Courants colonialistes et anticolonialistes dans la pensée républicaine française au tournant du 20e siècle

At the turn of the 19th century, after the fall of the Second Empire, France underwent a period of institutional uncertainty. By trying to consildate the new regime, the founders of the Third Republic engaged the country in a period of colonial expansion. The main promoters of the colonial policy, of which Jules Ferry and Léon Gambetta, try to justify it by integrating universalists republicans principles into the colonial discourse. This method of political persuasion will brought to light its share of contradictions. Historiography on the subject tend to consider that there was a consensus among contemporaries. However, several political actors of the Third Republic will oppose colonial expansion, giving rise to an anti-colonialist current, also inspired by republican thought. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how two different ideological currents, seemingly contradictory, can define their discourse on the basis of the same philosophical roots. Republican ideology is based upon the principles of the Déclaration des droits de l’homme of 1794, which put forward the concepts of equality and liberty. While these principles were upheld in the colonialist discourse, their application in the colonies was constantly put off. In order not to betray their republican heritage, Third Republic thinkers distorted it, through the concepts of « hiérarchie raciale » and « mission civilisatrice ». Colonialist and anti-colonialist speeches will be analyzed in periodicals and contemporary publications, in addition to numerous speeches from the Chambre des députés (Chamber of Deputies). This dissertation examines studies how republican thought supports both colonialist and anti-colonialist discourse. In that perspective, the analysis of the arguments opposing colonization demonstrates that a stable and lasting anti-colonialist current was clearly present under the Third Republic.

Accepted: 2023-08-02T19:57:10Z