French empire

Books

The remaining French empire

By W Marvin Will

(University of Tulsa) PROFESSORS Aldridge and Connell have authored an outstanding and com prehensive study of the “confetti of empire”, the overseas departments and territories of France. These departments

d’outre-mer (DOMs), primarily Carib

bean DOMs plus Reunion, and terri tories d’outre-mer (TOMs), principally islands in the Pacific, are carefully examined regarding their role vis a vis metropolitan France. Economic histo rian Aldridge and geographer Connell are colleagues at the University of Sydney.

Since 1978 they have authored seven books, individually or in collaboration with others, including Aldrich’s The French Presence in the South Pacific, 1842-1940 (1990), and Connell’s New Caledonia or Kanaky? (1987). They co edited France in World Politics (1989).

Findings in France’s Overseas Empire are that it remains French policy to expend considerable treasure to preserve the prestige of maintaining an empire that is among the palms, for the most part; and that “overseas France ... provides a mirror, albeit sometimes grossly dis torted, of the mother country” (6) or, as de Gaulle once said of Martinique, “ Mon Dieu, comme vous etes francais [my God, how French you are]” (247)! The authors also note that being archipelagos or islands except for Guyane and the French section of Antarctica makes insularity a characteristic of the DOM

Toms.

Perhaps the most controversial point for readers of PIM is the relatively high standard of living enjoyed in DOMs and TOMs and the metropolitan funding that makes this lifestyle possible. French funding of each DOM and TOM surged dramatically after 1946, the authors correctly note, with an increase of at least 30 per cent in subsidies of budget since 1945. After 1953 civil servants in DOMs- TOMs saw sharp increases in salary plus extra compensation for distant postings.

Public servants benefit from a salary is 40 per cent greater than that of their metropolitan colleagues and they enjoy various other advantages. In French Polynesia basic public service salaries, already much higher than in the private sector, are swollen by particular load

ings, including an 84 per cent supple ment to the metropolitan base salary, a million CFP (French Pacific francs) allowance for a distant posting and six month’s paid leave after three years of service, with free transport to Parish (144, also 133).

The resultant high income not only produces enormous standard-of-living gaps with neighbouring states and be tween European and native peoples in such TOMs as New Caledonia but also contributes significantly to curbing pres sures for independence.

By 1885, the readers learn, many in France considered colonialism to be the daughter of metropolitan industrial pol ity and aimed at promoting France’s alleged superior race/culture. This “golden age” of empire appeared to peak by 1931 when a large exhibit of empire was organised in Vincennes. This “peak” ironically conincided with the rise of nationalism in the French (and other) dependencies, movements often led by soldiers returning from World War I.

The overseas empire had sacrificed dearly in the War, with more than 60 percent of the 52,000 from the older or vieilles colonies being lost in action.

“If the DOMs before 1946 were (defacto) colonies of France,” one “col onial” critic is quoted, “they have subsequently become colonies of the administration” (145). The authors might have said much the same for the TOMs of the South Pacific. By 1960 all de jure French territories except three Pacific territories plus Mayotte, Aus tral and the French claims in Antarctica had gained independence, albeit inde pendence for Algeria and Indo China emerged only through serious warfare.

The end of World War II had brought an end to second class status of vieilles colonies. This was timely considering that these entities had been French longer than Corsica, Nice, Savoy and Franche-comte; that their citizens had been French citizens for a century and had sacrificed greatly in French wars.

Independence movements had devel oped in almost all DOMS and TOMS.

In most, however, the movements have not had high visibility and, as noted, have been largely defused by French finances. Significant legal status prob lems are presented by Mayotte, which is neither a DOM nor a TOM, and by Clipperton Island off the Pacific coast of

Mexico, which has no permanent popu lation.

The development of local resources in the DOMs and TOMs almost never is aimed toward benefiting native popu lations, the authors conclude. Currently France also experiences problems in providing uniform services throughout its “empire”. In Noumea, New Cale donia, for example, virtually all house holds have piped water, while in other French Pacific Islands this service may be minimal or non-existent.

Tourism also is viewed as an uneven inducer of economic growth. Although not well analysed, tourism is seen both as the source of income and of cultural costs.

With tourism increasing sharply in French Polynesia (where 1472 visitors in 1959 expanded to 78,000 by 1973), in New Caledonia (which has seen tourism expand from 16,000 in 1969 to nearly 100,000 by 1984), and in Fiji and Tahiti (which rank one and two as tourist attractions in the Pacific), perhaps a rule developed by the Maltese government has relevance: if the economic gains are not significantly above the social and cultural costs, tourism should be rationed. Guyane, the home of the European Space Center (Kourou) on the shoulder of South America, for example, is becoming a ghetto of white expatriate technicians guarded by French Legionaires. This is not a future many DOMs-TOMs desire. Without indepen dence, however, tourism policy and the influx of Europeans is very difficult to regulate. And the only conceivable scenario for independence for any of the TOMS or DOMs, according to the authors, would be economic recession and the development of anti-foreign sentiments in metropolitan France. Just possibly an expanding and increasingly viable European Community (EC) could further the development of a new European consciousness and abate France’s sentiments for maintaining a foreign empire. To conclude, this well argued, well-written, and well-edited book is probably the best review in print that deals with the remaining French “empire”. It is highly recommended. Aldridge, Robert and John Connell; France’s Overseas Fron tier: departments et territorires d’outre-mer (Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, and Sydney: Cambridge University Press, 1992, X, 357. □