French Empire

French Empire The French acquisition of overseas territories began in the seventeenth century, though the last continuous period of expansion began with the occupation of Algiers in 1830. In the following decades, France occupied the rest of Algeria as well as other territories in the Pacific and in Africa (Senegal), though its most ambitious acquisitions came after 1870 during the Third Republic, when it added Madagascar and Indochina to its Empire. By 1914, the colonies made up 95 per cent of French territory, and 54 per cent of her population. The Empire expanded even further after World War I, when it acquired most of the former German colonies of Cameroon and Togo, in addition to the League of Nations Mandates of Lebanon and Syria. After World War II, the power vacuum left by the withdrawal of the Japanese occupying forces in Indochina led to the Declaration of Independence by the Communist-led Vietminh in 1945, to which the French finally had to give their assent in 1954 after defeat at Dien Bien Phu in the Indochina War. When in that same year hostilities broke out against French rule in Algeria, it became clear that the French would be unable to stop the disintegration of the Empire, despite attempts such as the creation of the short-lived French Community to stall this process. None the less, France not only retains strong links with her former colonies, but also still has a considerable number of overseas territories. In addition to the French Antarctic territory, its overseas territories (territoires d'outre-mer) with limited self-government consist of French Polynesia and New Caledonia in the Pacific. Territories with more autonomy (collectivités territoriales) are the North American island of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon (off the coast of Newfoundland) and the African Island of Mayotte. By contrast, the African island of Réunion, the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and French Guyana (in South America), are legally and politically an integral part of France (départements d'outre-mer).

decolonization; Foreign Legion