Editing Imperialism (section)

====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>