Fr 139 Colonisation and Decolonisation
Stovall, "From Decolonisation to Neo-Colonialism" (p. 46-62)

Reading Questions

1.  In what way was France's colonial empire paradoxical? 

2.  In 1939, where did France's colonial empire extend?

3.  How did the French colonies participate in World War I and II?

4.  Why did France want to preserve its empire after WWII was over?

5.  After the war, what fed the colonies' growing desire to liberate themselves from France?

6.  What was French rule in Indochina like? 

7.  How did Indochina come to be split into north and south by 1945?

8.  What aspects of the French war in Indochina will be repeated  in the U.S. Vietnam War?

9.  What did most French citizens think about the war?

10.  Why did the U.S. come to support the French in the war?

11.  How and why did the Indochina war end?

12.  What other countries fought for their independence from France after 1945?

13.  Why was France so determined not to give up Algeria?

14.  What was the FLN?

15.  How did Charles de Gaulle respond to the conflict in Algeria when he returned to power in 1958?

16.  What finally brought the Algerian war to an end?

17.  When did France formally end its empire in sub-Saharan Africa?

18.  What is the Francophone Movement?