The French colonial empire is the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 1600s to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second largest in the world behind the British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom, that had originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height it was the largest empire in history and, for over a. The French colonial empire extended over 12,347,000 km² (4,767,000 sq. miles) of land at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. Including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 12,898,000 km² (4,980,000 sq. miles) at the time, which is 8.6% of the Earth's total land area. Its influence made French the fourth-most spoken colonial European language, behind English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America and India, following Spanish Territories of the Portuguese empire during the Iberian Union . Territories lost before or due to the Treaties of Utrecht-Baden (1713–1714). Territories lost before or during the Spanish American wars of independence (1811–1828). Territories lost following the Spanish-American War (1898–1899). Territories granted independence during the and Portuguese It was also the longest-lived of the modern European colonial empires, spanning almost six centuries, from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the handover of Macau in 1999 successes during the Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery, also known as the Age of Exploration, was a period in history starting in the 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which Europeans and their descendants intensively explored and mapped the world. Historians often refer to the 'Age of Discovery' as the period of Portuguese and Spanish pioneer oceanic, in rivalry with Britain for supremacy. A series of wars with Britain during the 1700s and early 1800s, which France lost, ended its colonial ambitions on these continents, and with it is what some historians term the "first" French colonial empire. In the 19th century, France established a new empire in Africa and South East Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia. The region lies on the intersection of geological plates, with heavy seismic and volcanic activity. Some of these colonies lasted beyond the invasion and occupation of France by Nazi Germany Nazi Germany and the Third Reich are the common English names for Germany under the government of Adolf Hitler and the National Socialist German Worker's Party , from 1933 to 1945. Third Reich (German: Drittes Reich) denotes the Nazi state as the historical successor to the mediæval Holy Roman Empire (962–1806) and to the modern German Empire (1 during World War II Albania · Australia · Austria · Azerbaijan · Belarus · Belgium · Brazil · Bulgaria · Burma · Cambodia · Canada · Ceylon (Sri Lanka) · Channel Islands · China · Czechoslovakia · Denmark · Dutch East Indies · Egypt · Estonia · Finland · France · Germany · Gibraltar · Greece · Greenland · Hong Kong · Hungary · Iceland ·.

Following the war, anti-colonial movements began to challenge French authority. France unsuccessfully fought bitter wars from after the 1940s until the early 1960s in Vietnam Vietnam (pronounced /ˌviː.ɛtˈnɑːm/ VEE-et-NAHM; Vietnamese: Việt Nam, listen ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Cộng hòa xã hội chủ nghĩa Việt Nam, listen (help·info)), is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by People's Republic of China (PRC) to the and Algeria Algerian Arabic is the language used by the majority of the population. Although French has no official status, Algeria is the second Francophone country in the world in terms of speakers to keep its empire intact. By the end of the 1960s, most of France's colonies had gained independence, save for a series of islands and archipelagos which were integrated into France as overseas departments and territories The French Overseas Departments and Territories consist broadly of French-administered territories outside of the European continent. These territories have varying legal status and different levels of autonomy, although all have representation in the Parliament of France (except those with no permanent inhabitants), and the right to vote in. These total altogether 123,150 km² (47,548 sq. miles), which amounts to only 1% of the pre-1939 French colonial empire's area, with 2,624,505 people living in them in 2009. All of them enjoy full political representation at the national level, as well as varying degrees of legislative autonomy. (See Administrative divisions of France The administrative divisions of France are concerned with the institutional and territorial organization of French territory. There are many administrative divisions, which may have political , electoral (districts), or administrative (decentralized services of the state) objectives.)

