96-646: From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire existed mainly in the Americas and Asia . During the 19th and 20th centuries, the second French colonial empire existed mainly in Africa and Asia . France had about 80 colonies throughout its history , the second most colonies in the world behind only the British Empire . Around 40 countries gained independence from France throughout its history,
192-718: A French East India Company on the model of England and the Netherlands. On 1 June 1604, he issued letters patent to Dieppe merchants to form the Dieppe Company , giving them exclusive rights to Asian trade for 15 years. No ships were sent, however, until 1616. In 1609, another adventurer, Pierre-Olivier Malherbe , returned from a circumnavigation of the globe and informed Henry of his adventures. He had visited China and India and had an encounter with Akbar . Colonies were established in India's Chandernagore (1673) and Pondichéry in
288-519: A failed expedition in 1802, and were up against a crippling Royal Naval blockade the following year. As a result, the Empire of Haiti ultimately achieved independence in 1804 (becoming the first black republic in the world, followed by Liberia in 1847). The black and mulatto population of the island (including the Spanish east) had declined from 700,000 in 1789 to 351,819 in 1804. About 80,000 Haitians died in
384-637: A government in exile by the United Kingdom took place on 6 January 1941; recognition by the Soviet Union was published in December 1941, by exchange of letters. Winston Churchill suggested that de Gaulle create a committee, to lend an appearance of a more constitutionally based and less dictatorial authority and on 24 September 1941 de Gaulle created by edict the French National Committee as
480-588: A Nazi client state . France was still nominally independent, with control of the French Navy , the French colonial empire , and the southern half of its metropolitan territory. France could tell itself that it still retained some shreds of dignity. Despite heavy pressure, Vichy never joined the Axis alliance and remained formally at war with Germany. The Allies took the position that France should refrain from actively helping
576-624: A central role in the creation or operation of them all. On 26 June 1940, four days after the Pétain government requested the armistice, General de Gaulle submitted a memorandum to the British government notifying Churchill of his decision to set up a Council of Defense of the Empire and formalizing the agreement reached with Churchill on 28 June. The formal recognition of the Empire Defense Council as
672-611: 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 current isle of the Commonwealth of Dominica in the eastern Caribbean also fell under increasing French settlement from the early 1630s. The Compagnie des Îles de l'Amérique founded colonies in Guadeloupe and Martinique in 1635, and
768-539: A colony was later founded on Saint Lucia by (1650). 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. France's most important Caribbean colonial possession was established in 1664, when the colony of Saint-Domingue (today's Haiti )
864-571: A government in exile and in a series of radio appeals exhorted the French to fight back. Some historians have called the first, his appeal of 18 June on the BBC, the beginning of the French Resistance . In fact the audience for that appeal was quite small, but more and more listened as de Gaulle obtained Britain's recognition as the legitimate government of Free France and obtained their agreement to finance
960-669: A key role Vichy French colonial forces were reduced under the terms of the armistice. Nevertheless, in the Mediterranean area alone, Vichy had nearly 150,000 men under arms. There were about 55,000 in French Morocco , 50,000 in Algeria , and almost 40,000 in the Army of the Levant . Refusing to accept his government's armistice with Germany, Charles de Gaulle fled to England on 17 June and exhorted
1056-721: A leader, but Churchill's envoys had tried and failed to establish contact with French leaders in North Africa, so on 28 June, the British government recognized de Gaulle as the leader of the Free French , despite the FO's reservations. De Gaulle also initially had little success in attracting the support of major powers. While Pétain's government was recognized by the US, the USSR, and the Vatican, and controlled
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#17328982029791152-696: A military efforts against Nazi Germany. De Gaulle also tried, in vain initially, to gain the support of French forces in the French colonial empire. General Charles Noguès , Resident-General in Morocco and Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Africa refused his overtures, and forbade the press in French North Africa to publish the text of de Gaulle 's appeal. The day after the armistice was signed on 21 June 1940, de Gaulle denounced it. The French government in Bordeaux declared de Gaulle compulsorily retired from
1248-548: A new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa as well as Indochina and the South Pacific . As it developed, the new French empire took on roles of trade with the metropole , supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items. Especially after the disastrous Franco-Prussian War , which saw Germany become the leading economic and military power of Continental Europe, acquiring colonies and rebuilding an empire
