One of the recurring debates in recent history is to try to measure what were the economic consequences for France of the constitution of a colonial empire. This is the task that Denis Cogneau has taken on. He delivers the results of his research on colonization initiated in the 19th century and ending in the 1960s in his book A cheap empire. Professor at the Economic School of Paris, the author, who has a high-level statistical training, has been compelled to a long work of analysis of the archives with the aim of reconstituting a precise and coherent accounting of the French colonial empire. .
The first observation he arrives at, a fundamental observation that calls into question many received ideas, is that the economic role of this empire in the development of metropolitan France was negligible. France did not “vampirize” the economies of the conquered countries; symmetrically, she did not pour on them cartloads of silver. Denis Cogneau calculated that each year, the empire rather cost France but that this cost was on average quite low since it barely exceeded 0.5% of its GDP.
The second observation is that the sums paid into the empire by the metropolis passed essentially through the army, the latter ensuring control of the annexed territories and constituting, with the exception of Algeria, the most significant part of the expatriate population. The third observation is that these transfers did not ensure the development of the colonies whose growth rates remained low due to chronic under-investment. The fourth observation is the lack of homogeneity of the empire where areas have been prioritized, mainly Algeria, others have experienced a certain dynamism associating in particular the populations of origin such as Cochinchina, and other have remained isolated from the movements of the world economy such as Central Africa.
In fact, for the author, the role of this “cheap empire”, to use the title of his book, was above all political. Constituted after the defeat of 1870, it was designed to restore France to the status of a great power. This problem was, in a way, renewed after the rout of 1940. This led France to believe that it could regain its former glory by refusing decolonization and by maintaining itself at all costs to the four corners of the world. Thoroughly destroying ready-made ideas on the inflammable subject of colonization and decolonization, the book deserves an in-depth reading, even if the author’s concern for rigor can give the impression that one is lost in the details. .
A cheap empire, by Denis Cogneau. The Threshold, 470 pages, €24.50.
Rating 5/5