The French Empire at War, 1940-1945 (Studies in Imperialism)

Between 1940 and 1945 the French empire divided against itself. This book presents the events in the French empire in the 1940s, and traces the period of wartime French imperial division, setting it within the wider international politics of the Second World War. It discusses the collapse of France's metropolitan forces during the second week of June 1940, which became a calamity for the French empire. The final breakdown of the Anglo-French alliance during the latter half of 1940 was played out on the African continent, in heavily defended French imperial territory of vital strategic importance to Allied communications. The Vichy empire lost ground to that of the Charles de Gaulle's Free French, something which has often been attributed to the attraction of the Gaullist mystique and the spirit of resistance in the colonies. Indo-China was bound to be considered a special case by the Vichy regime and the Free French movement. Between late 1940 and 1945, the French administration in Indo-China was forced by circumstances to plough a distinctive furrow in order to survive intact. The book discusses the St Pierre and Miquelon affair, and the invasion of Madagascar, and deals with the issue of nationalism in North Africa, before and after the Operation Torch. The contradiction between the French commitment to constitutional reform and the few colonial subjects actually affected by it was echoed in the wartime treatment of France's colonial forces. The French empire at war draws on original research in France and Britain to investigate the history of the divided French empire – the Vichy and the Free French empires – during the Second World War. What emerges is a fascinating story. While it is clear that both the Vichy and Free French colonial authorities were only rarely masters of their own destiny during the war, preservation of limited imperial control served them both in different ways. The Vichy government exploited the empire in an effort to withstand German-Italian pressure for concessions in metropolitan France and it was key to its claim to be more than the mouthpiece of a defeated nation. For Free France too, the empire acquired a political and symbolic importance which far outweighed its material significance to the Gaullist war effort. As the war progressed, the Vichy empire lost ground to that of the Free French, something which has often been attributed to the attraction of the Gaullist mystique and the spirit of resistance in the colonies. In this radical new interpretation, Thomas argues that it was neither of these. The course of the war itself, and the initiatives of the major combatant powers, played the greatest part in the rise of the Gaullist empire and the demise of Vichy colonial control. Front matter Dedication Contents General editor's introduction Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Maps Introduction Part I The inter-war background The inter-war empire and French defence Part II Clashes of French empire in Africa 1940–41 Territories divided, June-December 1940 The empire between the Axis and the Allies, 1940–41 Part III The second wave of Free French empire 1941–45 The empire goes to war: the Syrian campaign and Free French administration in the Levant, 1941–45 Empire as diplomatic incident: St Pierre and Miquelon and the Madagascar invasion, 1942 Operation Torch and Free French imperial supremacy in Africa, 1942–45 The fate of French Indo-China, 1940–45 Part IV Contrasting colonial policies A new imperial order? Conclusion Bibliography Index This wide-ranging and extensively researched work reviews the way in which the British army exploited the potential of railways from the 'dawn of the railway age' to the outbreak of the First World War. -- .