Chapter VI: Part 6

PARIS . . . . . Seine, Cher, Eure-et-Loir, Loir-et-Cher, Loiret,
Marne, Oise, Seine-et-Marne, Seine-et-Oise.
AIX . . . . . . Bouches-du-Rhône, Basses-Alpes, Alpes-Maritimes,
Corse, Var, Vaucluse.
BESANÇON . . . . Doubs, Jura, Haute-Saône, Territoire de
Belfort.
BORDEAUX . . . . Gironde, Dordogne, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne,
Basses-Pyrénées.
CAEN . . . . . . Calvados, Eure, Manche, Orne, Sarthe,
Seine-Inférieure.
CHAMBÉRY . . . Savoie, Haute-Savoie.
CLERMONT-FERRAND Puy-de-Dôme, Allier, Cantal, Corrèze, Creuse,
Haute-Loire.
DIJON . . . . . Côte-d'Or, Aube, Haute-Marne, Nièvre, Yonne.
GRENOBLE . . . . Isère, Hautes-Alpes, Ardèche, Drôme.
LILLE . . . . . Nord, Aisne, Ardennes, Pas-de-Calais, Somme.
LYONS . . . . . Rhône, Ain, Loire, Saône-et-Loire.
MONTPELLIER . . Hérault, Aude, Gard, Lozère, Pyrénées-Orientales.
NANCY . . . . . Meurthe-et-Moselle, Meuse, Vosges.
POITIERS . . . . Vienne, Charente, Charente-Inférieure, Indre,
Indre-et-Loire, Deux-Sèvres, Vendée, Haute-Vienne.
RENNES . . . . . Ille-et-Vilaine, Côtes-du-Nord, Finistère,
Loire-Inférieure,
Maine-et-Loire, Mayenne, Morbihan.
TOULOUSE . . . . Haute-Garonne, Ariège, Aveyron, Gers, Lot,
Hautes-Pyrénées, Tarn, Tarn-et-Garonne.

There is also an _académie_ comprising Algeria.

For the administrative organization of education in France see EDUCATION.

Any person fulfilling certain legal requirements with regard to capacity, age and character may set up privately an educational establishment of any grade, but by the law of 1904 all religious congregations are prohibited from keeping schools of any kind whatever.

_Primary Instruction._--All primary public instruction is free and
compulsory for children of both sexes between the ages of six and
thirteen, but if a child can gain a certificate of primary studies at
the age of eleven or after, he may be excused the rest of the period
demanded by law. A child may receive instruction in a public or
private school or at home. But if the parents wish him to be taught in
a private school they must give notice to the mayor of the commune of
their intention and the school chosen. If educated at home, the child
(after two years of the compulsory period has expired) must undergo a
yearly examination, and if it is unsatisfactory the parents will be
compelled to send him to a public or private school.

Each commune is in theory obliged to maintain at least one public
primary school, but with the approval of the minister, the
departmental council may authorize a commune to combine with other
communes in the upkeep of a school. If the number of inhabitants
exceed 500, the commune must also provide a special school for girls,
unless the Departmental Council authorizes it to substitute a mixed
school. Each department is bound to maintain two primary training
colleges, one for masters, the other for mistresses of primary
schools. There are two higher training colleges of primary instruction
at Fontenay-aux-Roses and St Cloud for the training of mistresses and
masters of training colleges and higher primary schools.

The Laws of 1882 and 1886 "laicized" the schools of this class, the
former suppressing religious instruction, the latter providing that
only laymen should be eligible for masterships. There were also a
great many schools in the control of various religious congregations,
but a law of 1904 required that they should all be suppressed within
ten years from the date of its enactment.

