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French Business and the French Colonialists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

C. M. Andrew
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
A. S. Kanya-Forstner
Affiliation:
York University, Ontario

Abstract

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Type
Communications
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1976

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References

1 Andrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A.S., ‘The French “Colonial Party”: Its composition, Aims and Influence, 1885–1914’, Historical Journal, xiv (1971).Google Scholar On the influence of the colonialists see also: idem.‘Gabriel Hanotaux, the Colonial Party, and the Fashoda Strategy’, in Penrose, E. F. (ed.), European Imperialism and the Partition of Africa (London, 1975);Google Scholaridem, The French Colonial Party and French Colonial War Aims, 1914–1918’, Historical Journal, xvii (1974);Google Scholaridem, ‘France and the Repartition of Africa, 1914–1922’, in Dalhousie University Centre for West African Studies, Occasional Papers (forthcoming).

2 Lorin, H., La France, Puissance Coloniale (Paris, 1906), pp. 467–8.Google Scholar

3 Bouvier, J., ‘Les traits majeurs de l'impérialisme français avant 1914’, in Bouvier, J. and Girault, R., L'impérialisme français d'avant 1914 (Paris, 1976).Google Scholar See also: Poidevin, R., Les relations économiques et financières entre la France et l' Allemagne de 1898 à 1914 (Paris, 1969):Google ScholarGirault, R., Emprunts russes et investissements français en Russie, 1887–1914 (Paris, 1973);Google ScholarThobie, J., ‘Les intérêts économiques, financiers et politiques français dans la partie asiatique de l'Empire ottoman de 1895 à 1914’, unpublished dissertation (Paris, 1973).Google Scholar

4 Preface by Etienne to Rondet-Saint, M., Dans notre Empire jaune (Paris, 1917), p. i.Google Scholar

5 Fieldhouse, D. K., Economics and Empire, 1830–1974 (London, 1973), p. 60.Google Scholar

6 Candace, vice-president of the post-war groupe colonial, spoke for many other colonialists: ‘J’ai montré quelle oeuvre mauvaise, quelle oeuvre impie avaient faite les grands établissements de crédit contre I'intérêt supérieur de la France… Au lieu de drainer pour l'étranger notre épargne, ils auraient dû depuis longtemps orienter cette épargne vers nos colonies.’ Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires (Chambre), 29 06 1920.Google Scholar

7 Speech by Delcassé, , Journal Ofjiciel, Débats Parlementaires (Chambre), 2 03 1895;Google ScholarHomberg, O., Les coulisses de I'histoire (Paris, 1938), p. 87;Google ScholarJacob, G., ‘Les intérêts économiques lyonnais à Madagascar’, Bulletin du Centre d'Histoire Economique et Sociale de Lyon, iv (1971).Google Scholar

8 Yacono, X., Histoire de la colonisation française (Paris, 1973), pp. 24–5.Google Scholar

9 Minutes of Commission d'étude des questions coloniales posées par la guerre, 6 and 16 May 1918, Archives Nationales (Section Outre–Mer), 97 Affaires Politiques.

10 The Association’s records are to be found at the Archives Nationales (27 AS 1–3).

11 The activities of the section coloniale can be traced in the bulletins of the Fédération des Industriels et des Commercants Français. Between April 1912 and the outbreak of war the section coloniale disappeared from the list of the Fédération'o;s subcommissions. It was revived during the War.

12 The table méthodique for 1899 to 1920 was published as an appendix to Extraits des délibérations de la Chambre de Commerce de Saint-Etienne pendant l'année 1920.

13 Allain, J.-C., ‘Joseph Caillaux et la seconde crise marocaine’, unpublished dissertation (Paris, 1974), pp. 1753–5, 1760.Google Scholar By contrast, Marseille had strongly supported the French military penetration of Algeria after 1830.

14 Laffey, J. F., ‘Lyonnais Imperialism in the Far East’, Modern Asian Studies, x (1976).Google Scholar

15 Andrew, and Kanya-Forstner, , ‘Colonial War Aims’, pp. 83, 102;Google ScholarChevallier, D., ‘Lyon et la Syrie en 1919’, Revue Historique, ccxxiv (1960).Google Scholar Lyon did not, however, see itself as the leader of the wartime campaign for ‘la Syrie intégrale’. The president designate of the Comité lyonnais des intérets français en Syrie wrote to Flandin, the leader of the ‘Syrian party’ in Paris, offering to make the comité ‘une section locale’ of a national organization directed by Flandin: ‘Inutile de vous dire que rien ne serait fait sans votre avis.’ Lépine to Flandin, 7 Oct. 1918, Archives Nationales, Flandin MSS (uncatalogued). Flandin was not the representative of business interests; he receives no mention in Thobie's massive study, cited above (note 3).

