‘Grandeurs et Servitudes Européennes en Afrique’ (European Greatness and Servitude in Africa)

Abstract

The ‘Association’ with Overseas Countries and Territories was born of a convergence of opportunities: decolonization on the one hand and the building of the EEC on the other. In 1956, France was still recovering from the war in Indochina, the Suez crisis, the independence of Tunisia and Morocco, and was more and more involved in the Algerian ‘disorder’. Eager to regain its status as a world power, it was trying to save what remained of its empire in Sub-Saharan Africa, renamed in 1946 the Union Française (French Union). Thanks to the African currency Franc CFA (Franc des colonies françaises d’Afrique) and the system of colonial preferences, this Union Française constituted a large trade and monetary zone, protected from outside competition. Trade barriers that were set around France and its empire in 1928 allowed French enterprises to have free access to the markets of the overseas territories and products from these territories to have privileged access to the French market. France even guaranteed to buy these products at a higher price than the global market value. Consequently, France’s exports to its African overseas territories continued to represent over one third (33%) of all French exports for the period of 1930–1950, exceeding France’s exports to its future European partners (25%) (Ravenhill, 1985, p. 49). These commercial links were even more vital for the colonies: in 1953, 85% of French West Africa’s imports came from France and nearly all of its exports went to France (Lister, 1988, p. 16).

By reference to Albert Sarraut (Colonial Minister from 1920 to 1924 and again from 1932 to 1933): A. Sarraut (1931), Grandeur et Servitude Coloniales (Paris: Sagittaire).