1344-518: 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. French colonialism in Morocco was discriminatory against native Moroccans and highly detrimental to
1440-649: A second offensive force, including French Army B , from the département of Algeria into southern France. City after city in France was liberated, and even Paris was liberated on 25 August 1944. As the liberation progressed, resistance groups were incorporated into the Allied strength. In September, under threat of the Allied advance Pétain and the remains of the Vichy regime fled into exile in Germany . The Allied armies continued to push
1536-459: A strong proponent of collaboration, arranged a meeting between Hitler and Pétain. It took place on 24 October 1940 at Montoire on Hitler's private train. Pétain and Hitler shook hands and agreed to co-operate. The meeting was exploited in Nazi propaganda for the civilian population. On 30 October 1940, Pétain made a policy of French collaboration official, declaring in a radio statement: "I enter today on
1632-494: Is now entirely deprived of her influence and her power in the West Indies." Meanwhile, France's newly resumed war with Britain resulted in the British capture of practically all remaining French colonies. These were restored at the Treaty of Amiens in 1802, but when war resumed in 1803, the British soon recaptured them. France's 1800 recovery of Louisiana from Spain in the secret Third Treaty of San Ildefonso came to nothing, as
1728-850: Is sometimes 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 Menorca 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
1824-576: The British Empire and the United States of America would support them militarily and economically in an effort to retake France from the Germans. Few actually heard the speech but another speech, heard by more people, was given by de Gaulle four days later. After the war, de Gaulle's radio appeal was often identified as the beginning of the French Resistance, and the process of liberating France from
1920-625: The Empire Defense Council in Brazzaville , which became the capital of Free France . Allied military efforts in north western Europe began in summer 1944 with two seaborne invasions of France. Operation Overlord in June 1944 landed two million men, including a French armoured division, through the beaches of Normandy , opening a Western front against Germany. Operation Dragoon in August launched
2016-515: The Free French , with the costs to be settled after the war (the financial agreement was finalized in March 1941). A separate letter guaranteed the territorial integrity of the French colonial empire. The French Resistance was a decentralized network of small cells of fighters with the tacit or overt support of many French civilians. The various resistance groups by 1944 had an estimated 100,000 members in France. Some were former Republican fighters from
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#17328982029792112-602: The French Union , which endured until 1958. Newer remnants of the colonial empire were integrated into France as overseas departments and territories within the French Republic. These now total altogether 119,394 km (46,098 sq. miles), with 2.8 million people in 2021. Links between France and its former colonies persist through La francophonie , the CFA franc , and joint military operations such as Operation Serval . During
2208-523: 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. The French Colonial Empire established
2304-668: The Mascarene Islands . Initial French colonial projects, partially administered by the French East India Company , prioritized plantation economies and slave labor. These economies were based on monoculture agriculture and forced African labor. Poor living conditions, famines, and disease made enslaved labor conditions particularly lethal across French colonies. French presence in Senegal began in 1626, although formal colonies and trading posts were not established until 1659 with
2400-646: The Netherlands , France took control of Mauritius, which it renamed the Island of France in 1721. Furthermore, France took control of Rodrigues in 1735 and Seychelles in 1756. On Reunion Island ( Bourbon Island ), the French East India Company first introduced the slave trade in the 1730s. The French East India Company additionally introduced coffee and sought to create a plantation economy centered around forced labor. Characteristic of plantation colonies,
2496-864: The Second World War was accomplished through diplomacy, politics and the combined military efforts of the Allied Powers , Free French forces in London and Africa, as well as the French Resistance . Nazi Germany invaded France in May 1940. Their rapid advance through the almost undefended Ardennes caused a crisis in the French government; the French Third Republic dissolved itself in July, and handed over absolute power to Marshal Philippe Pétain , an elderly hero of World War I. Pétain signed an armistice with Germany with
2592-550: The Spanish Civil War ; others were workers who went into hiding rather than report for the mandatory Service du travail obligatoire (STO) to work for German arms factories. In the south of France especially, Resistance fighters took to the mountainous brush ( maquis ) that gave them their name, and conducted guerilla warfare on the German occupation forces, cutting telephone lines and destroying bridges. The Armée Secrète
