Editing Imperialism (section)

===France===
{{Main|French colonial empire}}
[[File:French Empire 17th century-20th century.png|thumb|upright=1.5|Map of the first (light blue) and second (dark blue) French colonial empires]]
During the 16th century, the [[French colonization of the Americas]] began with the creation of [[New France]]. It was followed by [[French West India Company|French East India Company]]'s trading posts in Africa and Asia in the 17th century. France had its "First colonial empire" from 1534 until 1814, including [[New France]] ([[Canada (New France)|Canada]], [[Acadia]], [[Newfoundland]] and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]), [[French West Indies]] ([[Saint-Domingue]], Guadeloupe, [[Martinique]]), [[French Guiana]], [[Senegal]] ([[Gorée]]), [[Mascarene Islands]] ([[Mauritius Island]], Réunion) and [[French India]].

Its "Second colonial empire" began with the seizure of [[Algiers]] in 1830 and came for the most part to an end with the granting of independence to [[Algeria]] in 1962.<ref>Robert Aldrich, ''Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion'' (1996)</ref> The French imperial history was marked by numerous wars, large and small, and also by significant help to France itself from the colonials in the world wars.<ref>Anthony Clayton, ''The Wars of French Decolonization'' (1995)</ref> France took control of Algeria in 1830 but began in earnest to rebuild its worldwide empire after 1850, concentrating chiefly in North and West Africa ([[French North Africa]], [[French West Africa]], [[French Equatorial Africa]]), as well as South-East Asia ([[French Indochina]]), with other conquests in the South Pacific ([[New Caledonia]], [[French Polynesia]]). France also twice attempted to make Mexico a colony in 1838–39 and in 1861–67 (see [[Pastry War]] and [[Second French intervention in Mexico]]).

[[File:LaGuerreAMadagascar.jpg|thumb|upright=1|French poster about the "[[Franco-Hova Wars|Madagascar War]]"]]

French Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire. As it developed, the new empire took on roles of trade with France, supplying raw materials and purchasing manufactured items, as well as lending prestige to the motherland and spreading French civilization and language as well as Catholicism. It also provided crucial manpower in both World Wars.<ref>[[Winfried Baumgart]], ''Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880–1914'' (1982)</ref> It became a moral justification to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity and French culture. In 1884 the leading exponent of colonialism, [[Jules Ferry]] declared France had a [[civilising mission]]: "The higher races have a right over the lower races, they have a duty to civilize the inferior".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Emmanuelle Jouannet |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=docaDtxWPK8C&pg=PA142 |title=The Liberal-Welfarist Law of Nations: A History of International Law |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-107-01894-5 |page=142| publisher=Cambridge University Press }}</ref> Full citizenship rights – ''assimilation'' – were offered, although in reality assimilation was always on the distant horizon.<ref>Raymond Betts, ''Assimilation and Association in French Colonial Theory, 1890–1914'' (2005)</ref> Contrasting from Britain, France sent small numbers of settlers to its colonies, with the only notable exception of Algeria, where French settlers nevertheless always remained a small minority.

The French colonial empire of extended over {{convert|11,500,000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} at its height in the 1920s and had a population of 110 million people on the eve of World War II.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Taagepera |first=R. |date=1997 |title=Expansion and Contraction Patterns of Large Polities: Context for Russia |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3cn68807 |journal=International Studies Quarterly |language=en |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=475–504 |doi=10.1111/0020-8833.00053 |issn=0020-8833}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Population en 2019 - Tableaux de séries longues − La situation démographique en 2019 {{!}} Insee |url=https://www.insee.fr/fr/statistiques/5390418?sommaire=5390468 |access-date=2022-05-11 |website=www.insee.fr}}</ref>

In World War II, [[Charles de Gaulle]] and the [[Free France|Free French]] used the overseas colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France. However, after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge the Empire. France fought and lost a bitter war in [[Vietnam]] in the 1950s. Whereas they won the war in Algeria, de Gaulle decided to grant Algeria independence anyway in 1962. French settlers and many local supporters relocated to France. Nearly all of France's colonies gained independence by 1960, but France retained great financial and diplomatic influence. It has repeatedly sent troops to assist its former colonies in Africa in suppressing insurrections and coups d'état.<ref>Tony Chafer, ''The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization?'' (2002)</ref>