Public primary schools include (1) _écoles maternelles_--infant
schools for children from two to six years old; (2) elementary primary
schools--these are the ordinary schools for children from six to
thirteen; (3) higher primary schools (_écoles primaires supérieures_)
and "supplementary courses"; these admit pupils who have gained the
certificate of primary elementary studies (_certificat d'études
primaires_), offer a more advanced course and prepare for technical
instruction; (4) primary technical schools (_écoles manuelles
d'apprentissage_, _écoles primaires supérieures professionnelles_)
kept by the communes or departments. Primary courses for adults are
instituted by the prefect on the recommendation of the municipal
council and academy inspector.

Persons keeping private primary schools are free with regard to their
methods, programmes and books employed, except that they may not use
books expressly prohibited by the superior council of public
instruction. Before opening a private school the person proposing to
do so must give notice to the mayor, prefect and academy inspector,
and forward his diplomas and other particulars to the latter official.

_Secondary Education._--Secondary education is given by the state in
_lycées_, by the communes in _collèges_ and by private individuals and
associations in private secondary schools. It is not compulsory, nor
is it entirely gratuitous, but the fees are small and the state offers
a great many scholarships, by means of which a clever child can pay
for its own instruction. Cost of tuition (simply) ranges from £2 to
£16 a year. The lycées also take boarders--the cost of boarding
ranging from £22 to £52 a year. A lycée is founded in a town by decree
of the president of the republic, with the advice of the superior
council of public instruction. The municipality has to pay the cost of
building, furnishing and upkeep. At the head of the lycée is the
principal (_proviseur_), an official nominated by the minister, and
assisted by a teaching staff of professors and _chargés de cours_ or
teachers of somewhat lower standing. To become professor in a lycée it
is necessary to pass an examination known as the "_agrégation_,"
candidates for which must be licentiates of a faculty (or have passed
through the _École normale supérieure_).

The system of studies--reorganized in 1902--embraces a full
curriculum of seven years, which is divided into two periods. The
first lasts four years, and at the end of this the pupil may obtain
(after examination) the "certificate of secondary studies." During the
second period the pupil has a choice of four courses: (1) Latin and
Greek; (2) Latin and sciences; (3) Latin and modern languages; (4)
sciences and modern languages. At the end of this period he presents
himself for a degree called the _Baccalauréat de l'enseignement
secondaire_. This is granted (after two examinations) by the faculties
of letters and sciences jointly (see below), and in most cases it is
necessary for a student to hold this general degree before he may be
enrolled in a particular faculty of a university and proceed to a
Baccalauréat in a particular subject, such as law, theology or
medicine.

The collèges, though of a lower grade, are in most respects similar to
the lycées, but they are financed by the communes: the professors may
have certain less important qualifications in lieu of the
"_agrégation_." Private secondary schools are subjected to state
inspection. The teachers must not belong to any congregation, and must
have a diploma of aptitude for teaching and the degree of
"_licencié_." The establishment of lycées for girls was first
attempted in 1880. They give an education similar to that offered in
the lycées for boys--with certain modifications--in a curriculum of
five or six years. There is a training-college for teachers in
secondary schools for girls at Sèvres.