16 ‘Bulletin de l’Union Coloniale. Exposé de M. Artaud’, Quinzaine Coloniale, 10 June 1909. For examples of hostility by metropolitan industrialists to industrial enterprise in the Empire, see Yacono, X., Les étapes de la décolonisation française (Paris, 1971), pp. 15, 34.Google Scholar

17 ‘Fédération Intercoloniale’, Quinzaine Coloniale, 25 Dec. 1910;Google Scholar minutes of A.G.M., , Association de l'Industrie et de l'Agriculture Françaises, 16 Mar. 1910, Archives Nationales, 27 AS 1.Google Scholar

18 Journal Officiel, Débats Parlementaires (Sénat), 14 03 1910.Google Scholar

19 Hardinge to Block, 2 June 1908, 23 Feb. 1909, Cambridge University Library, Hardinge MSS 1908 (3) and 1909 (3).

20 Preface by Etienne, to Segonzac, marquis de, ‘Voyages au Maroc’, Bulletindu Comité de l'Afrique Française, Apr. 1903;Google Scholar ‘Appel du Comité du Maroc’, ibid. June 1904; speech by Etienne, ‘Le banquet du Comité du Maroc, ibid. Dec. 1909.

21 Guillen, P., ‘Les milieux d'affaires français et le Maroc à l'aube du XXe siècle. La fondation de la Compagnie Marocaine’, Revue Historique, ccxxix (1963), p. 422;Google Scholaridem, ‘L'implantation de Schneider au Maroc: les debuts de la Compagnie Marocaine’, Revue d'Histoire Diplomatique, LXXIX (1965), 158–67;Google Scholaridem, Milieux d'affaires et impérialisme colonial’, Relations Internationales, i (1974), pp. 67–8.Google Scholar

22 Laffey, , ‘Lyonnais Imperialism’, p. 227;Google ScholarGuillen, , ‘Milieux d'affaires’, p. 68.Google Scholar

23 Minutes of Commision d'étude des questions coloniales posées par la guerre, 18 Mar., 6 May 1918, Archives Nationales (Section Outre–Mer), Affaires Politiques 97. It is significant that while a number of leading industrialists gave evidence to the European sections of the conferences on war aims held at the Societédé Géographie in 1916, none appeared interested in the colonial sections. Bibliothèque Nationale (département des cartes et plans), Archives de la Société de Géographie, colis 9, 16, 24.

24 Bouvier, , ‘L'impérialisme français’, pp. 328–9.Google Scholar

25 Lenin ‘nowhere claimed that the full force of capitalism was thrown against the colonial areas’. See Stokes, E., ‘Late Nineteenth-century Colonial Expansion and the Attack on the Theory of Economic Imperialism: A Case of Mistaken Identity?’, Historical Journal, xii (1969).Google Scholar

26 Marseille, J., ‘L'investissement français dans l'Empire colonial: l'enquête du gouvernement de Vichy (1943)’, Revue Historique, CCLII (1974).Google Scholar

27 But: ‘La “mise en valeur” tant appelée est restee lettre morte. L'économie de traite, la faiblesse de l'industrialisation, le manque d'initiative du capital privé ont concouru au maintien et à la sclérose des structures économiques coloniales. II faudra attendre les lendemains de la deuxième guerre mondiale pour voir s'ébaucher une politique économique de plus grande envergure.’ Ibid. p. 431.

28 There are some omissions from their list of the comitéls' officers. The most notable is Harry Alis, the man mainly responsible for founding the Comité de l'Afrique Française and its first secretary-general. In general Abrams and Miller underestimate the importance of the comités’ secretary-generals.

29 Those other occupations of the colonialists – the government service, politics, and the press – to which Abrams and Miller make reference are considered not as possible explanations for colonialism but only as levers of power which the parti colonial was able to operate on behalf of big business.

30 Andrew, C. M., Grupp, P., and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘Le parti colonial français de 1890 à 1914: organisation et effectifs’, Revue Française d'Histoire d'Outre-Mer (forthcoming).Google Scholar

31 Analysis of a larger sample of the colonialist leadership gives similar results. See ibid.

32 Brunschwig, H., French Colonialism, 1871–1914: Myths and Realities (London, 1964), pp. 109–10;Google ScholarAndrew, C. M. and Kanya-Forstner, A. S., ‘The Groupe Colonial in the French Chamber of Deputies, 1892–1932’, Historical Journal, xvii (1974), p. 843.Google Scholar

33 Arenberg, Charles-Roux, Guichard, Guillain, Jonnart, Patinot, Pérouse, and E.-M. de Vogüé served on the board at various times before the War. Roume joined in 1917 and de Nalèche in 1918. There were also several members of other colonialist societies on the board. The colonialists never quite achieved a majority of the twenty-one or twenty-two French directors.

