Law, Colonial Systems of, French Empire

The raison d'être of the French colonies was to benefit France. Royal ordinances of the eighteenth century defined the système de l'Exclusif whereby overseas territories were under the authority of metropolitan France. Any trade between France and its colonies was to be to the advantage of France. The principles of the French Revolution of 1789 and its legacy ran counter to these provisions of the Ancien Régime (France's prerevolutionary political and social system), especially after the consolidation of the French Republic in the 1880s. In theory, French law should have applied equally to all French territories, including those outside of metropolitan France, but this was not the case in practice. Deeply influenced by the Revolution, republican law was supposed to have been a means to emancipate colonized populations, but on the ground, the law was also used to coerce them.

A PATCHWORK OF RIGHTS AND LAWS

A combination of different legal regulations—formal laws, decrees voted on or issued from Paris, executive orders, and local customs—were maintained in French colonies to serve the interests of the colonizer. After the actual conquest of a territory, law was supposed to substitute the might of weapons. But in nearly every case, the rivalry between the French army and civil administration persisted. Algeria is a case in point. The military—the conquerors of 1830—were reluctant to obey the civil administration whose power was confirmed by law only in December 1896 and later in December 1900. In colonies like Algeria that were under direct French rule, the governor-general was omnipotent.

Colonies were ruled, on the one hand, through decrees issued by two different ministries (the Ministry of the Interior and the Colonial Office) in Paris and, on the other hand, by executive orders that made the representative of the French government the main source of the law. Most of the executive and judicial power in French territories resided with the governor-general, particularly in territories that were further away from France. While the French Empire was mainly under direct rule, protectorates were established. To maintain the appearance of autonomy, the French left indigenous sovereigns with symbolic legislative power and kept local legal institutions intact. After the conquest of Morocco in 1911, for instance, the sultan was retained as part of the state apparatus. He signed dahirs (decrees) drafted by his viziers—and approved by the French administration. But for all intents and purposes it was the French, through the resident general, who ruled the country.

As far as possible the French tried not to interfere in civil matters, as long as their authority was not challenged. They were particularly careful where religion was concerned. Courts were usually under the jurisdiction of indigenous judges but were invariably controlled by the French administration. All over the empire, when written law did not exist before their arrival, the French recorded traditional law, as was the case for the Berber and Kabyle populations in Algeria and Morocco.

THE LAW AS A MEANS TO EMANCIPATE

Since the Revolution of 1789, French law was conceived as a means to attain the republican ideal of equality among men, as stated in article VI of the Declaration of Human Rights of 1789. But by its very nature, colonization ran counter to this principle. Slavery still existed in many colonies. After a failed attempt to outlaw the practice under the first republic (the Convention of 1792 to 1795) in February 1794, the French abolitionist and statesman Victor Schoelcher (1804–1893) finally succeeded in banning it in 1848. The law was passed throughout the empire, but in colonies like Cambodia local rulers were reluctant to abandon such a lucrative institution. French officials formally denounced "inhuman" practices such as corporal mutilation and even cannibalism in Equatorial Africa or lethal punishment by strangulation in Indochina.

With the French Republic firmly entrenched at the end of the nineteenth century, true democrats supported the policy of assimilation, which was based on the principle that French law should apply in all French territories and that all the populations within the empire should be granted the same rights as any French citizen. In 1892 the standardization of customs duties was inspired by the same principle.

This trend prevailed from the 1870s to the mid-1890s. But after the creation of the Colonial Office in March 1894, opponents of assimilation gained ground on the pretext of respecting local traditions. Then the main obstacle to equality remained French citizenship, which was not often granted to individuals from the colonies. Despite the mobilization of almost one million colonial soldiers during World War I (1914–1918), timid legal reforms kept it difficult for them to obtain full citizenship. This fed a growing resentment among the indigenous elite, aware of their inferior status.

The Popular Front of Léon Blum (1872–1950), who led the first socialist government in France (1936–1937), focused its attention on domestic issues and devoted little energy to reforms in the colonies. Nevertheless, it imposed measures such as the prohibition of compulsory labor and the creation of a colonial inspector of work.

THE LAW AS A MEANS TO COERCE

Because the idea of the exploitation of the colonies for the profit of the colonizer never really disappeared, the "constraint" of French law was rarely applied on the ground. French settlers were needed to develop the new territories. But the French, historically strongly attached to their homeland, were rarely willing to venture overseas without the prospect of lucrative gain. Laws were put into place to minimize the risk for the new settlers.

After the "pacification" of Algeria in the late 1830s, for example, the administration provided each settler with a house on a plot of land, one third of which had already been cultivated. This was the first impetus to develop the Mitidja, the most fertile land around the province of Algiers. To face the growing demand for land, local populations were confined to the smaller and less productive plots, which were divided among the tribes.

After the French defeat against Prussia and the loss of the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine under the Treaty of Frankfurt in May 1871, a law was passed in June 1871 allotting 100,000 hectares (about 247,100 acres) in Algeria to the natives of these provinces. The land had been confiscated from Moqrani, the chief of the Medjana area (d. 1871), who rebelled against the French during the Great Revolt of Kabylie from March 1871 to January 1872. This policy of confiscation reached its peak in July 1873 with the passing of a law that facilitated the dispossession of Algerians. In the same spirit, compulsory labor was imposed throughout the empire. In theory, locals could be made to perform public duties for anywhere from five days in Indochina to two weeks in Equatorial Africa.

French law was a means to justify colonization. The French, like Americans, were supposed to "civilize" indigenous populations but in reality merely exploited their colonies. Nevertheless, after independence, most of the colonies did benefit from French law, for instance with the adoption of the French Civil Code of 1804. Paradoxically, French influence was more significant after independence.

see also Empire, French.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ageron, Charles-Robert, Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch, Gilbert Meynier, and Jacques Thobie. Histoire de la France Coloniale, 1914–1990. Paris: Colin, 1990.

Benton, Laurent. Law and Colonial Cultures: Legal Regimes in World History, 1400–1900. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Frémeaux, Jacques. Les Empires Coloniaux dans le Processus de Mondialisation. Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 2002.