2688-524: The "first" French colonial empire. In the 19th century, starting with the conquest of Algiers in 1830, France began to establish a new empire in Africa and Southeast Asia. The following is a list of all countries that were part of the French colonial empires from 1534 ; 490 years ago ( 1534 ) to the present, either entirely or in part, either under French sovereignty or as mandate. French colonial empire The French colonial empire ( French : Empire colonial français ) comprised
2784-553: The 16th century, the French colonization of the Americas began. Excursions of Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier in the early 16th century, as well as the frequent voyages of French boats and fishermen to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland throughout that century, were the precursors to the story of France's colonial expansion. But Spain's defense of its American monopoly, and the further distractions caused in France itself in
2880-463: The 17th and 19th century to secure access to and to control the slave trade. Through an emphasis on controlling seaports, the French sought to forcibly extract enslaved people to send them abroad for profit. Colonial development prioritized export oriented production while local industry remained very underdeveloped. There was high development of production for export oriented production, notably of ground nuts in Senegal . In additional coastal areas,
2976-399: The 1802–03 campaign alone. Of the 55,131 French soldiers dispatched to Haiti in 1802–03, 45,000, including 18 generals, died, along with 10,000 sailors, the great majority from disease. Captain [first name unknown] Sorrell of the British navy observed, "France lost there one of the finest armies she ever sent forth, composed of picked veterans, the conquerors of Italy and of German legions. She
List of French possessions and colonies - Misplaced Pages Continue
3072-637: 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 . Liberation of France Allied victory [REDACTED] French Resistance (until 1944) Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The liberation of France ( French : libération de la France ) in
3168-864: The African and Asian continents. In December 1600, a company was formed through the association of Saint-Malo , Laval , and Vitré to trade with the Moluccas and Japan. Two ships, the Croissant and the Corbin , were sent around the Cape of Good Hope in May 1601. One was wrecked in the Maldives , leading to the adventure of François Pyrard de Laval , who managed to return to France in 1611. The second ship, carrying François Martin de Vitré , reached Ceylon and traded with Aceh in Sumatra , but
3264-642: The Army with the rank of colonel, on 23 June 1940. Also on 23 June, the British Government denounced the armistice and announced that they no longer regarded the Bordeaux government as a fully independent state. They also noted a plan to establish a French National Committee in exile, but did not mention de Gaulle by name. The armistice took effect starting at 00:35 on 25 June. On 26 June de Gaulle wrote to Churchill about recognition for his French Committee. The Foreign Office had reservations about de Gaulle as
3360-560: 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 L'Ouverture and then, following his capture by the French in 1801, by Jean-Jacques Dessalines , held their own against French and British opponents. The French launched
3456-485: The Free French forces in the fight against Germany, which most of them did by 1943. On 26 August, the governor and military commanders in the colony of French Chad announced that they were rallying to De Gaulle's Free French Forces . A small group of Gaullists seized control of French Cameroon the following morning, and on 28 August a Free French official ousted the pro-Vichy governor of French Congo . The next day
3552-698: The French colonists were a minority on Reunion Island. In 1763 there were only 4,000 French colonists while there were over 18,000 African enslaved people. The majority of enslaved people on Reunion Island worked on coffee plantations. They primarily came from Madagascar, Mozambique, and Senegal. The economy of the Mauritius (Island of France) was similarly based on an exploitative plantation system dependent on forced African labor. The monoculture plantations farmed sugar cane, cotton, indigo, rice, and wheat. Around 2,000 colonists and enslaved people from Reunion Island migrated to Mauritius. Conditions for enslaved people on
3648-413: The French fleet and military in all the colonies, de Gaulle 's retinue consisted of a secretary, three colonels, a dozen captains, a law professor, and three battalions of legionnaires who had agreed to stay in Britain and fight for him. For a time the New Hebrides were the only French colony to back de Gaulle . De Gaulle and Churchill reached agreement on 7 August 1940 that Britain would also fund
3744-434: The French from committing fully to the conflict, and thus the French forces suffered high losses. For example, at the Battle of El Herri in 1914, 600 French soldiers were killed. The fighting was primarily characterized by Guerrilla warfare. The Zaian forces additionally received military and economic support from the Central Powers. The Berber independence leader Abd el-Krim (1882–1963) organized armed resistance against
