was out of office, and Paris allowed London to take effective control of Egypt.
Evolution in the use of the term "empire" between the years of 1870–1939 '') 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 After the downfall of Napoleon III, few writers used the word 'empire', which had become associated with despotism, decadence, and weakness, preferring the word 'colonies'. However, by the 1880s and 1890s, as Republicans consolidated their control over the political system, increasing numbers of politicians, intellectuals and writers began using the phrase "colonial empire", linking it to republicanism and the French nation. Most Frenchmen ignored foreign affairs and colonial issues. In 1914 the chief pressure group was the
Parti colonial, a coalition of 50 organizations with a combined total of only 5,000 members.
Causes and justifications for colonialism Civilizing mission A hallmark of the French colonial project in the late 19th century and early 20th century was the
civilising mission (
mission civilisatrice), the principle that it was Europe's duty to bring civilisation to benighted peoples. As such, colonial officials undertook a policy of Franco-Europeanisation in French colonies, most notably
French West Africa and
Madagascar. During the 19th century, French citizenship along with the right to elect a deputy to the French Chamber of Deputies was granted to the four old colonies of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyanne, and Réunion, as well as to the residents of
French India and the "
Four Communes" in Senegal. In most cases, the elected deputies were white Frenchmen, although there were some blacks, such as the Senegalese
Blaise Diagne, who was elected in 1914. Racism and notions of
white supremacy were integral to justifying the concept of the civilizing mission. French colonialists viewed non-European societies as uncivilized, and their colonial subjects as needing European re-education. Racial darwinists like
Arthur de Gobineau, justified this ideology by falsely claiming that people of color were biologically inferior to white people. Two 1912 decrees dealing with French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa enumerated the conditions that a native had to meet in order to be granted French citizenship (they included speaking and writing French, earning a decent living and displaying good moral standards). From 1830 to 1946, only between 3,000 and 6,000 Muslim native Algerians were granted French citizenship. In French West Africa, outside of the Four Communes, there were 2,500 "citoyens indigènes" out of a total population of 15 million. , a Senegalese mulatto, conquered and annexed
Dahomey in 1894. French conservatives had been denouncing the assimilationist policies as products of a dangerous liberal fantasy. In the Protectorate of Morocco, the French administration attempted to use urban planning and colonial education to prevent cultural mixing and to uphold the traditional society upon which the French depended for collaboration, with mixed results. After World War II, the segregationist approach modeled in Morocco had been discredited by its connections to Vichyism, and assimilationism enjoyed a brief renaissance. In 1905, the French abolished
slavery in most of French West Africa. From 1906 to 1911, over a million slaves in French West Africa fled from their masters to earlier homes. In
Madagascar over 500,000 slaves were freed following French abolition in 1896.
Education French colonial officials, influenced by the revolutionary ideal of equality, standardized schools, curricula, and teaching methods as much as possible. They did not establish colonial school systems with the idea of furthering the ambitions of the local people, but rather simply exported the systems and methods in vogue in the mother nation. Having a moderately trained lower bureaucracy was of great use to colonial officials. The emerging French-educated indigenous elite saw little value in educating rural peoples. After 1946 the policy was to bring the best students to Paris for advanced training. The result was to immerse the next generation of leaders in the growing anti-colonial diaspora centered in Paris. Impressionistic colonials could mingle with studious scholars or radical revolutionaries or so everything in between.
Ho Chi Minh and other young radicals in Paris formed the French Communist party in 1920. Tunisia was exceptional. The colony was administered by
Paul Cambon, who built an educational system for colonists and indigenous people alike that was closely modeled on mainland France. He emphasized female and vocational education. By independence, the quality of Tunisian education nearly equalled that in France. African nationalists rejected such a public education system, which they perceived as an attempt to retard African development and maintain colonial superiority. One of the first demands of the emerging nationalist movement after World War II was the introduction of full metropolitan-style education in French West Africa with its promise of equality with Europeans. In Algeria, the debate was polarized. The French set up schools based on the scientific method and French culture. The
pieds-noirs (Catholic migrants from Europe) welcomed this. Those goals were rejected by the Moslem Arabs, who prized mental agility and their distinctive religious tradition. The Arabs refused to become patriotic and a unified educational system became impossible until the
pieds-noirs and their Arab allies went into exile after 1962.
Critics of French colonialism in 1892–1894 Critics of French colonialism gained an international audience in the 1920s, and often used documentary reportage and access to agencies such as the
League of Nations and the
International Labour Organization to make their protests heard. The main criticism was the high level of violence and suffering among the natives. Major critics included
Albert Londres, Félicien Challaye, and Paul Monet, whose books and articles were widely read. == Decolonization ==