The French Empire and Morocco

Abstract

THERE was a negative as well as a positive side to Delcassé’s imperial vision. As foreign minister he was privately convinced that France’s Asian empire would never be more than a drain on her resources. He considered Indo-China as, at best, ‘matière à échange’¹ and had the same attitude towards Madagascar which he never regarded as part of France’s African empire. As prime minister from 1902 to 1905, Émile Combes, who otherwise took almost no interest in foreign affairs, tried on several occasions to interest the German ambassador in an exchange of Indo-China or Madagascar for Alsace-Lorraine.² The same solution to the problem of the lost provinces was also the dream of Paul Bourde,³ and he doubtless suggested it to Delcassé — though never with the same conviction as an Egypt—Morocco exchange with England. Delcassé, for his part, would gladly have accepted an agreement of this kind with Germany. Bihourd, Noailles’ successor as ambassador in Berlin, wrote of a meeting with Delcassé in the summer of 1904: ‘During our long conversation we talked about Alsace and Lorraine. “If there is a willingness to sell them”, exclaimed the Minister, “I am quite prepared to give up Indo-China in exchange”.’⁴ After his fall from power Delcassé told Saint-Aulaire that he would have been equally willing to offer Germany Madagascar instead of Indo-China.⁵