3840-620: 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 West Africa was a confederation of eight other French colonial territories including French Mauritania , French Senegal , French Guinea , French Ivory Coast , French Niger , French Upper Volta , French Dahomey , French Togoland , and French Sudan . At
3936-439: The French set up slave plantations. Initial French development prioritized the building of roads to connect natural resources to harbors and ports. Additional initial French settlements were established on the Mascarene Islands which include Reunion Island , Mauritius , and Rodrigues . Reunion Island was first settled in 1642 and was administered by the French East India Company starting in 1665. After initial settlement by
List of French possessions and colonies - Misplaced Pages Continue
4032-411: The French to resist occupation and to continue the fight. Reynaud resigned after his proposal for a Franco-British Union was rejected by his cabinet and De Gaulle facing imminent arrest, fled France on 17 June. Other leading politicians, including Georges Mandel , Léon Blum , Pierre Mendès France , Jean Zay and Édouard Daladier (and separately Reynaud), were arrested while travelling to continue
4128-565: The Germans back through eastern France and in February and March 1945, back across the Rhine into Germany. A few pockets of German resistance remained in control of the main Atlantic ports until the end of the war on 8 May 1945. Immediately after liberation, France was swept by a wave of executions, assaults, and degradation of suspected collaborators, including shaming of women suspected of relationships with Germans . Courts set up in June 1944 carried out an épuration légale (official purge) of officials tainted by association with Vichy or
4224-414: The Germans, but distrusted its assurances. The British attacked the French Navy at anchor in Mers-el-Kébir , to keep it out of German hands. Charles de Gaulle had been since 5 June the Under-Secretary of State for National Defence and War and responsible for coordination with Britain. Refusing to accept his government's position on Germany, he escaped back to England on 17 June. In London he established
4320-445: The Germans. The British recognized and funded de Gaulle's Free French government in exile based in London. Efforts to liberate France began in the autumn of 1940 in France's colonial empire in Africa, still in the hands of the Vichy regime. General de Gaulle persuaded French Chad to support Free France, and by 1943 most other French colonies in Equatorial and North Africa had followed suit. De Gaulle announced formation of
4416-399: The Interior (FFI), as de Gaulle came to call Resistance forces inside France, were an uneasy alliance of several maquis and other organizations, including the Communist-organized Francs-Tireurs et Partisans (FTP) and the Armée secrète in southern France. In addition, escape networks helped Allied airmen who had been shot down get to safety. The Unione Corse and the milieu ,
4512-429: The Low Countries beginning on 10 May 1940. German forces split the French from their British allies by striking through the lightly defended Ardennes , whose topography French strategists had considered prohibitively difficult for tanks. The invaders forced the British Expeditionary Force to evacuate, and defeated several French divisions before they advanced to Paris, and down the strategic Atlantic coast. By June,
4608-425: The Mascarene Island plantations were very poor. Enslaved labor was highly lethal because of poor living conditions and famines. After a series of crop failures from 1725 to 1737, as much as 10% of the islands' enslaved populations died due to famine and disease. 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
4704-429: The Moroccan economy. Moroccans were treated as second class citizens and discriminated against in all aspects of colonial life. 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. Additionally, land in Morocco
4800-483: The Pacific islands, and territories in North and South America. France retained control of its colonial empire, and the terms of the armistice shifted the power balance post-armistice of France's reduced military resources away from France and towards the colonies, especially North Africa. By 1943, all French colonies, except for Japanese-controlled Indochina, had joined the Free French cause. The colonies in North Africa and French Equatorial Africa in particular played
4896-407: The Spanish and French for control of Morocco . The Spanish had faced unrest off and on from the 1890s, but in 1921 Spanish forces were massacred at the Battle of Annual . El-Krim founded an independent Rif Republic that operated until 1926 but had no international recognition. Paris and Madrid agreed to collaborate to destroy it. They sent in 200,000 soldiers, forcing el-Krim to surrender in 1926; he
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#17328982029794992-543: The beginning of Napoleon III's reign, the presence of France in Senegal was limited to a trading post on the island of Gorée , a narrow strip on the coast, the town of Saint-Louis , and a handful of trading posts in the interior. The economy had largely been based on the slave trade , carried out by the rulers of the small kingdoms of the interior, as well as elite families, until France abolished slavery in its colonies in 1848. In 1854, Napoleon III named an enterprising French officer, Louis Faidherbe , to govern and expand
5088-411: 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
