Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism
Anti-Colonial Protest in the French Empire

This book examines the relatively unknown history of movements for democratic rights in French colonies.

Adria K. Lawrence (Author)

9781107640757, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 September 2013

298 pages, 1 b/w illus. 19 tables
21.6 x 13.9 x 1.6 cm, 0.35 kg

"Some of the most rewarding books are those that expose a flaw in conventional wisdom. Adria Lawrence’s Imperial Rule and the Politics of Nationalism discredits the widely held view that nations naturally want to rule themselves. She shows that Moroccans might well have been satisfied by French rule had the French governed them more skillfully. This finding, which is based on impressive research, has huge policy implications concerning the world’s trouble spots."
Timur Kuran, Duke University

During the first half of the twentieth century, movements seeking political equality emerged in France's overseas territories. Within twenty years, they were replaced by movements for national independence in the majority of French colonies, protectorates, and mandates. In this pathbreaking study of the decolonization era, Adria Lawrence asks why elites in French colonies shifted from demands for egalitarian and democratic reforms to calls for independent statehood, and why mass mobilization for independence emerged where and when it did. Lawrence shows that nationalist discourses became dominant as a consequence of the failure of the reform agenda. Where political rights were granted, colonial subjects opted for further integration and reform. Contrary to conventional accounts, nationalism was not the only or even the primary form of anti-colonialism. Lawrence shows further that mass nationalist protest occurred only when and where French authority was disrupted. Imperial crises were the cause, not the result, of mass protest.

1. Introduction: the politics of nationalism in the French empire
2. Indigènes into Frenchmen? Seeking political equality in Morocco and Algeria
3. Political equality and nationalist opposition in the French empire
4. Empire disrupted: nationalist opposition accelerates
5. Nationalist mobilization in colonial Morocco
6. Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Politics & government [JP], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ]