Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:54:50.733Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Significance of the French Colonial Empire for French Economic Development (1815–1960)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 April 2010

Jean-Pierre Dormois
Affiliation:
Université de Montpellier-III
François Crouzet
Affiliation:
Université de Paris-IV

Extract

In May 1940, among panic-stricken ministers and politicians, General de Gaulle was virtually alone to reflect and proclaim that France was not vanquished as long as it retained its colonial empire, which would serve as the springboard for France's future liberation and status as a world power. Not many of his contemporaries shared his conviction, and his loneliness testifies to the detachment of public opinion and politicians vis-a-vis an empire which in extent ranked second only to the British. In spite of the headlines, newsreels, slogans, colonial exhibitions and propaganda, most Frenchmen would have probably agreed that, over the years, the mother country had spent more on its colonies than it had received.

Type
Articles-Artículos: Part 3. The Second Epoch: Liberal Imperialism and Decolonization, 1846–1974
Copyright
Copyright © Instituto Figuerola de Historia y Ciencias Sociales, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid 1998

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Ageron, Charles R. (1978): France coloniale ou parti colonial, Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Google Scholar
Andrew, Ch., and Kanya-Forstner, S. (1974): «The “Groupe colonial”, in the French Chamber of Deputies, 1882–1932», The Historical Journal vol. 17, no. 1.Google Scholar
Baum, Warren C. (1958): The French Economy and the State, Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumgart, William (1982): The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880–1914, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bloch-Lainé, François (ed.) (1956): La zone Franc, Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Bloch-Lainé, François, and Bouvier, Jean (1986): La France restaurée 1944–1954. Dialogue sur les choix d'une modernisation, Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Bobrie, François (1976): «Finances publiques et conquête coloniale: le coût budgétaire de l'expansion française entre 1850 et 1913», Annales E.S.C. vol. 31/6, pp. 1225–44.Google Scholar
Bouvier, Jean (1974): «Les traits majeurs de l'impérialisme français avant 1914», Le Mouvement Social, vol. 86 (January).Google Scholar
Brunschwig, Henri (1960): Mythes et réalités de l'impérialisme colonial français, Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Carré, J. J.; Dubois, P., and Malinvaud, Ed. (1975): French Economic Growth, Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Crouzet, François (1964): «Commerce et Empire: l'expérience britannique du libre-échange à la première guerre mondiale», Annales E. S. C.. vol. 19, no. 2, pp. 281310.Google Scholar
Coquery-Vidrovttch, Catherine (1972): Le Congo au temps des grandes compagnies concessionaires, 1898–1930, Paris: Mouton.Google Scholar
Coquery-Vidrovttch, Catherine (1982): «L'économie coloniale française en Afrique noire: le financement de la “mise en valeur”, 1900–1940», Eighth International Economic Congress, Budapest.Google Scholar
Davis, Lance, and Robert, Huttenback (1988): Mammon and the pursuit of empire. The Economics of British Imperialism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Douël, Martial (1930): Un siècle de finances coloniales, Paris: Alean.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, Edward P. (1988): «Did France's Colonial Empire Make Economic Sense? A Perspective from the Postwar Decade, 1946–56», joumal of Economic History, vol. 48, no. 2 (June): pp. 373–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuisel, Richard (1981): Capitalism and the State in Modem France, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Lévy-Leboyer, Maurice (1977): «La balance des paiements et l'exportation des capitaux» in La position Internationale de la France XlXè–XXè siècles, Paris-The Hague: Mouton, pp. 733.Google Scholar
Marseille, Jacques (1974): «L'investissement français dans 1'empire colonial: l'enquête du gouvernement de Vichy (1943): «Revue Historique, vol. 252 (October): pp. 409–32.Google Scholar
Marseille, Jacques (1977): «La politique métropolitaine d'investissements coloniaux dans l'entre-deux guerres», in La position Internationale de la France XlXè–XXè siècles, Paris-The Hague, Mouton, pp. 387–97.Google Scholar
Marseille, Jacques (1983): «L'investissement privé dans 1'empire colonial: mythes et réalités», in Entreprises et entrepreneurs en Afrique XlXè–XXè siècles, Paris: L'Harmattan.Google Scholar
Marseille, Jacques (1984a): «Les relations commerciales entre la France et l'empire colonial, 1880–1914», Revue d'Histoire Moderne & Contemporaine, vol. 31 (April): pp. 286306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marseille, Jacques (1984b): Empire colonial et capitalisme français, Paris: Le Seuil.Google Scholar
Moussa, Pierre, Les chances économiques de la communauté franco-africaine, Paris: Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Picquemal, Marcel (1957): «Les exportations de capitaux français dans les colonies», Economie et Politique (August): pp. 6775.Google Scholar
Poquin, Jean-Jacques (1957): Les relations économiques extérieures des pays de l'Afrique Noire de l'Union Franqaise, 1925–55, Paris: P.U.F.Google Scholar
United Nations (1949): Les mouvements internationaux de capitaux entre les deux guerres, New York.Google Scholar
White, H. D. (1933): French International Accounts, 1880–1913, Cambridge: Mass., Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar