The Colonial Empire at Its Height (1880-1945)

The Scramble for Africa

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 formalized the European partition of Africa, with France claiming vast territories across West and Central Africa. This expansion was driven by economic interests, strategic competition with Britain and Germany, and the ideology of national greatness.

French West Africa (AOF) and French Equatorial Africa (AEF) were created as administrative federations, encompassing modern-day Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Mauritania, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Benin, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, and Gabon. The diversity of peoples, languages, and cultures within these arbitrary borders would create lasting challenges.

Burkinabé historian Joseph Ki-Zerbo wrote: "The colonial borders cut through ethnic groups, separated traditional trading partners, and forced together historical enemies. We still live with these artificial divisions that serve neither African interests nor natural boundaries."

Indochina: The Pearl of the Empire

French Indochina, comprising modern Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, became one of France's most important colonies. The region's rice production, rubber plantations, and strategic location made it economically valuable, while its ancient civilizations provided France with cultural prestige.

Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Khac Vien noted: "French colonialism in Vietnam was particularly destructive because it disrupted a sophisticated civilization with its own literary tradition, educational system, and administrative structures. The French portrayed us as backward while systematically destroying our institutions."

The colonial administration in Indochina exemplified the contradictions of the civilizing mission. While France built some schools and infrastructure, education was limited and designed to create a small class of Vietnamese auxiliaries rather than an educated population. Economic policies favored French settlers and companies, creating widespread poverty and landlessness among Vietnamese farmers.

The Colonial Society

Colonial society was strictly hierarchized along racial lines. At the top were French citizens from the metropole, followed by French settlers born in the colonies (in Algeria, the "pieds-noirs"), then various categories of "evolved" natives who had adopted French culture, and finally the vast majority of colonized peoples who were subjects but not citizens.

Moroccan sociologist Fatema Mernissi observed: "The colonial system created not just economic exploitation but psychological wounds. To advance in colonial society meant rejecting one's own culture, language, and often family. This created generations torn between worlds, fully accepted in neither."

The Indigénat System

The Code de l'indigénat, implemented across French colonies, created a separate legal system for colonized peoples. Under this system, colonial administrators could impose punishments without trial for offenses like "disrespect" to French authority or unauthorized assembly. This institutionalized discrimination made colonized peoples perpetual subjects rather than citizens.

Algerian lawyer Ali Boumendjel, before his assassination by French forces, wrote: "The indigénat is not merely a legal code but a system of dehumanization. It teaches the colonized that they exist outside the law, that justice is not for them, that their lives and dignity matter less than those of their colonizers."

Economic Transformation and Exploitation

The colonial economy reached its peak efficiency in extracting wealth during this period. Each colony was assigned specific roles in the imperial economy:

- Algeria: Wheat, wine, and minerals for France - Morocco: Phosphates and agricultural products - West Africa: Groundnuts, cocoa, coffee, and palm oil - Madagascar: Vanilla, coffee, and graphite - Indochina: Rice, rubber, and coal - Pacific territories: Nickel, copra, and phosphates

This specialization created extreme vulnerability to price fluctuations and prevented diversified development. Infrastructure investment focused exclusively on extraction - railways ran from mines and plantations to ports, not between African cities.

Cultural Imperialism and Education

The French approach to cultural assimilation was more aggressive than that of other colonial powers. The French language was imposed as the sole medium of education and administration. Local languages were banned in schools, and students were punished for speaking their mother tongues.

Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène recalled: "In colonial schools, we learned about 'our ancestors the Gauls' while our own history was erased. We memorized French rivers while the names of our own were forgotten. This was not education but cultural amnesia."

Yet colonial education also created unintended consequences. Literacy in French allowed colonized intellectuals to read about French Revolutionary ideals of liberty, equality, and fraternity - ideals conspicuously absent in the colonies. This education produced many future independence leaders.

World Wars and Colonial Troops

Both World Wars profoundly impacted the colonial relationship. Over 500,000 colonial troops served France in World War I, with approximately 71,000 killed. These soldiers, known as tirailleurs, fought to defend a "motherland" that denied them basic rights.

Malian veteran Bakary Diallo wrote in his memoir: "We bled for France in the trenches of Verdun, yet returned home to find ourselves still 'indigènes,' still subjects, still denied the equality we had fought to defend."

World War II brought even more dramatic changes. France's rapid defeat in 1940 shattered the myth of European invincibility. The Vichy regime's collaboration with Nazi Germany and its racist policies further delegitimized French rule. When Charles de Gaulle called on the colonies to support Free France, he made promises of reform that would prove difficult to retract.

Women Under Colonialism

The colonial impact on women was complex and often contradictory. While colonial authorities sometimes claimed to be liberating women from "backward" traditions, they often reinforced patriarchal structures that served their interests.

Algerian feminist historian Marnia Lazreg writes: "Colonial authorities used the status of Muslim women to justify their civilizing mission while simultaneously denying these same women education, political rights, or economic opportunity. The veil became a battleground where male colonizers and male nationalists fought for control, with women's actual voices rarely heard."

In some contexts, colonialism created new opportunities - some women gained access to education or wage labor. But these gains were limited and often came at the cost of community ostracism. The majority of women faced the double burden of colonial and patriarchal oppression.

Seeds of Independence

By the 1920s and 1930s, anti-colonial movements were gaining strength across the French Empire. The Communist Party, despite its own limitations, provided one of the few spaces where colonized peoples could organize politically. Leaders like Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam, Messali Hadj in Algeria, and Lamine Senghor in Senegal began articulating visions of independence.

The interwar period also saw the emergence of cultural movements like Négritude, led by Aimé Césaire from Martinique and Léopold Sédar Senghor from Senegal. This movement asserted the value of African culture and identity in the face of colonial denigration.

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