Comparison Of British And French Colonial Systems In Africa

With Portugal starting the European colonization of the modern times in 1415,colonization ruled the continent of Africa for 575 years. UK and France, following the footsteps of Spain and Portugal, gradually established the most enormous colonial empire in the world. Though both situated in Europe, the two countries have distinct characteristics in their colonial systems, in which political philosophy played an essential role.The British Empiricism and the French Rationalism are two of the most influential political philosophy theories in modern Europe. They originate in the spirit of speculation raised by great thinkers in Ancient Greece and contribute prominently and respectively to the political systems of the two countries in the rise of modern capitalism. Moreover, the two theories lay different impacts on the thoughts of modern colonialization of the two countries.The British way colonizing Africa is mainly Indirect Rule, which implements the principle of Political System First and embodies the concept of featured rule,deduction of managed cost and Empiricism. On the other side, France mainly adopted Direct Rule. Extending the principal of Power First, France managed the colonies directly through its government and tried to bring them into its political system, thus to establish an empire throughout the world, and to deliver the spirit of “freedom,equality and love” to the world, which is a great evidence of practicing the Rationalism.By the end of World War II, Britain and France gradually started to abandon their colonies in Africa. The British colonies, due to the relatively independent political system established before, went through the process smoothly and steadily entered the phase of development since then; while the French colonies were still kept out of France’s Administrative Protection System and therefore revolted fiercely and gained independence. Whereas, those previous French colonies are still in war or in chaos of the interior power struggle because of the collapse of the former French political system and the failure of creating a new one.