5184-474: The colony, and to give it the beginning of a modern economy. Faidherbe built a series of forts along the Senegal River, formed alliances with leaders in the interior, and sent expeditions against those who resisted French rule. He built a new port at Dakar , established and protected telegraph lines and roads, followed these with a rail line between Dakar and Saint-Louis and another into the interior . He built schools, bridges, and systems to supply fresh water to
5280-434: The criminal underground of Marseilles, gleefully provided logistical escape assistance for a price, although some such as Paul Carbone instead worked with the Carlingue , French auxiliaries to the Gestapo SD and German military police. France's colonial empire at the start of World War II stretched from territories and possessions in Africa, the Middle East ( Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon ), to ports in India, Indochina,
5376-494: The dire French military situation had French politics revolving around whether the Third Republic should negotiate an armistice, fight on from North Africa, or just surrender. Prime Minister Paul Reynaud wanted to keep fighting, but was outvoted and resigned. The government relocated several times ahead of advancing German troops, ending up in Bordeaux. President Albert Lebrun appointed 84-year-old war hero Philippe Pétain as his replacement on 16 June 1940. Within six weeks of
5472-403: The direct orders of an enemy who will one day be driven from the soil of France. Then I will submit myself willingly to the people's judgment." Pétain signed the Armistice of 22 June . Its terms left the French Army under Vichy France a rump Armistice Army . The naval fleet, although disabled, remained under Vichy control. In the colonial empire, the armistice terms permitted defensive use of
5568-438: The effort once Germany invaded the Soviet Union. French prisoners of war were held hostage against the French government meeting their quota of workers. When the mass impressment of able-bodied civilians began, French railway workers ( cheminots ) went on strike rather than allow the Germans to use the trains to transport them. The cheminots eventually formed their own organization, Résistance-Fer . The French Forces of
5664-402: 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. Acadia itself was lost to the British in the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Back in France, there
5760-425: The first French colonial empire and the near-complete expulsion of France from the Americas. These wars were the War of the Austrian Succession (1740–1748), the Seven Years' War (1756–1763), the American Revolution (1775–1783), 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
5856-403: 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). New France had a rather small population, which resulted from more emphasis being placed on
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#17328982029795952-451: The founding of Saint-Louis , and 1677 with the founding of Gorée . Additionally, the first settlement of Madagascar began in 1642 with the establishment of Fort Dauphin . Initial French colonial expansion in Senegal and Madagascar was primarily motivated by desires to secure access to natural resources including gum arabic, groundnuts (or peanuts) and other raw materials. In addition they were further motivated by desires throughout
6048-401: The fur trade rather than agricultural settlements. Due to this emphasis, the French relied heavily on creating friendly contacts with the local First Nations community. Without the appetite of New England for land, and by relying solely on Aboriginals to supply them with fur at the trading posts, the French composed a complex series of military, commercial, and diplomatic connections. These became
6144-478: The governor of Ubangi-Shari declared that his territory would support De Gaulle. His declaration prompted a brief struggle for power with a pro-Vichy army officer, but by the end of the day all of the colonies that formed French Equatorial Africa had rallied to Free France, except for French Gabon . A series of organizing bodies was created during the war, to guide and coordinate the diplomatic and war effort of Free France, with General Charles de Gaulle playing
6240-473: The humiliation of defeat and occupation, France was eager to maintain its overseas empire at the end of the Second World War." However, after 1945, anti-colonial movements began to challenge European authority. Revolts in Indochina and Algeria proved costly and France lost both colonies. After these conflicts, a relatively peaceful decolonization took place elsewhere after 1960. The French Constitution of 27 October 1946 (Fourth French Republic) established
6336-450: The initial German assault, an overwhelmed French military faced imminent defeat. The cabinet agreed to seek peace terms and sent the Germans a delegation under General Charles Huntziger , with instructions to break off negotiations if the Germans demanded excessively harsh conditions such as the occupation of all of metropolitan France, the French fleet, or any of the French overseas territories. The Germans did not, however. Pierre Laval ,
6432-497: The later 16th century by the French Wars of Religion , prevented any constant efforts by France to settle colonies. Early French attempts to found colonies in Brazil, in 1555 at Rio de Janeiro (" France Antarctique ") and in Florida (including Fort Caroline in 1562), and in 1612 at São Luís (" France Équinoxiale "), 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 27 July 1605, with
