Colonial Culture in France

Abstract

Colonial expansion and the affairs of empire seldom became the preoccupation of the French. Most were more concerned with economic development and conditions of employment, political campaigns and ideological quarrels in local politics, and the ever-changing state of European conflicts, than with the affairs of remote outposts. Only the exploits of swashbuckling explorers, the dangers of ‘native’ revolt or occasional rumours of war with an imperial rival captured front-page attention, at least until the Indochinese and Algerian wars awakened the French to the hazards of colonial involvement.