_Higher education_ is given by the state in the universities, and in
special higher schools; and, since the law of 1875 established the
freedom of higher education, by private individuals and bodies in
private schools and "faculties" (_facultés libres_). The law of 1880
reserved to the state "faculties" the right to confer degrees, and the
law of 1896 established various universities each containing one or
more faculties. There are five kinds of faculties: medicine, letters,
science, law and Protestant theology. The faculties of letters and
sciences, besides granting the _Baccalauréat de l'enseignement
secondaire_, confer the degrees of licentiate and doctor (_la Licence,
le Doctorat_). The faculties of medicine confer the degree of doctor
of medicine. The faculties of theology confer the degrees of bachelor,
licentiate and doctor of theology. The faculties of law confer the
same degrees in law and also grant "certificates of capacity," which
enable the holder to practise as an _avoué_; a _licence_ is necessary
for the profession of barrister. Students of the private faculties
have to be examined by and take their degrees from the state
faculties. There are 2 faculties of Protestant theology (Paris and
Montauban); 12 faculties of law (Paris, Aix, Bordeaux, Caen, Grenoble,
Lille, Lyons, Montpellier, Nancy, Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse); 3
faculties of medicine (Paris, Montpellier and Nancy), and 4 joint
faculties of medicine and pharmacy (Bordeaux, Lille, Lyons, Toulouse);
15 faculties of sciences (Paris, Besançon, Bordeaux, Caen, Clermont,
Dijon, Grenoble, Lille, Lyons, Marseilles, Montpellier, Nancy,
Poitiers, Rennes, Toulouse); 15 faculties of letters (at the same
towns, substituting Aix for Marseilles). The private faculties are at
Paris (the Catholic Institute with a faculty of law); Angers (law,
science and letters); Lille (law, medicine and pharmacy, science,
letters); Lyons (law, science, letters); Marseilles (law); Toulouse
(Catholic Institute with faculties of theology and letters). The work
of the faculties of medicine and pharmacy is in some measure shared by
the _écoles supérieures de pharmacie_ (Paris, Montpellier, Nancy),
which grant the highest degrees in pharmacy, and by the _écoles de
plein exercice de médecine et de pharmacie_ (Marseilles, Rennes and
Nantes) and the more numerous _écoles préparatoires de médecine et de
pharmacie_; there are also _écoles préparatoires à l'enseignement
supérieur des sciences et des lettres_ at Chambéry, Rouen and Nantes.

Besides the faculties there are a number of institutions, both
state-supported and private, giving higher instruction of various
special kinds. In the first class must be mentioned the Collège de
France, founded 1530, giving courses of highest study of all sorts,
the Museum of Natural History, the École des Chartes (palaeography and
archives), the School of Modern Oriental Languages, the École Pratique
des Hautes Études (scientific research), &c. All these institutions
are in Paris. The most important free institution in this class is the
École des Sciences Politiques, which prepares pupils for the civil
services and teaches a great number of political subjects, connected
with France and foreign countries, not included in the state
programmes.

Commercial and technical instruction is given in various institutions
comprising national establishments such as the _écoles nationales
professionnelles_ of Armentières, Vierzon, Voiron and Nantes for the
education of working men; the more advanced _écoles d'arts et métiers_
of Châlons, Angers, Aix, Lille and Cluny; and the Central School of
Arts and Manufactures at Paris; schools depending on the communes and
state in combination, e.g. the _écoles pratiques de commerce et
d'industrie_ for the training of clerks and workmen; private schools
controlled by the state, such as the _écoles supérieures de commerce_;
certain municipal schools, such as the Industrial Institute of Lille;
and private establishments, e.g. the school of watch-making at Paris.
At Paris the École Supérieure des Mines and the École des Ponts et
Chaussées are controlled by the minister of public works, the École
des Beaux-Arts, the École des Arts Décoratifs and the Conservatoire
National de Musique et de Déclamation by the under-secretary for fine
arts, and other schools mentioned elsewhere are attached to several
of the ministries. In the provinces there are national schools of fine
art and of music and other establishments and free subventioned
schools.

In addition to the educational work done by the state, communes and
private individuals, there exist in France a good many societies which
disseminate instruction by giving courses of lectures and holding
classes both for children and adults. Examples of such bodies are the
Society for Elementary Instruction, the Polytechnic Association, the
Philotechnic Association and the French Union of the Young at Paris;
the Philomathic Society of Bordeaux; the Popular Education Society at
Havre; the Rhône Society of Professional Instruction at Lyons; the
Industrial Society of Amiens and others.

The highest institution of learning is the _Institut de France_,
founded and kept up by the French government on behalf of science and
literature, and composed of five academies: the _Académie française_,
the _Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres_, the _Académie des
Sciences_, the _Académie des Beaux-Arts_ and the _Académie des
Sciences Morales et Politiques_ (see ACADEMIES). The _Académie de
Médecine_ is a separate body.