6528-411: The military occupation. Some defendants received death sentences, and faced a firing squad. The first elections since 1940 were organized in May 1945 by the Provisional Government ; these municipal elections were the first in which women could vote. In referendums in October 1946, the voters approved a new constitution and the Fourth Republic was born 27 October 1946. Nazi Germany invaded France and
6624-417: The most enduring alliances between the French and the First Nation community. The French were, however, under pressure from religious orders to convert them to Catholicism . 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
6720-423: The naval fleet. In metropolitan France, forces were severely reduced, armored vehicles and tanks prohibited, and motorized transport severely limited. In July, the National Assembly of the French Third Republic dissolved itself and gave absolute power to Pétain , who was to set up a constituent assembly and constitutional referendum. The "French State" created by this transfer of power was commonly known after
6816-680: The north and west of France under German military occupation . Pétain, charged with calling a Constitutional Authority, instead established an authoritarian government in the spa town of Vichy , in the southern zone libre ("free zone"). Though nominally independent, Vichy France became a collaborationist regime and was little more than a Nazi client state that actively participated in Jewish deportations and aided German forces in anti-partisan actions in Occupied France as well as in combat actions in Africa. Even before France surrendered on 22 June 1940, General Charles de Gaulle fled to London, from where he called on his fellow citizens to resist
6912-423: The overseas colonies , protectorates , and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the " First French colonial empire ", that existed until 1814, by which time most of it had been lost or sold, and the " Second French colonial empire ", which began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830. On the eve of World War I, France's colonial empire
7008-449: The path of collaboration." General De Gaulle , sentenced to death in absentia by the Vichy régime , escaped and created a government in exile for Free France in London. Of the sentence, he said: "I consider the death sentence by the men of Vichy entirely void, I shall settle accounts with them after victory. The sentence is that of a court largely under the influence and possibly under
7104-697: The region connected to Canada through the Great Lakes , was maintained through a vast system of fortifications, many of them centred in the Illinois Country and in present-day Arkansas. As the French empire in North America grew, 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
7200-585: The second most in the world behind only the British Empire . Over 50% of the world’s borders today, were drawn as a result of British and French imperialism. France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean and India, following Spanish and Portuguese successes during the Age of Discovery , in rivalry with Britain. A series of wars with Britain during the 18th century and early 19th century, which France finally lost, almost ended its colonial ambitions in these regions, and without it what some historians term
7296-462: 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
7392-516: The south east (1674), and later at Yanam (1723), Mahe (1725), and Karikal (1739) (see French India ). In 1664, the French East India Company was established to compete for trade in the east. Although initial French colonization primarily occurred in the Americas and in Asia , the French did establish a few colonies and trading posts on the African continent. Initial French colonization in Africa began in modern-day Senegal , Madagascar , and along
7488-629: The success of the Haitian Revolution convinced Napoleon that holding Louisiana would not be worth the cost, leading to its sale to the United States in 1803. The French attempt to establish a colony in Egypt in 1798–1801 was not successful. Battle casualties for the campaign were at least 15,000 killed or wounded and 8,500 prisoners for France; 50,000 killed or wounded and 15,000 prisoners for Turkey, Egypt, other Ottoman lands, and Britain. At
7584-524: The successor organization to the smaller Empire Defense Council. According to historian Henri Bernard, De Gaulle went on to accept his proposal, but took care to exclude all his adversaries within the Free France movement, such as Émile Muselier , André Labarthe and others, retaining only "yes men" in the group. The committee was the coordinating body which acted as the government-in-exile of Free France from 1941 to 1943. On 3 June 1943 it merged with
7680-587: 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 (the Western third of
7776-838: The towns. He also introduced the large-scale cultivation of Bambara groundnuts and peanuts as a commercial crop. Reaching into the Niger valley, Senegal became the primary French base in West Africa and a model colony. Dakar became one of the most important cities of the French Empire and of 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
