Economic expansionism and the shape of empire: French enterprise in West Africa, 1850-1914

Causes and effects of French imperialism in West Africa are examined in relation to a definition of imperialism as the forcible expropriation of resources. The main motivation for French expansion is seen as economic, the main architects of the French West African empire as groups of French entrepreneurs. The argument that economic imperatives for French expansion were absent or minimal is countered by a micro-economic examination of key sectors of the French economy which were beneficiaries of the African empire, identified as commercial sectors of Bordeaux and Marseille, and modern industrial sectors involved in constructing and supplying railways. Strong economic pressures for expansion did exist among these major entrepreneurial groups, the colonial solution was perceived and promoted. The commercial groups were most influential before 1880, when territorial expansion was minimal; the railway entrepreneurs gained predominance during the decades before World War I, when the empire was obtained and its shape determined.;Case studies of the influence of these entrepreneurial groups on key government decisions about the "shaping" of France's West African empire conclude that, jointly or in competition with each other, they played at least a supporting role in its acquisition, and were the major determinants of the direction of mise en valeur after conquest, or, in the thesis' terms, of "development imperialism". Under "development imperialism", the territorial units were organized; the separate colonies divided the African hinterland among the main commercial groups, the federation reunited them for the purpose of backing loans from French banks. The loans financed construction of the communications infrastructure--the cornerstone of French development policy. French manufacturers of railway material profited from this development orientation. French commerce benefited from the resultant stimulation of the growth of the overseas export sector, and facilitation of the penetration of this leading sector by French companies. The rise of an African commercial middle class was blocked. The railways oriented the economy along one major transportation axis. African income accumulation was directed through taxes into building it. The borders, the railways and ports, and the economic concentration in an expatriate-controlled export sector are important structural features of the post-colonial economies.