Contents 1 First French colonial empire 1.1 The Americas 1.2 Africa and Asia 2 Colonial conflict with Britain 3 Second French colonial empire 4 Collapse of the empire 5 French settlers 6 See also 7 Footnotes 8 References 9 External links

First French colonial empire

The Americas

Excursions of Giovanni da Verrazzano Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse colonization of the Americas around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South and North Carolina and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay in 1524 and Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier was a French explorer of Breton origin who claimed what is now Canada for France. He was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named "The Country of Canadas", after the Iroquois names for the two big settlements he saw at Stadacona (Quebec in the early 16th century, as well as the frequent voyages of French boats and fishermen to the Grand Banks The Grand Banks of Newfoundland are a group of underwater plateaus southeast of Newfoundland on the North American continental shelf. These areas are relatively shallow, ranging from 80 to 330 feet in depth. The cold Labrador Current mixes with the warm waters of the Gulf Stream here off Newfoundland Newfoundland (pronounced /ˈnjuːfənlænd/ ( listen); French: Terre-Neuve, Irish: Talamh an Éisc) is a large Canadian island 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) off the east coast of North America, and the most populous part of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador throughout that century, were the precursors to the story of France's colonial expansion. But Spain's jealous protection of its foreign monopoly, and the further distractions caused in France itself in the later 16th century by the French Wars of Religion The French Wars of Religion is the name given to a period of civil infighting and military operations, primarily fought between French Catholics and Protestants (Huguenots). The conflict involved the factional disputes between the aristocratic houses of France, such as the House of Bourbon and House of Guise (Lorraine), and both sides received, prevented any constant efforts by France to settle colonies. Early French attempts to found colonies in 1612 at São Luís São Luís is the capital of the Brazilian state of Maranhão. The city is located on São Luís island in the Baía de São Marcos (St Marcus Bay), an extension of the Atlantic Ocean which forms the estuary of Pindaré, Mearim, Itapecuru and other rivers. Its coordinates are 2.50° south, 44.30° west. The city proper has a population of some 986, ("France Équinoxiale"), and in Brazil Brazil (pronounced /brəˈzɪl/ ; Portuguese: Brasil, IPA: [bɾaˈziw]), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: República Federativa do Brasil, listen (help·info)), is the largest country in South America and the only Portuguese-speaking country in the Americas. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical, in 1555 at Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro , commonly referred to simply as Rio, is the capital city of the State of Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city of Brazil and the third largest metropolitan area and agglomeration in South America, 6th largest in the Americas and receives more international visitors than any other city in the Southern Hemisphere ("France Antarctique France Antarctique was the name of the failed French colony south of the Equator, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which existed between 1555 and 1567, and had control over the coast from Rio de Janeiro to Cabo Frio") and in Florida With an area of 65,758 square miles , it is ranked 22nd in size among the 50 U.S. states. Florida has the most coastline in the Contiguous United States encompassing approximately 1,200 miles. The state has four large urban areas, a number of smaller industrial cities, and many small towns (including Fort Caroline Fort Caroline was the first French colony in the present-day United States. Established in what is now Jacksonville, Florida on June 22, 1564, it was intended as a refuge for the Huguenots. It lasted only a year before being obliterated by the Spanish. The site is now operated as Fort Caroline National Memorial in 1562) were not successful, due to a lack of official interest and to Portuguese and Spanish vigilance.

The story of France's colonial empire truly began on July 27, 1605, with the foundation of Port Royal Port Royal is a small rural community in the western part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. It is located on the north shore of the Annapolis Basin, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy, near the town of Annapolis Royal. Port Royal is the first permanent European settlement in North America north of Florida, having been founded in 1605 by Pierre in the colony of Acadia Acadia was the name given to lands in a portion of the French colonial empire in northeastern North America that included parts of eastern Quebec, the Maritime provinces, and modern-day New England, stretching as far south as Philadelphia. People living in Acadia, and sometimes former residents and their descendants, are called Acadians in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia Nova Scotia's economy is traditionally largely resource-based, but has diversified since the middle of the 20th century. Industries such as fishing, mining, forestry and agriculture remain very important and have been joined by tourism, technology, film, music and finance, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel De Champlain Samuel de Champlain ( IPA: [samɥɛl də ʃɑ̃plɛ̃] ), "The Father of New France", was a French navigator, cartographer, draughtsman, soldier, explorer, geographer, ethnologist, diplomat and chronicler, who founded Quebec City on July 3, 1608 founded Quebec Quebec , French: Québec ([keˈbɛk] ( listen)), also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City (French: Ville de Québec) is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec – after Montreal, about 233 kilometres (145 mi) to the southwest. As of the 2006, which was to become the capital of the enormous, but sparsely settled, fur-trading colony of New France New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period extending from the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River, by Jacques Cartier in 1534, to the cession of New France to Spain and Britain in 1763. At its peak in 1712 (before the Treaty of Utrecht), the territory of New France extended from Newfoundland to the Rocky (also called Canada).

