Empire of Love : Histories of France and the Pacific

This book consists of multiple studies of the creation of an 'Empire of Love' in the Pacific and the interconnections between culture and imperial power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It examines the European presence in such contested territories as Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna, and encounter and conflict in Panama, Indochina, and Japan. This book is an imaginative addition to the fields of Pacific and colonial history.
In this broad-ranging survey of Paris, Tahiti, Indochina, Japan, New Caledonia, and the South Pacific generally, Matt Matsuda illustrates the fascinating interplay that shaped the imaginations of both colonizer and colonized. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, Matsuda describes the constitution of a "French Pacific" through the eyes of Tahitian monarchs, Kanak warriors, French politicos and prisoners, Asian revolutionaries and Central American laborers, among others. He argues that French imperialism in the Pacific, both real and imagined, was registered most forcefully in languages of desire and love--for lost islands, promised wealth and riches, carnal and spiritual pleasures--and political affinities. Exploring the conflicting engagements with love for and against the empire in the Pacific, this book is an imaginative and ground-breaking work in global imperial and colonial histories, as well as Pacific histories. Cover......Page 1 Book......Page 2 CONTENTS......Page 9 INTRODUCTION: Empire of Love: Histories of France and the Pacific......Page 13 ONE: Rochefort: The Family Romance of the French Pacific......Page 27 TWO: Panama: Geopolitics of Desire......Page 53 THREE: Wallis and Futuna: Martyrs and Memories......Page 79 FOUR: Society Islands: Tahitian Archives......Page 101 FIVE: New Caledonia: Prisoners of Love......Page 123 SIX: Indochina: Romance of the Ruins......Page 147 SEVEN: Japan: The Tears of Madame Chrysanthème......Page 171 AFTERWORD: The Lost Continent......Page 195 Notes......Page 201 B......Page 235 D......Page 236 G......Page 237 L......Page 238 M......Page 239 R......Page 240 V......Page 241 Z......Page 242 The chapters in this volume detail the operations of love and empire within different constituencies, outlining and examining the specific presumptions, challenges, and legacies of men and women who were Tahitian monarchs, Kanak warriors from New Caledonia, French bourgeois politicos, poor white Oceanic emigrants, deported prisoners, Futunan chiefs, Central American Indians and laborers, East and Southeast Asian denizens of treaty ports and colonial compounds. These stories - about power and art, work and slavery, faith and tradition, class and race, family and ideology - lend local distinction to multiple perspectives that constituted the greater narration of an "empire of love" in a French Pacific."--Introduction This Title Studies The Creation Of An 'empire Of Love' In The Pacific And The Interconnections Between Culture And Imperial Power In The 19th And 20th Centuries. It Examines The European Presence In Such Contested Territories As New Caledonia, And Tahiti, And Encounter And Conflict In Panama And Indochina. Matt K. Matsuda. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 191-224) And Index. Presents multiple studies of the creation of an 'Empire of Love' in the Pacific and the interconnections between culture and imperial power in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This book examines the European presence in territories as Tahiti, New Caledonia, and Wallis and Futuna, and encounter and conflict in Panama, Indochina, and Japan