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French Colonialism in Africa
The first significant French colonial military foray into Africa occurred in Algeria in 1830. The French king at the time, Charles X, sent his army to occupy the town of Algiers in response to the dey of Algiers striking and calling the French consul names. The invasion eventually led to the announcement in 1848 that Algeria was part of the republic of France, making Algeria the first French colony14. This led to the eventual creation of one of the largest and longest lasting colonial empires in history.
While this initial excursion into Africa was intended to be an act of revenge, the purpose for continued French expansion into Africa quickly changed to increasing French prestige, both abroad and in Europe. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, French colonies began to appear across the entire globe. However because of fierce competition with other European colonizers, much more of France’s expansionist energy was being spent in Africa rather than other parts of the globe.
As France started to expand its colonial role, two major factions sprang up at home; the first favored continued expansion while the other renounced it. The proponents of French colonization in Africa believed that France could increase her perceived power in Europe by increasing French presence and authority abroad. The anti-expansionist French believed that the money, time and effort being spent on colonization would be better utilized protecting and entrenching French interests in Europe. However, the pro-expansionists eventually won over the minds of the French political elites who decided France’s course15. Thus, colonization would not only occur but would increase.
Perhaps the largest factor that influenced and increased French colonial ideals and efforts was the French defeat at the hands of Germans in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. After this demoralizing defeat, and the consequent loss of the valuable territories of Alsace-Lorraine, French officials realized that one way to win back the support of the French people was to envision France as it "should be." In fact, Chipman states that, Charles Renouvier, a popular French philosopher at the time, believed that France’s defeat in 1870 was due to the "loss of the ideals of freedom and backwardness in the pursuit of science." Renouvier encouraged Frenchmen to believe in a new ideal, based upon morality and reason, which could be found in the idea of civilization. French leaders quickly adopted this, making it an "official doctrine of the French State," thereby making it an integral part of how France defined her power in the international arena.
The idea of spreading civilization soon became the official reason for further French colonial acquisitions. In fact, "mission civilisatrice" as it soon came to be known in France, was intended to spread French culture, thereby increasing French influence abroad. Another result of this increasing influence abroad, was increased authority in Europe. The idea of raising up others to the French standard and way of life was such an endearing one to the French population that mission civilisatrice soon became the rallying cry for French expansionism right up until decolonization16. However, the idea did not die there. Instead it became one of the factors that led to France’s almost neocolonialistic policy towards its former territories in the post WWII years.
Using mission civilisatrice and another new idea called rayonnement, which literally means lighting the way for others, France expanded its holdings in Africa to include the present day countries of Algeria, Morroco and Tunisia. These made up the French colonies in North Africa, which most Frenchmen considered more prominent than the French holdings in Black or Sub-Saharan Africa. France was also the primary owner of colonies in West Africa, had some holdings in Equatorial Africa and held the present day country of Gabon. These were the primary area of France influence in Africa.
It was within these colonies that France began to pursue a policy of assimilation. This assimilation ideal, based upon the concept of mission civilisatrice, was aimed at making the citizens of the colonies an "integral part of the mother country." In effect, the French tried to make Africans into model French citizen without any regard for the culture and history of the indigenous peoples17. Eventually, this idea of assimilation was replaced with a more realistic goal of association. Association was the idea that Frenchmen would try to instill French pride and love of the mother country in Africans without forcing them to abandon all native ideas and culture. Ironically, assimilation would not work because colonial administrators feared forcing people to become French would produce resentment and revolution; and those same French administrators made association also unsuccessful because of very heavy-handed and sometimes brutal direct ruling of the colonies18.
Despite the attempts at assimilation and association, the average African colonial did not think of themselves as part of the French empire. Nor did the average French citizen think much of their African counterparts. This changed with the advent of World War I. During the Great War, the French colonies supplied over 500,000 soldiers to fight in the trenches in Europe and over 200,000 workers to keep war industries running. By supplying troops, workers and raw materials to defend the French Empire, the colonies had begun to prove themselves useful. This silenced many of the French critics who had believed that the colonies were a waste of resources19. More important was the beginning of the integration of France’s African colonies into the mainstream French empire.
After the war, two new terms arose in France and Europe to describe relations with Africa. These terms were France-Afrique and Eurafrique. France-Afrique was described as "the need to ensure that African materials and human resources could be developed to meet France’s needs." On the other hand, Eurafrique was explained as the idea that Europe could co-operate in Africa and that France could lead European activities in Africa because of massive amount colonies owned by the French there20. The frequent use of these terms shows the beginning of increased beliefs that both France’s and Africa’s futures were linked together and that French colonies in Africa were becoming more important in French society and in Europe.