New France had a rather small population, which resulted from more emphasis being placed on the fur trade rather than agricultural settlements. Due to this emphasis, the French relied heavily on creating friendly contacts with the local Indians. French relations with the Native peoples has been considered more humane than positions taken by their Spanish and English rivals^[opinion]. Without the insatiable appetite of New England for land, and relying solely on Indians to supply them with fur at the trading posts, the French composed a complex series of military, commercial, and diplomatic connections^[opinion]. These became the most enduring alliances between the French and the Indians. The French did not set out to take over all Indian land like England, nor did they want them to work like slaves as did the Spanish^{[citation needed][opinion]}. The French were however under pressure from religious orders to convert the Indians to Catholicism. New France allowed a great degree of independence for the Natives, and did not try to suppress all traditional religious practices^[opinion].

Although, through alliances with various Native American Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples from North America now encompassed by the continental United States, including parts of Alaska and the island state of Hawaii. They comprise a large number of distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as intact political communities. The terminology used to 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 The Saint Lawrence River is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage of the Great Lakes Basin. It traverses the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario and forms part of the international boundary between Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies Mercantilism is an economic theory, thought to be a form of economic nationalism, that holds that the prosperity of a nation is dependent upon its supply of capital, and that the global volume of international trade is "unchangeable". Economic assets are represented by bullion (gold, silver, and trade value) held by the state, which is. 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 its history, New France, was far behind the British North American British North America consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783 colonies in both population and economic development. Acadia itself was lost to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht The Treaty of Utrecht, which established the Peace of Utrecht, comprises a series of individual peace treaties, rather than a single document, signed in the Dutch city of Utrecht in March and April 1713. The treaties among several European states, including France, Spain, Great Britain, Savoy, and the Dutch Republic, helped end the War of the in 1713.

In 1699, French territorial claims in North America expanded still further, with the foundation of Louisiana Louisiana or French Louisiana was the name of an administrative district of New France. Under French control from 1682-1763 and 1800-03, the area was named in honor of Louis XIV of France, by French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. It originally covered an expansive territory that included most of the drainage basin of the in the basin of the Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the largest river system in North America. About 2,320 miles long, the river originates at Lake Itasca, Minnesota and flows slowly southwards in sweeping meanders, terminating 95 river miles below New Orleans, Louisiana where it begins to flow to the Gulf of Mexico. Along with its major tributary, the Missouri River, the. The extensive trading network throughout the region connected to Canada through the Great Lakes The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater seas located in eastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron , Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface and volume. The total surface is 208,610 km2 (80,545 sq mi), and the total volume, was maintained through a vast system of fortifications, many of them centred in the Illinois Country The Illinois Country was the name used in the 17th century and afterwards to refer to a legally undefined region without formal boundaries, centered around present day southwest Illinois that was explored and settled by the French beginning in 1673, when Louis Joliet and Jacques Marquette explored the Mississippi River, and France claimed the and in present-day Arkansas The name "Arkansas" derives from the same root as the name for the state of Kansas. The Kansas tribe of Native Americans are closely associated with the Sioux tribes of the Great Plains. The word "Arkansas" itself is a French pronunciation of a Quapaw (a related "Kaw" tribe) word "akakaze" meaning "land.

