Abstract
Among the most ubiquitous of monuments are war memorials. Although commemorations of both battlefield victories and defeats have long figured in the European monumental landscape, the First World War led to an explosion of memorials. Rare is the town or village without at least a simple stela engraved with the names of native sons who died. From the most modest plaque to the most grandiose statuary group, these omnipresent reminders testify to the extraordinary losses experienced in the war, and serve as sites for public ceremonies and private grieving. Much has been written on memorials to the Great War: their design and iconography, placement and significance in collective memory, and the rituals carried out in their shadows.1 The tradition of First World War memorials continued with the monumental recollection of the Second World War. However, France’s subsequent military engagements — notably the wars in Indochina and Algeria — are less often represented, an indication of uncertain memories about controversial conflicts and the defeat of the French by Asian and North African nationalists.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Jay Winter, Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History (Cambridge, 1995)
Alex King, Memorials of the Great War in Britain: The Symbolism and Politics of Remembrance (Oxford, 1998).
William Kidd, ‘Representation or Recuperation? The French Colonies and 1914–1918 War Memorials’, in Tony Chafer and Amanda Sackur, Promoting the Colonial Idea: Propaganda and Visions of Empire in France (London, 2002), pp. 184–194
Jean Max Tixier, Marseille aux cent visages (Marseille, 1992), pp. 184–185.
Eric Jennings, ‘Remembering “Other” Losses: The Temple du Souvenir Indochinois of Nogent-sur-Marne’, History and Memory, Vol. 15, No. 1 (2003), p. 56.
Le Souvenir Indochinois, Oeuvre des tombes et du culte funéraire des Indochinois morts pour la France (Paris, 1932).
Préfecture de Paris, Direction de l’urbanisme et des actions de l’Etat, Environnement et sites, Commission départementale des sites de Paris (minutes of plenary council session), 13 December 1990, pp. 10–14.
Alain Amato, Monuments en exil (n.p., 1979).
MAC, ‘Les Soldats d’outre-mer, 1939–1945. Monuments et sépultures en France’, and Serge Barcellini and Annette Wieviorka, Passant, souviens-toi: Les Lieux du souvenir de la Seconde Guerre mondiale en France (Paris, 2nd edn, 1999).
Joe Lunn, ‘“Les races guerrières”: Racial Preconceptions in the French Military about West African Soldiers during the First World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 34, No. 4 (1999), p. 521.
David L. Schalk, ‘Of Memories and Monuments: Paris and Algeria, Fréjus and Indochina’, Historical Reflections, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2002), pp. 241–253
Jan Dodd and Mark Lewis, Vietnam: The Rough Guide (London, 1998), p. 378.
Martin Evans, ‘Rehabilitating the Traumatized War Veteran: The Case of French Conscripts from the Algerian War, 1954–1962’, in Martin Evans and Ken Lunn (eds), War and Memory in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1997), pp. 73–88.
William B. Cohen, ‘The Algerian War, the French State and Official Memory’, Historical Reflections, Vol. 28, No. 2 (2000), pp. 219–240.
Neil MacMaster, ‘The Torture Controversy (1998–2002): Towards a “New History” of the Algerian War?’, Modem and Contemporary France, Vol. 10, No. 4 (2002), pp. 449–460.
FNACA, Lieux et liens du souvenir; 1952–1962 (Paris, 1999).
Frédéric Rouyaud, ‘La Bataille du 19 mars’, in Jean-Pierre Rioux (ed.), La Guerre d’Algérie et les Français (Paris, 1990), pp. 545–552.
Frédéric Rouyaud, ‘La Battaille du 19 mars’, in Jean-Pierre Roux (ed.), La Guerre d’Algérie et les Français (Paris, 1990), pp. 509–516 and pp. 545–552, respectively.
Azouz Begag, ‘Les relations France-Algérie vues de la diaspora algérienne’, Modem and Contemporary France, Vol. 10, No. 2 (2002), pp. 475–482.
Hervé Bourges, interviewed in Histoire et patrimoine, No. 7 (2004), issue on Algeria, pp. 8–11.
Géraldine Enjelvin, ‘Les Harkis en France: carte d’identité française, identité harkie à la carte?’, Modem and Contemporary France, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2003), pp. 161–173.
Jacques Barozzi, Guide des cimetières parisiens (Paris, 1990).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2005 Robert Aldrich
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aldrich, R. (2005). Colonial War Memorials. In: Vestiges of the Colonial Empire in France. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230005525_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230005525_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51679-7
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-00552-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)