7872-422: The war as the "Vichy régime". Pétain did nothing about a constitution however, and established a totalitarian government at Vichy in the southern zone. The Vichy régime nominally governed all of France, but in practice the zone occupée was a Nazi dictatorship and the Vichy government's power was limited and uncertain even in the zone libre . Vichy France became a collaborationist regime , little more than
7968-545: The war from North Africa. De Gaulle obtained special permission from Winston Churchill to broadcast a speech on 18 June via Radio Londres (a French language radio station operated by the BBC) to France, despite the Cabinet's objections that such a broadcast could provoke the Pétain government into a closer allegiance with Germany. In his speech, de Gaulle reminded the French people that
8064-604: The yoke of German occupation. {{{annotations}}} De Gaulle's support grew out of a base in colonial Africa. In the summer of 1940, the colonial empire largely supported the Vichy regime. Félix Éboué , governor of Chad, switched his support to General de Gaulle in September. Encouraged, de Gaulle traveled to Brazzaville in October, where he announced the formation of an Empire Defense Council in his " Brazzaville Manifesto ", and invited all colonies still supporting Vichy to join him and
8160-490: Was a French military organization active during World War II. The collective grouped the paramilitary formations of the three most important Gaullist resistance movements in the southern zone: Combat, Libération-sud and the Franc-Tireurs. Some organizations grew up around one of the many clandestine presses of the time, such as Combat , founded by Albert Camus , to which Jean-Paul Sartre also contributed. Stalin supported
8256-508: Was always receding [and] the colonial populations treated like subjects not citizens." France sent small numbers of settlers to its empire, with the notable exception of Algeria, where the French settlers took power while being a minority. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle and the Free French took control of the overseas colonies one-by-one and used them as bases from which they prepared to liberate France . Historian Tony Chafer argues: "In an effort to restore its world-power status after
8352-515: Was captured by the Dutch on the return leg at Cape Finisterre . François Martin de Vitré was the first Frenchman to write an account of travels to the Far East in 1604, at the request of Henry IV, and from that time numerous accounts on Asia would be published. From 1604 to 1609, following the return of François Martin de Vitré, Henry developed a strong enthusiasm for travel to Asia and attempted to set up
8448-524: Was exiled in the Pacific until 1947. Morocco became quiet, and in 1936 became the base from which Francisco Franco launched his revolt against Madrid. 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,
8544-427: Was far more expensive for Moroccans than for French settlers. For example, while the average Moroccan had a plot of land 50 times smaller than their French settler counterparts, Moroccans were forced to pay 24% more per hectare. Moroccans were additionally prohibited from buying land from French settlers. Colonial Morocco's economy was designed to benefit French businesses at the detriment of Moroccan laborers. Morocco
8640-612: Was forced to import all of its goods from France despite higher costs. Additionally, improvements to agriculture and irrigation systems in Morocco exclusively benefited colonial agriculturalists while leaving Moroccan farms at a technological disadvantage. Between the years of 1914 to 1921 the Zaian Confederation of Berber Tribes, primarily from the Atlas Mountain region of Morocco, staged an armed resistance against French colonial control . The outbreak of World War One prevented
8736-490: 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. With the end of the French Wars of Religion , King Henry IV encouraged various enterprises to establish trade with
8832-538: 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. French colonialism in Madagascar began in 1896 when France established a protectorate by force and ended in
8928-607: Was relatively little interest in colonialism, which concentrated rather on dominance within Europe, and for most of its history, New France was far behind the British North American colonies in both population and economic development. 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
9024-511: Was seen as a way to restore French prestige in the world. It was also to provide manpower during the world wars. A major goal was the Mission civilisatrice or " Civilizing Mission ". In 1884, the leading proponent of colonialism, Jules Ferry , declared: "The higher races have a right over the lower races, they have a duty to civilize the inferior races ." Full citizenship rights – assimilation – were offered, although in reality "assimilation
9120-419: 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
9216-543: Was the second-largest in the world after the British Empire . France began to establish colonies in the Americas , the Caribbean , and India in the 16th century but lost most of its possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War . The North American possessions were lost to Britain and Spain, but Spain later returned Louisiana to France in 1800. The territory was then sold to the United States in 1803 . France rebuilt
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