Québec was known as 'Nouvelle France' or New France

As the French empire in North America grew, the French also began to build a smaller but more profitable empire in the West Indies The Caribbean is a region consisting of the Caribbean Sea, its islands , and the surrounding coasts. The region is located southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and Northern America, east of Central America, and to the north of South America. Settlement along the South American coast in what is today French Guiana French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department (French: département d'outre-mer, or DOM) located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west. Its 83,500 sq km have a very low population density of less than three began in 1624, and a colony was founded on Saint Kitts Saint Kitts (also known more formally as Saint Christopher Island is an island in the West Indies. The west side of the island borders the Caribbean Sea, and the eastern coast faces the Atlantic Ocean. Together with the island of Nevis, Saint Kitts constitutes one country: the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis 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 Guadeloupe is an archipelago located in the Leeward Islands, in the Lesser Antilles, with a land area of 1,628 square kilometres (629 sq. mi) and a population of 400,000. It is the first overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. As with the other overseas departments, Guadeloupe is also one of the twenty-six regions of and Martinique Martinique is an island in the eastern Caribbean Sea, with a land area of 1,128 km2 (436 sq mi). Like Guadeloupe, it is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department. To the northwest lies Dominica, to the south St Lucia, and to the southeast Barbados. As with the other overseas departments, Martinique is one of the in 1635, and a colony was later founded on Saint Lucia Saint Lucia (pronounced /seɪnt ˈluːʃə/ ; French: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country in the eastern Caribbean Sea on the boundary with the Atlantic Ocean. Part of the Lesser Antilles, it is located north/northeast of the islands of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, northwest of Barbados and south of Martinique. It covers a land area of 620 km2 by (1650). The food-producing plantations of these colonies were built and sustained through slavery Slavery is a system in which people are the property of others. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand wages. In some societies it was legal for an owner to kill a slave; in others it was a crime to kill a slave, with the supply of slaves dependent on the African slave trade African slaves became part of the Atlantic slave trade, from which comes the modern, Western conception of slavery as an institution of African-descended slaves and non-African slave owners. Local resistance by the indigenous peoples The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian inhabitants of North, Central, and South America, their descendants, and many ethnic groups who identify with those peoples. They are often also referred to as Native Americans, Aboriginals, First Nations , Amerigine[dubious – discuss], and by Christopher Columbus' geographical and resulted in the Carib Expulsion of 1660.

France's most important Caribbean colonial possession was established in 1664, when the colony of Saint-Domingue Saint-Domingue was a French colony on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola from 1659 to 1804, when it became the independent nation of Haiti (today's Haiti Haiti (pronounced /ˈheɪti/ ; French Haïti, pronounced: [a.iti]; Haitian Creole: Ayiti, Haitian Creole pronunciation: [ajiti]), officially the Republic of Haiti (République d'Haïti ; Repiblik Ayiti) is a Caribbean country. Along with the Dominican Republic, it occupies the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago. Ayiti (land) 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.

Africa and Asia

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 (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

Further information: France in the Seven Years War and France in the American Revolutionary War Carte de L'Indoustan. Bellin, 1770

In the middle of the 18th century, a series of colonial conflicts began between France and Britain, which ultimately resulted in the destruction 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), the French Revolutionary Wars (1793–1802) and the Napoleonic Wars (1803-1815). It may even be seen further back in time to the first of the French and Indian Wars. This cyclic conflict is known as the 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 and Europe under Marshal Saxe — 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 referred 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.

Ratification of the treaty of Paris, 1783. The British delegation refused to pose for the picture.

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 (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 although it was not until the 1800s that Europeans began establishing colonies in Africa). 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

French colonial campaigns North America (1689–97) – North America (1702–13) – North America (1744–48) – India (1746-48) – North America (1754-60) – East Indies (1757-63) – North America (1778–83) – West Indies and India (1778–83) – Egypt-Syria (1798-1801) – Mauritius (1809–11) – Algeria (1830–1847) – Morocco (1844) – Crimea (1853-56) – Senegal (1854) – Cochinchina (1858–62) – China (1860) – Mexico (1861–67) – Japan (1863–64) – Korea (1866) – Tunisia (1881) – Madagascar (1883) – Ivory Coast (1883–98) – Tonkin (1883–86) – China (1884–85) – Dahomey (1890) – Dahomey (1892–94) – Siam (1893) – Madagascar (1895) – Chad (1898) – Sudan (1898) – China (1901) – Sudan (1909–11) – Morocco (1911) – Syria (1919–21) – Cilicia (1920-21) – Morocco (1926) – West Africa (1940) – Indochina (1940–41) – Syria-Lebanon (1941) – Madagascar (1942) – North Africa (1943) – Indochina (1945) – Indochina (1946–54) – Algeria (1954–62) – Egypt (1956) – Morocco (1957–58) – Tunisia (1961)

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, Andrew Johnson, invoked the Monroe Doctrine. This French intervention in Mexico lasted from 1861 to 1867. Napoleon III also established French control over Cochinchina (the southernmost part of modern Vietnam including Saigon) in 1867 and 1874, as well as a protectorate over Cambodia in 1863.