_Poor Relief_ (_Assistance publique_).--In France the pauper, _as such_, has no legal claim to help from the community, which however, is bound to provide for destitute children (see FOUNDLING HOSPITALS) and pauper lunatics (both these being under the care of the department), aged and infirm people without resources and victims of incurable illness, and to furnish medical assistance gratuitously to those without resources who are afflicted with curable illness. The funds for these purposes are provided by the department, the commune and the central authority.

There are four main types of public benevolent institutions, all of
which are communal in character: (1) The _hôpital_, for maternity
cases and cases of curable illness; (2) the _hospice_, where the aged
poor, cases of incurable malady, orphans, foundlings and other
children without means of support, and in some cases lunatics, are
received; (3) the _bureau de bienfaisance_, charged with the provision
of out-door relief (_secours à domicile_) in money or in kind, to the
aged poor or those who, though capable of working, are prevented from
doing so by illness or strikes; (4) the _bureau d'assistance_, which
dispenses free medical treatment to the destitute.

These institutions are under the supervision of a branch of the
ministry of the interior. The hospices and hôpitaux and the bureaux de
bienfaisance, the foundation of which is optional for the commune, are
managed by committees consisting of the mayor of the municipality and
six members, two elected by the municipal council and four nominated
by the prefect. The members of these committees are unpaid, and have
no concern with ways and means which are in the hands of a paid
treasurer (_receveur_). The bureaux de bienfaisance in the larger
centres are aided by unpaid workers (_commissaires_ or _dames de
charité_), and in the big towns by paid inquiry officers. _Bureaux
d'assistance_ exist in every commune, and are managed by the combined
committees of the hospices and the bureaux de bienfaisance or by one
of these in municipalities, where only one of those institutions
exists.

No poor-rate is levied in France. Funds for hôpitals, hospices and
bureaux de bienfaisance comprise:

1. A 10% surtax on the fees of admission to places of public
amusement.

2. A proportion of the sums payable in return for concessions of
land in municipal cemeteries.

3. Profits of the communal Monts de Piété (pawn-shops).

4. Donations, bequests and the product of collections in
churches.

5. The product of certain fines.

6. Subventions from the departments and communes.

7. Income from endowments. (R. Tr.)

_Colonies._

In the extent and importance of her colonial dominion France is second only to Great Britain. The following table gives the name, area and population of each colony and protectorate as well as the date of acquisition or establishment of a protectorate. It should be noted that the figures for area and population are, as a rule, only estimates, but in most instances they probably approximate closely to accuracy. Detailed notices of the separate countries will be found under their several heads:

