French Colonialism in West Africa
Imperilism
France had a longstanding interest in the region bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Also, France’s original overseas empires in the Seven Years War (1756-1763) and the Napoleonic Wars (1790s-1815) vanished and it suffered a major setback in its defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Therefore, French imperialism was an effort to regain lost power rather than a continuation of previous successes, and its African empire grew out of developments along the North African coast. “France's colonies in western Africa covered an enormous area, from the dry and sparsely populated Sahara to the rain forests farther south that is an area that in the decade of the twenties was calculated to have only 3.1 million people.”
The French in Dahomey
The French post at Bakel on the Senegal River in 1887
Concentrating in Dahomey, by the time the "Scramble for Africa" ended the French had more territory in West Africa than any other European nation. Dahomey deserves special mention because of the attention it received in France. It was located between British Nigeria and German Togo along what Europeans called the "Slave Coast." The use of new technology such as the telegraph, repeating rifles, steam gunboats and machine guns attracted interest, while reports of Dahomeyan "Amazons" military units composed entirely of women interested the French public's imagination. The climax came in 1892 when an expedition led by a Senegalese mulatto, Colonel Alfred Amédée Dodds, marched from Ouidah to Abomey with four thousand soldiers. Following a series of battles in September and October, the French reached the capital on November 17. King Behanzin had already fled, but Behanzin remained on the run until January 1894 when he was captured and exiled to Martinique. The French finished the campaign with 81 dead, 436 wounded and about 2,000 other casualties due to illness. The 1892 French campaign in Dahomey affected European attitudes about Africa. It seemed to confirm that even a wealthy and well-organized state like Dahomey depended on practices human sacrifice, women soldiers, which scandalized Victorian Europe. When the British launched the Third Anglo-Ashanti War in 1894, they received help from newspaper correspondents who wrote unconformable accounts of African cruelty and barbaric acts. Since the only Europeans in a position to verify such reports were soldiers, “the public never heard anyone defend African culture.”
On your own
This political cartoon shows the power France had. Representing the French , he stands above the African, showing them that they are less worthy.
Questions:
1. How many West African States were mainly affected by The French? *list them
Five: Algeria, Senegal, Soudan, Ivory Coast, and Dahomey
2. The French campaign in Dahomey affected European what about Africa?
It affected their attitudes about Africa. It seemed to confirm that even a wealthy and well-organized state like Dahomey depended on practices human sacrifice, women soldiers, which scandalized Victorian Europe.
1. How many West African States were mainly affected by The French? *list them
Five: Algeria, Senegal, Soudan, Ivory Coast, and Dahomey
2. The French campaign in Dahomey affected European what about Africa?
It affected their attitudes about Africa. It seemed to confirm that even a wealthy and well-organized state like Dahomey depended on practices human sacrifice, women soldiers, which scandalized Victorian Europe.
Source:
· Google Images
· History 312, The French in West Africa, 2013, 2/19/13, http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his312/lectures/fren-occ.htm
· Google Images
· History 312, The French in West Africa, 2013, 2/19/13, http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his312/lectures/fren-occ.htm