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 Cochinchina, the French took over Tonkin (in modern northern Vietnam) and Annam (in modern central Vietnam) in 1884-1885. These, together with Cambodia and Cochinchina, formed French Indochina in 1887 (to which Laos was added in 1893, and Kwang-Chou-Wan ^[1] 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

In China proper, French leased Guangzhouwan (in 1898), and had enclaves in Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hangzhou.^[2]

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), and 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. As a part of the Scramble for Africa, France had the establishment of a continuous west-east axis of the continent as an objective, in contrast with the British north-south axis. This resulted in the Fashoda incident, where an expedition led by Jean-Baptiste Marchand was opposed by forces under Lord Kitchener's command. The resolution of the crisis had a part in the bringing forth of the Entente Cordiale. During the Agadir Crisis in 1911, Britain supported France and 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

A poster symbolising the French colonial empire titled: "Three colors, one flag, one empire"

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 and Italy 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's (SFIO) cabinet repressed the Malagasy Uprising 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 out 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 125 years 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 Suez Canal incident in '56 also displayed the limitations of French power, as its attempt to retake the canal along with the British was stymied when the United States did not back the plan.

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; almost 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 Nigerian Civil War during the late 1960s.

French settlers

Unlike elsewhere in Europe, France experienced relatively low levels of emigration to the Americas, with the exception of the Huguenots. However, significant emigration of mainly Roman Catholic French populations led to the settlement of the provinces of Acadia, Canada and Louisiana, both (at the time) French possessions, as well as colonies in the West Indies, Mascarene islands and Africa.

On December 31, 1687 a community of French Huguenots settled in South Africa. Most of these originally settled in the Cape Colony, but have since been quickly absorbed into the Afrikaner population. After Champlain's founding of Quebec City in 1608, it became the capital of New France. Encouraging settlement was difficult, and while some immigration did occur, by 1763 New France only had a population of some 65,000.^[3] From 1713 to 1787, 30,000 colonists immigrated from France to the St. Domingue. In 1805, when the French were forced out of St. Domingue (Haiti) 35,000 French settlers were given lands in Cuba.^[4] Out of the 40,000 inhabitants on Guadeloupe, at the end of the 17th century, there were more than 26,000 blacks and 9,000 whites.^[5]

French law made it easy for thousands of colons, ethnic or national French from former colonies of North and East Africa, India and Indochina to live in mainland France. It is estimated that 20,000 colons were living in Saigon in 1945. 1.6 million European pieds noirs migrated from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.^[6] In just a few months in 1962, 900,000 French Algerians left Algeria in the most massive relocation of population in Europe since World War II. In the 1970s, over 30,000 French colons left Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime as the Pol Pot government confiscated their farms and land properties. In November 2004, several thousand of the estimated 14,000 French nationals in Ivory Coast left country after days of anti-white violence.^[7]

Apart from French-Canadians, Québécois, Acadians, Cajuns, and Métis other populations of French ancestry outside metropolitan France include the Caldoches of New Caledonia and the so-called Zoreilles and Petits-blancs of various Indian Ocean islands.

See also

• Evolution of the French Empire
• Overseas departments and territories of France
• Decolonization
• Global empire
• Francization
• French law on colonialism (2005 law, repealed in 2006)
• Franco-Trarzan War of 1825
• French colonial forces
• French colonisation of the Americas
• French Colonial Union
• French Equatorial Africa
• French Empire (for the European based empires)
• French West Africa
• La Francophonie
• Franco-Mauritian
• French Canadian
• Pied-noir
• Caldoche
• Postage stamps of the French Colonies
• Language policy in France

