Promoting the Colonial Idea : Propaganda and Visions of Empire in France

Challenging the notion that there was no "popular imperialism" in France, this book examines the importance of France's colonial role in the development of French society and culture after 1870. It assesses the impact of colonial propaganda on public attitudes and the relationship between imperialism, republicanism, and nationalism. It analyzes the representations of empire, traces the development of a colonial "science" and discusses the enduring importance of images and symbols of empire in contemporary France. Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 6 List of Tables and Figures......Page 8 List of Abbreviations......Page 9 Acknowledgements......Page 10 Notes on the Contributors......Page 11 Introduction......Page 14 Part I The Empire and Public Opinion......Page 26 1 Migration to Indochina: Proof of the Popularity of Colonial Empire?......Page 28 2 A Campaign of Colonial Propaganda: Gallieni, Lyautey and the Defence of the Military Regime in Madagascar, May 1899 to July 1900......Page 42 3 Drawing Settlers to New Caledonia: French Colonial Propaganda in the Late Nineteenth Century......Page 53 4 The Dissenters: Anti-Colonialism in France, c. 1900–40......Page 66 Part II Representations of Empire......Page 82 5 Imperial Façades: Muslim Institutions and Propaganda in Inter-War Paris......Page 84 6 The French Provinces and ‘Greater France’......Page 95 7 Alienation or Political Strategy? The Colonised Defend the Empire......Page 115 8 ‘Propagender’: Marianne, Joan of Arc and the Export of French Gender Ideology to Colonial Cambodia (1863–1954)......Page 129 Part III The Empire and Science......Page 144 9 Miscegenation and the Popular Imagination......Page 146 10 Faire Naître v. Faire du Noir: Race Regeneration in France and French West Africa, 1895–1940......Page 156 11 ‘Negrophilia’, ‘Negrology’ or ‘Africanism’? Colonial Ethnography and Racism in France around 1900......Page 169 12 Direct or Indirect Rule: Propaganda around a Scientific Controversy......Page 181 13 Representation or Recuperation? The French Colonies and 1914–1918 War Memorials......Page 197 14 Defending the Empire in Retrospect: The Discourse of the Extreme Right......Page 208 15 Putting the Colonies on the Map: Colonial Names in Paris Streets......Page 224 Glossary......Page 237 Select Bibliography......Page 239 Index......Page 248 Annotation Challenging the notion that there was no 'popular imperialism' in France, this important new book examines the importance of France's colonial role in the development of French society and culture after 1870. It assesses the impact of colonial propaganda on public attitudes in France and the relationship between French imperialism, republicanism and nationalism. It analyses metropolitan representations of empire, traces the development of a colonial 'science' and discusses the enduring importance of images and symbols of empire in contemporary France. It will be of interest to students of imperial, social and cultural history as well as to historians of contemporary France Until relatively recently, it was widely accepted that, with brief exceptions, late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century empire enjoyed little popular support and generated no great mass enthusiasm in Europe.