The French Empire at War, 1940–1945

317 Pages·2007·6.472 MB·English

by  Martin Thomas

General editor John M. MacKenzie
When the ‘Studies in Imperialism’ series was founded by Professor John M.
MacKenzie more than thirty years ago, emphasis was laid upon the conviction
that ‘imperialism as a cultural phenomenon had as significant an effect on the
dominant as on the subordinate societies’. With well over a hundred titles now
published, this remains the prime concern of the series. Cross-disciplinary work
has indeed appeared covering the full spectrum of cultural phenomena, as well as
examining aspects of gender and sex, frontiers and law, science and the
environment, language and literature, migration and patriotic societies, and
much else. Moreover, the series has always wished to present comparative work
on European and American imperialism, and particularly welcomes the
submission of books in these areas. The fascination with imperialism, in all its
aspects, shows no sign of abating, and this series will continue to lead the way in
encouraging the widest possible range of studies in the field. Studies in
Imperialism is fully organic in its development, always seeking to be at the
cutting edge, responding to the latest interests of scholars and the needs of this
ever-expanding area of scholarship.

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J. S. Bratton et al.
Britannia’s children
Reading colonialism through children’s books and magazines
Kathryn Castle
Western medicine as contested knowledge
ed. Andrew Cunningham and Bridie Andrews
Unfit for heroes
Reconstruction and soldier settlement in the Empire between the wars
Kent Fedorowich
Empire and sexuality
The British experience
Ronald Hyam
‘An Irish Empire? ‘
Aspects of Ireland and the British Empire
ed. Keith Jeffery
The language of empire
Myths and metaphors of popular imperialism, 1880–1918
Robert H. MacDonald
The empire of nature
Hunting, conservation and British imperialism
John M. MacKenzie
Propaganda and empire
The manipulation of British public opinion, 1880–1960
John M. MacKenzie
Imperialism and popular culture
ed. John M. MacKenzie
Popular imperialism and the military, 1850–1950
ed. John M. MacKenzie
Gender and imperialism
Clare Midgley
Colonial masculinity
The ‘manly Englishman’ and the ‘effeminate Bengali’
Mrinalini Sinha
The French empire at war, 1940–45
Martin Thomas
Asia in Western fiction
ed. Robin W. Winks and James R. Rush
Travellers in Africa
British travelogues, 1850–1900
Tim Youngs
The
French empire
at war

1940–45
Martin Thomas

MANCHESTER
UNIVERSITY PRESS
Manchester
Copyright © Martin Thomas 1998
The right of Martin Thomas to be identified as the author of this work has been
asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Published by Published by Manchester University Press
Altrincham Street, Manchester, M1 7JA, UK
www.manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN 13:978 0 7190 6519 4
First published in hardcover by Manchester University Press 1998
First digital paperback edition published 2007

The publisher has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for any
external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or
appropriate.
For Suzy and my parents

CONTENTS

General editor’s introduction — page ix
Acknowledgements —x
Abbreviations —xii
Maps —xiv
Introduction —1

Part I: The inter-war background
1 The inter-war empire and French defence 10
The legacy of the First World War 10
The disappointments of inter-war reform 14
The further frustration of reform, 1936–39 20
Popular imperialism and colonial development 24
Imperial defence on the eve of war 27

Part II: Clashes of French empire in Africa, 1940–41
2 Territories divided, June-December 1940 38
Colonial governments and the fall of France 38
Colonial support for Free France: Indo-China 45
Colonial support for Free France: French Africa 49
Free French successes in AEF 53
Vichy reaction to Free French success in Africa 60

3 The empire between the Axis and the Allies, 1940–41 70
Uneasy coexistence: Vichy and Free French territories in
Africa 70
The attack on Dakar and the seizure of Gabon 75
Early collaborationism in the Vichy empire 80
Free French retrenchment and British support 84
Contacts with General Weygand 87
Collaborationism in the Mediterranean and the Levant 92

Part III: The second wave of Free French empire, 1941–45
4 The empire goes to war: the Syrian campaign and Free French
administration in the Levant, 1941–45 100
France and the Levant 100
[ vii ]
CONTENTS
Background to the 1941 invasion 101
Operation Exporter and its aftermath 105
Free French administration 107
Contested authority in Syria and Lebanon 113
Free French control in crisis 117

5 Empire as diplomatic incident: St Pierre and Miquelon
and the Madagascar invasion, 1942 130
The French imperial position in 1942 130
The St Pierre and Miquelon affair 134
Background to the invasion of Madagascar 139
The Madagascar take-over 144
The installation of Free French administration in Madagascar 150

6 Operation Torch and Free French imperial supremacy
in Africa, 1942–45 159
Operation Torch and the Darlan interlude 159
North African nationalism before and after Torch 165
The Giraud-de Gaulle unity talks 171
Gaullist rule in French North Africa 177
The Sétif outbreak 184

7 The fate of French Indo-China, 1940–45 191
Fighting for survival: Decoux’s first months in office 191
Consolidation of the Decoux regime 195
French Indo-China isolated 199
Plans for liberation 204
Liberation frustrated: the Japanese coup and the end of the war 210

Part IV: Contrasting colonial policies
8 A new imperial order? 224
AOF and AEF 225
Syria and Lebanon 234
French North Africa 237
Indo-China 244
To Brazzaville and beyond 249

Conclusion — 259
Bibliography — 265
Index — 289
[ viii ]
GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION

No one has ever doubted the profound effects of the Second World War upon
European imperialism. But they have often been studied primarily in
political, diplomatic and military terms, an approach which tends to
highlight specific events and turning points. Moreover, there has frequently
been a gulf between global and regional studies and a time lag in scholarly
approaches to the various empires, particularly those of the British and the
French. Only comparatively recently has there been a more profound
appreciation of the underlying economic and social transformations which
were necessarily rooted in the years between the two great wars of the
twentieth century, but which were powerfully affected by the intensive
demands, disruptions and regional destabilisations of the Second World War
period.
This book constitutes a major contribution to this debate. Firmly based
on primary research in France and Britain, it offers the first comprehensive
account of the turbulent events in the French empire in the 1940s, a time
when francophone imperial territories became the setting for strife between
the competing claims of the Vichy government and de Gaulle’s Free French
movement, and various pragmatic positions in between. It explores the
manner in which the empire constitutes, in complex and destructive ways,
one of the launch pads for the liberation of France, a focal point for the
conflicts between and among the Axis powers and the Western Allies, and a
setting for the working out of a wide variety of ideological ambitions. The
resulting economic and social strains produced much suffering for
indigenous peoples, fertile ground for the emergence of many forms of
resistance movement.
The scope and depth of Martin Thomas’s work enable him not only to
range across the French empire from the Caribbean and North America to
Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Ocean and Indo-China, but also to deal
with the economic and the social dimensions of these processes as much as
the political and military. In addition to capturing the idiom and often
extreme conservatism of French imperial politics, he demonstrates a
profound sympathy for the aspirations, only dimly understood by the French,
of colonised peoples. This book will contribute greatly to the study of the
impact of the Second World War on greater France and its enforced
decolonisation. It should also act as a foundation for further studies of elite
and popular reactions to empire in twentieth-century France, as well as the
processes of social change and identity formation which disrupted the
characteristic French imperial ambitions to assimilation and association.
John M. MacKenzie

[ ix ]