The course offers a survey of the rise and fall of successive French imperial systems, from the creation of an American New France in the seventeenth century until the crisis in France's African sphere of influence today. Adopting a global perspective, it focuses on the role of external and local constraints – from rivalry with the British Empire to various types of indigenous resistance – rather than internal expansionist impulses in shaping the course of French imperial history. Special attention is paid to the role of racial distinctions, in a comparative perspective with other European empires. Topics covered include the collapse of the early modern and Napoleonic empires, the liberal reinvention of empire, colonial governance, and decolonisation.
David TODD
Séminaire
English
Spring 2024-2025
Oral group presentation on a set of primary sources (20%)
One 2000-word essay. List of possible topics provided, or topic to be devised in consultation with teacher (30%)
Take-home exam: two 1500-word-essays, out of six possible topics (50%)
Laurent Dubois, Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution, Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.
Eric T. Jennings. Vichy in the Tropics: Pétain's National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940-1944, Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.