Footnotes

1. ^ Foreign Concessions and Colonies
2. ^ Robert Aldrich, Greater France: a history of French overseas expansion, Palgrave Macmillan, 1996, ISBN 0312160003, Google Print, p.83
3. ^ "British North America: 1763-1841". Archived from the original on 2009-10-31. http://www.webcitation.org/5kwpWziLb.
4. ^ Hispanics in the American Revolution
5. ^ Guadeloupe : the mosaic island
6. ^ For Pieds-Noirs, the Anger Endures
7. ^ France, U.N. Start Ivory Coast Evacuation, FOXNews.com

References

• Andrew, C. M.; Kanya-Forstner, A. S. (1976), "French Business and the French Colonialists", The Historical Journal 19 (4): 981–1000, doi:10.1017/S0018246X00010803 .
• Burrows, Mathew (1986), "'Mission civilisatrice': French Cultural Policy in the Middle East, 1860-1914", The Historical Journal 29 (1): 109–135, doi:10.1017/S0018246X00018641 .
• Confer, Vincent (1964), "French Colonial Ideas before 1789", French Historical Studies 3 (3): 338–359, doi:10.2307/285947 .
• Emerson, Rupert (1969), "Colonialism", Journal of Contemporary History 4 (1): 3–16, doi:10.1177/002200946900400101 .
• Martin, Guy (1985), "The Historical, Economic, and Political Bases of France's African Policy", The Journal of Modern African Studies 23 (2): 189–208, doi:10.1017/S0022278X00000148 .
• Newbury, C. W.; Kanya-Forstner, A. S. (1969), "French Policy and the Origins of the Scramble for West Africa", The Journal of African History 10 (2): 253–276, doi:10.2307/179514 .
• Pakenham, Thomas (1991), The Scramble for Africa, 1876–1912, New York: Random House, ISBN 0394515765 .
• Petringa, Maria (2006), Brazza, A Life for Africa, Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, ISBN 1425911986 .

External links

• L'Afrique francophone
• Threats to the national independence of Thailand, from Thailand's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
• French Colonialism, lecture on the colonial period 1871 to 1914, via Open Yale Courses (45-min audio/video/text)

French overseas empire Former Former French colonies in Africa and the Indian Ocean Mahgreb Algeria · Morocco (Arguin Island) · Tunisia French West Africa Côte d'Ivoire · Dahomey · French Sudan · Guinea · Mauritania · Niger · Senegal · Upper Volta French Togoland · James Island · Albreda French Equatorial Africa Chad · Gabon · Middle Congo · Oubangui-Chari Comoros Anjouan · Grande Comore · Mohéli French Somaliland (Djibouti) · Madagascar · Ile de France · Seychelles Former French colonies in the Americas New France (Acadia • Louisiana • Canada • Terre Neuve) 1655 – 1763 Inini · Berbice · Saint-Domingue (Haiti) · Tobago · Virgin Islands · France Antarctique · Equinoctial France French West India Company Former French colonies in Asia and Oceania French India Chandernagor · Coromandel Coast · Madras · Malabar · Mahé · Pondichéry · Karaikal · Yanaon French Indochina Cambodia · Laos · Vietnam (Annam • Cochinchina • Tonkin) Middle East Lebanon · Sanjak of Alexandretta · Syria (Alawite State • Jabal al-Druze • State of Aleppo • State of Damascus) Other Asian Ceylon · Kwangchowan Oceania New Hebrides (Vanuatu) France-Asia relations · French East India Company Present Overseas departments and territories of France Inhabited areas Overseas departments1 French Guiana · Guadeloupe · Martinique · Réunion Overseas collectivities French Polynesia · Mayotte2 · St. Barthélemy · St. Martin · St. Pierre and Miquelon · Wallis and Futuna Special status New Caledonia Uninhabited areas Pacific Ocean Clipperton Island French Southern and Antarctic Lands Île Amsterdam · Île Saint-Paul · Crozet Islands · Kerguelen Islands · Adélie Land Scattered islands in the Indian Ocean Banc du Geyser3 · Bassas da India3 · Europa Island3 · Glorioso Islands2, 3, 4 · Juan de Nova Island3 · Tromelin Island5 1 Also known as overseas regions. 2 Overseas department by 2011, claimed by Comoros. 3 Claimed by Madagascar. 4 Claimed by Seychelles. 5 Claimed by Mauritius.

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