Empire on the Cheap

The Political Economy of French Colonialism Since 1800
1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-5095-6333-3
Verlag: Polity Press

Buch, Englisch, 498 Seiten

In the nineteenth century, France embarked on the colonization of whole swathes of Africa and Asia. What drove this policy, and what methods did it use to establish and enforce French domination? What disruptive effects did this have on the colonized societies, and what did it mean for their economic and social development? Today, can we say they have been completely decolonized? Empire on the Cheap offers new answers to these ever-controversial questions.

Drawing on extensive archival work and statistical analysis, Denis Cogneau offers a richly detailed description of the colonial states and how they functioned, with a particular focus on issues of taxation, military recruitment, capital flows and inequalities. He shows that the empire cost France little until the wars of independence following World War II, and that capital from France did not trickle down to the colonies. The French Republic proclaimed its “civilizing mission”, but its rule did not lead to the development of the occupied countries, and instead established violent colonial regimes with ambiguous and sometimes conflicting goals. Such regimes mainly benefited a small minority of French colonists and capitalists. Yet, even after winning independence, nationalist elites in the former colonies most often maintained an authoritarian and inegalitarian state order.

Examining both the evolution of the colonized societies and what has become of them after independence, Cogneau makes a major contribution to our understanding of imperialism, past and present.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Cogneau, Denis

Weitere Mitwirkende

Broder, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Kolonialismus, Imperialismus
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Volkswirtschaftslehre Allgemein Geschichte der VWL

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction

Part I: The Beginnings of Empire
1. Before the Empire: The Factors Driving Colonial Conquest
2. Before the Empire: Economists and Capitalists
3. Before the Empire: Colonised Economies and Societies
4. The Early Days of Empire: Violence and its Consequences

Part II: During the Empire
5. During the Empire: Frustrated Demands for Political Rights and the Rise of Nationalism
6. During the Empire: The Colonial State
7. During the Empire: Development and Inequality
8. During the Empire: Was the French Empire Different?

Part III: The End of Empire and Beyond
9. The End of Empire: Independence Processes and the Final Balance-Sheet of Empire
10. After Empire: The Paths of Decolonisation

General Conclusion

Acknowledgements
Notes
References
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Denis Cogneau is Professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE) and School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS), and Senior Research Fellow at the French Institute for Development (IRD).