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. Front Matter....Pages i-xii Introduction....Pages 1-11 Front Matter....Pages 13-13 Migration to Indochina: Proof of the Popularity of Colonial Empire?....Pages 15-28 A Campaign of Colonial Propaganda: Gallieni, Lyautey and the Defence of the Military Regime in Madagascar, May 1899 to July 1900....Pages 29-39 Drawing Settlers to New Caledonia: French Colonial Propaganda in the Late Nineteenth Century....Pages 40-52 The Dissenters: Anti-Colonialism in France, c. 1900–40....Pages 53-68 Front Matter....Pages 69-69 Imperial Façades: Muslim Institutions and Propaganda in Inter-War Paris....Pages 71-81 The French Provinces and ‘Greater France’....Pages 82-101 Alienation or Political Strategy? The Colonised Defend the Empire....Pages 102-115 ‘Propagender’: Marianne, Joan of Arc and the Export of French Gender Ideology to Colonial Cambodia (1863–1954)....Pages 116-130 Front Matter....Pages 131-131 Miscegenation and the Popular Imagination....Pages 133-142 Faire Naître v. Faire du Noir: Race Regeneration in France and French West Africa, 1895–1940....Pages 143-155 ‘Negrophilia’, ‘Negrology’ or ‘Africanism’? Colonial Ethnography and Racism in France around 1900....Pages 156-167 Direct or Indirect Rule: Propaganda around a Scientific Controversy....Pages 168-183 Representation or Recuperation? The French Colonies and 1914–1918 War Memorials....Pages 184-194 Defending the Empire in Retrospect: The Discourse of the Extreme Right....Pages 195-210 Putting the Colonies on the Map: Colonial Names in Paris Streets....Pages 211-223 Back Matter....Pages 224-248 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.