A group presentation which was made by me and three others (Lily Hendy, Shamaine Murray and Diana Anichitoaei) for our France's civil wars unit at University of Portsmouth.

2.  Overseas territories under French rule
 2nd largest empire in size by 1914

3.  “La mission civilisatrice”
 National prestige/power
 Trade/raw materials
 Source of soldiers
 All powers in
Europe had
imperial aims

4.  Sense of achievement
 ‘La grandeur’
 Global presence
 Sense of duty
 Extension of France
« A côté de nos vieilles
colonies, ces bijoux de famille
égrenés dans l’Atlantique et
dans l’océan Indien, c’est la
France africaine, grande
comme l’Europe. »
Besides our old colonies, those
family jewels spread across the
Atlantic and Indian oceans, we
have French Africa, as big as
Europe.
(Extract from Paul Reynaud’s
speech, from Discours inaugural
de l’Exposition coloniale, 6 mai
1931.)

5.  “Un passé qui ne passe pas” (Rousso, 1987)
 Decolonisation
 Discours de Dakar 2007 & 2012
 Intervention in Mali « La colonisation n’est pas responsable
de toutes les difficultés actuelles de
l’Afrique. Elle n’est pas responsable des
guerres sanglantes que se font les Africains
entre eux. Elle n’est pas responsable des
génocides. Elle n’est pas responsable des
dictateurs. Elle n’est pas responsable du
fanatisme. Elle n’est pas responsable de la
corruption, de la prévarication. Elle n’est pas
responsable des gaspillages et de la
pollution. »
(Sarkozy, 2007)

6.  Maintaining links with former empire is a way for
France to maintain their global presence. E.g. la
francaphonie/francafrique
 There is still immigration from former colonies
 Unhealed wounds - Algerian War, Pied-Noir and
Harkis resentment
 Persistence of racism, problems with integration and
identity - la fracture coloniale

7. France Rest of World
Stable – 3rd year of economic growth
(Evans & Godin)
Wall Street Crash hugely affected US
and Germany
Dominant power until 1932 Struggle for economic stability
Largest army Germany still under restrictions from
Treaty of Versailles 1919
Opening of colonial exhibition in Paris
1931
Britain previously show cased empire
exhibition 1924

8. -A six-month exhibition held in Paris, France in 1931 that
attempted to display the diverse cultures and immense
resources of France's colonial possessions.
- 6 May 1931 in the Bois de Vincennes on the eastern outskirts
of Paris
- "the most spectacular colonial
extravaganza ever staged in the West.“
(Elisabeth Prophet)
-Other nations participated in the event,
including the Netherlands, Belgium, Italy,
Japan, Portugal, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
-”Human zoo”

9.  France’s status as a global power
 French vision of colonial life
 Mission civilisatrice
 Unity/ Power/ Partnership
 Comparison of their empire to the whole of Europe.
 Oriental states depicted as static, despotic and unorganized
Paul Reynard(France`s minister of colonies) explained that the aim
of the Exhibition was to make imperialism an integral part of
French consciousness
“Cultural fantasies which underpinned the determination after
ww2 to hang on to colonies long after the concept of empire
was discredited.” (Kedward, p.139)

11.  “In the late 1920s and 1930s, the French state devoted Increasing
attention to propagandizing the imperial mission of France.”
 “Sought to portray the empire
as loyal & valuable”
 Colonial subjects = obedient &
hard-working
 Media coverage meant that most
French citizens came to know the French
state’s version of events.
 Idealised view.

12.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
54tkAKLy_pg
 Communist party opposition
 Surrealists
 Portrayal of women
 This propaganda did not discourage
people from believing the state’s
version of events.
 PCF propaganda posters represent
colonialism as a force in which France
is imprisoning its subjects –opposite
representation of the state's view.

14.  In your own opinion would you agree that France
exploited their colonies?
 Would you describe the Paris Exhibition of 1931 a
“human zoo” or as a means of sharing different
cultures?
 How was Marianne used to symbolise France
during the colonial empire?

15.  Evans, M. and Godin, E. (2004). France 1815 to 2003.
London: Edward Arnold
 Kedward, H.R. (2005). La Vie en Bleu. London: Allen
Lane.
 Rousso, H. (1987). Le syndrome de Vichy. Paris: Seuil
 Vann, M. G. (n.d.). []. The colonial exhibition of may 1931.,
Retrieved from
http://www.port.ac.uk/special/france1815to2003/chapter6/
interviews/filetodownload,18533,en.pdf
 Evans, M. (2004).Empire and culture: the French
experience, 1830-1940. Palgrave: Macmillan