====Education policy====
French colonial officials, influenced by the revolutionary ideal of equality, standardized schools, curricula, and teaching methods as much as possible. They did not establish colonial school systems with the idea of furthering the ambitions of the local people, but rather simply exported the systems and methods in vogue in the mother nation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Clignet |first=Remi |year=1970 |title=Inadequacies of the Notion of Assimilation in African Education |journal=The Journal of Modern African Studies |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=425–444 |doi=10.1017/S0022278X00019935 |jstor=158852|s2cid=145692910 }}</ref> Having a moderately trained lower bureaucracy was of great use to colonial officials.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ọlọruntimẹhin |first=B. Ọlatunji |year=1974 |title=Education for Colonial Dominance in French West Africa from 1900 to the Second World War |journal=Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria |volume=7 |issue=2 |pages=347–356 |jstor=41857017}}</ref> The emerging French-educated indigenous elite saw little value in educating rural peoples.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Genova |first=James E. |year=2004 |title=Conflicted Missionaries: Power and Identity in French West Africa During the 1930s |journal=The Historian |volume=66 |pages=45–66 |doi=10.1111/j.0018-2370.2004.00063.x |s2cid=143384173}}</ref> After 1946 the policy was to bring the best students to Paris for advanced training. The result was to immerse the next generation of leaders in the growing anti-colonial diaspora centered in Paris. Impressionistic colonials could mingle with studious scholars or radical revolutionaries or so everything in between. [[Ho Chi Minh#Political education in France|Ho Chi Minh]] and other young radicals in Paris formed the French Communist party in 1920.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Rice |first=Louisa |year=2013 |title=Between empire and nation: Francophone West African students and decolonization |journal=Atlantic Studies |volume=10 |pages=131–147 |doi=10.1080/14788810.2013.764106 |s2cid=144542200}}</ref>

Tunisia was exceptional. The colony was administered by [[Paul Cambon]], who built an educational system for colonists and indigenous people alike that was closely modeled on mainland France. He emphasized female and vocational education. By independence, the quality of Tunisian education nearly equalled that in France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Degorge |first=Barbara |year=2002 |title=The Modernization of Education: A Case Study of Tunisia and Morocco |url=https://www.academia.edu/33429271 |journal=The European Legacy |volume=7 |issue=5 |pages=579–596 |doi=10.1080/1084877022000006780 |s2cid=146190465}}</ref>

African nationalists rejected such a public education system, which they perceived as an attempt to retard African development and maintain colonial superiority. One of the first demands of the emerging nationalist movement after World War II was the introduction of full metropolitan-style education in French West Africa with its promise of equality with Europeans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chafer |first=Tony |year=2001 |title=Teaching Africans to be French?: France's 'civilising mission' and the establishment of a public education system in French West Africa, 1903–30 |journal=Africa |volume=56 |issue=2 |pages=190–209 |jstor=40761537 |pmid=18254200}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gardinier |first=David E. |year=1974 |title=Schooling in the States of Equatorial Africa |journal=Canadian Journal of African Studies |volume=8 |issue=3 |pages=517–538 |doi=10.1080/00083968.1974.10804447}}</ref>

In Algeria, the debate was polarized. The French set up schools based on the scientific method and French culture. The [[Pied-Noir]] (Catholic migrants from Europe) welcomed this. Those goals were rejected by the Moslem Arabs, who prized mental agility and their distinctive religious tradition. The Arabs refused to become patriotic and cultured Frenchmen and a unified educational system was impossible until the Pied-Noir and their Arab allies went into exile after 1962.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Heggoy |first1=Alf Andrew |last2=Zingg |first2=Paul J. |year=1976 |title=French Education in Revolutionary North Africa |journal=International Journal of Middle East Studies |volume=7 |issue=4 |pages=571–578 |doi=10.1017/S0020743800024703 |jstor=162510|s2cid=161744830 }}</ref>

In South Vietnam from 1955 to 1975 there were two competing powers in education, as the French continued their work and the Americans moved in. They sharply disagreed on goals. The French educators sought to preserving French culture among the Vietnamese elites and relied on the Mission Culturelle – the heir of the colonial Direction of Education – and its prestigious high schools. The Americans looked at the great mass of people and sought to make South Vietnam a nation strong enough to stop communism. The Americans had far more money, as USAID coordinated and funded the activities of expert teams, and particularly of academic missions. The French deeply resented the American invasion of their historical zone of cultural imperialism.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nguyen |first=Thuy-Phuong |year=2014 |title=The rivalry of the French and American educational missions during the Vietnam War |url=https://www.academia.edu/31337115 |journal=Paedagogica Historica |volume=50 |issue=1–2 |pages=27–41 |doi=10.1080/00309230.2013.872683 |s2cid=144976778}}</ref>