34 Farnie, D. A., East and West of Suez. The Suez Canal in History (Oxford, 1969), pp. 422–8.Google Scholar

35 Parsons, J. W., ‘France and the Egyptian Question, 1875–1894: A Study in Finance, Foreign Policy, and Public Opinion’, unpublished dissertation (Cambridge, 1976), pp. 15, 24, 74, 208–9, 262–3;Google ScholarFarnie, , East and West of Suez, pp. 303–19.Google Scholar

36 Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘Fashoda Strategy’.

37 Parsons, , ‘France and the Egyptian Question’, pp. 262–3;Google ScholarFarnie, , East and West of Suez, pp. 319–24, 462;Google Scholar speech by Jonnart to Company A. G.M., reported in Le Canal de Suez, 12 June 1914.

38 Andrew, Grupp and Kanya-Forstner, ‘Le parti colonial’.

39 Dépêche Coloniale, 18 Sept. 1902.

40 Andrew, and Kanya-Forstner, , ‘The French “Colonial Party” … 1885–1914’, p. 103.Google Scholar

41 Coquery-Vidrovitch, C., Le Congo au temps des compagnies concessionaires, 1898–1930 (Paris, 1972), p. 15.Google Scholar None of the colons concerned belonged to the Comité de l'Afrique Française.

42 On the hostility of the soudanais to the Union Coloniale, see: Archinard, , ‘Conclusions politiques’, 15 Feb. 1894, pp. 573–5,Google Scholar Archives Nationales (Section Outre-Mer), Soudan 11, 1. Cf. Parsons, , ‘France and the Egyptian Question’, p. 344. The Union Coloniale had litde influence on the course of French expansion; its propaganda was mainly directed towards the mise en valeur of the Empire.Google Scholar

43 Galliéni to Alis, 30 June 1890, Bibliotheque de l'lnstitut de France, Terrier MSS 5892.

44 Andrew, and Kanya-Forstner, , ‘The French “Colonial Party”… 1885–1914’, p. 104.Google Scholar

45 Arenberg to Alis, 13 Aug. 1894, Terrier MSS 5891.

46 Andrew, and Kanya-Forstner, , ‘The French “Colonial Party” … 1885–1914’, pp. 104–6.Google Scholar

47 Ibid. p. 115. Caix, R. de, ‘La rançon du Maroc’, Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française, Oct. 1911.Google Scholar

48 R. de Caix, ‘Après l'accord’, Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française, May 1904; de Labry,’ A.s. de la situation de l'influence française au Maroc’, Jan. 1905, Terrier MSS 5951.

49 Caix, R. de, ‘La question marocaine’, Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française, Mar. 1907.Google Scholar

50 Allain, , ‘Caillaux’, p. 1777.Google Scholar

51 There was, however, a brief revival of interest by the banks in 1910. A donation of 12,000 francs from the Paris syndicate which negotiated the Moroccan loan of that year seems to have been given in recognition of assistance from the Comité. Andrew, and Kanya-Forstner, , ‘The French “Colonial Party”… 1885–1914’, p. 115.Google Scholar Mr Miller's forthcoming thesis on Pichon's foreign policy will include similar examples of cooperation between the banks and the Comité de l'Asie Française.

52 On the French industrialists and financiers most interested in Morocco see: Allain, , ‘Caillaux’, pp. 1775–8.Google Scholar Allain does not, however, discuss their relations with the parti colonial. Lebon's colonialism predated his business career.

53 The importance of some of these levers of power is, in our view, exaggerated. Abrams and Miller give no evidence, for example, to justify the great ‘significance’ they attach to the parliamentary groupe des établissements industriels de l'état and the groupe de Varmee coloniale in the 1906 and 1910 Chamber. In the 1910 Chamber there were about forty such interest groups, most claiming substantial (though doubdess nominal) memberships, and ranging in interest from the groupe antialcoolique (220 members) to the groupe pour la protection des animaux maltraités (180 members). Most were of trivial importance.

54 ‘Bulletin de la Ligue Coloniale Française’, Dépêche Coloniale, 2 Feb. 1914; C: Fidel, , La paix coloniale française (Paris, 1918), p. 6;Google Scholar speech by Etienne reported in Dépêche Coloniale, 5 July 1910.