French Colonialism By Noah Brummer At the height of its empire, the French Colonists had laid claim to 4.4million square miles of land and held rule over 110million people. The colonization by the French began in 1534 with the claiming of Gaspé Bay in Quebec. From that point, on for the next 400 years the French Empire set out colonizing countries all over the world. Throughout the 17th century the French continued establishing trading posts on the coast of West Africa, and soon controlled many points along the coast. Soon the French had taken areas of land all around the coast of India, ideal for trading routes. In the mid-18th century, the French became entangle in a colonial conflict. This led to the near complete destruction of the first French Empire, removing nearly all the French influence in the Caribbean and all the French trading posts in India. In 1830 the French invasion of Algeria began, and the complete claiming of Algeria would follow 17 years later. Led by Napoleon III, the French were able to colonize and take control over Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam, which would be called “Indochine Francias”, or French Indochina. The possession of French Indochina would turn out to be incredibly lucrative and full of economic exploitation, which was their true goal in the regions, disguised with the goal of “Civilising Mission”. Civilizing Mission or “Mission Civilisatrice,” was intended to be a mission to bring civilization to uneducated and uncivilized regions of Africa and Asia. Their campaign was to prove that they could teach their “proper” way of living to the backward countries. Their true goal, profit, was achieved by using the native inhabitants as workers on farms where the crops could be sold for massive French profit. But how were the French able to conquer such a large amount of land that was thousands of miles from their home? In the case of Indochina, it began with missionary trips to assert a religious stronghold in Asia, but it eventually turned into small military expeditions by the French to lay claim to the already inhabited land. When the French took Algeria, it was obtained with a large military interaction, much different from many of the other colonization operations the French undertook. |
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