+-----------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
| Colony. | Date of |Area in sq. m.|Population.|
| |Acquisition.| | |
+-----------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+
| In Asia-- | | | |
| Establishments in India | 1683-1750 | 200 | 273,000 |
| In Indo-China-- | | | |
| Annarn | 1883 | 60,000 | 6,000,000 |
| Cambodia | 1863 | 65,000 | 1,500,000 |
| Cochin-China | 1862 | 22,000 | 3,000,000 |
| Tongking | 1883 | 46,000 | 6,000,000 |
| Laos | 1893 | 100,000 | 600,000 |
| Kwang-Chow-Wan | 1898 | 325 | 189,000 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| Total in Asia | | 293,525 |17,562,000 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| In Africa and the Indian Ocean-- | | | |
| Algeria | 1830-1847 | 185,000 | 5,231,850 |
| Algerian Sahara | 1872-1890 | 760,000 | |
| Tunisia | 1881 | 51,000 | 2,000,000 |
| West Africa-- | | | |
| Senegal | 1626 | 74,000 | 1,800,000 |
| Upper Senegal and Niger | | | |
| (including part of Sahara) | 1880 | 1,580,000 | 4,000,000 |
| Guinea | 1848 | 107,000 | 2,500,000 |
| Ivory Coast | 1842 | 129,000 | 2,000,000 |
| Dahomey | 1863-1894 | 40,000 | 1,000,000 |
| Congo (French Equatorial Africa)--| | | |
| Gabun | 1839 \ | | 376,000 |
| Mid. Congo | 1882 >| 700,000 | 259,000 |
| Ubangi-Chad | 1885-1899/ | | 3,015,000 |
| Madagascar | 1885-1896\ | | |
| Nossi-be Island | 1840 >| 228,000 | 2,664,000 |
| Ste Marie Island | 1750 / | | |
| Comoro Islands | 1843-1886 | 760 | 82,000 |
| Somali Coast | 1862-1884 | 12,000 | 50,000 |
| Réunion | 1643 | 965 | 173,315 |
| St Paul \ | 1892 | 3 \ | |
| Amsterdam / | | 19 >|uninhabited|
| Kerguelen[24] | 1893 | 1,400 / | |
| +------------+--------------+-----------+
| Total in Africa and Indian Ocean.| | 3,869,147 |25,151,165 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| In America-- | | | |
| Guiana | 1626 | 51,000 | 30,000 |
| Guadeloupe | 1634 | 619 | 182,112 |
| Martinique | 1635 | 380 | 182,024 |
| St Pierre and Miquelon | 1635 | 92 | 6,500 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| Total in America | | 52,092 | 400,636 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| In Oceania-- | | | |
| New Caledonia and Dependencies | 1854-1887 | 7,500 | 72,000 |
| Establishments in Oceania | 1841-1881 | 1,641 | 34,300 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| Total in Oceania | | 9,141 | 106,300 |
| | +--------------+-----------+
| Grand Total | | 4,223,905 |43,220,101 |
+-----------------------------------+------------+--------------+-----------+

It will be seen that nearly all the colonies and protectorates lie
within the tropics. The only countries in which there is a
considerable white population are Algeria, Tunisia and New Caledonia.
The "year of acquisition" in the table, when one date only is given,
indicates the period when the country or some part of it first fell
under French influence, and does not imply continuous possession
since.

_Government._--The principle underlying the administration of the French possessions overseas, from the earliest days until the close of the 19th century, was that of "domination" and "assimilation," notwithstanding that after the loss of Canada and the sale of Louisiana France ceased to hold any considerable colony in which Europeans could settle in large numbers. With the vast extension of the colonial empire in tropical countries in the last quarter of the 19th century the evils of the system of assimilation, involving also intense centralization, became obvious. This, coupled with the realization of the fact that the value to France of her colonies was mainly commercial, led at length to the abandonment of the attempt to impose on a great number of diverse peoples, some possessing (as in Indo-China and parts of West Africa) ancient and highly complex civilizations, French laws, habits of mind, tastes and manners. For the policy of assimilation there was substituted the policy of "association," which had for aim the development of the colonies and protectorates upon natural, i.e. national, lines. Existing civilizations were respected, a considerable degree of autonomy was granted, and every effort made to raise the moral and economic status of the natives. The first step taken in this direction was in 1900 when a law was passed which laid down that the colonies were to provide for their own civil expenditure. This law was followed by further measures tending to decentralization and the protection of the native races.

The system of administration bears nevertheless many marks of the "assimilation" era. None of the French possessions is self-governing in the manner of the chief British colonies. Several colonies, however, elect members of the French legislature, in which body is the power of fixing the form of government and the laws of each colony or protectorate. In default of legislation the necessary measures are taken by decree of the head of the state; these decrees having the force of law. A partial exception to this rule is found in Algeria, where all laws in force in France before the conquest of the country are also (in theory, not in practice) in force in Algeria. In all colonies Europeans preserve the political rights they held in France, and these rights have been extended, in whole or in part, to various classes of natives. Where these rights have not been conferred, native races are _subjects_ and not _citizens_. To this rule Tunisia presents an exception, Tunisians retaining their nationality and laws.

In addition to Algeria, which sends three senators and six deputies to Paris and is treated in many respects not as a colony but as part of France, the colonies represented in the legislature are: Martinique, Guadeloupe and Réunion (each electing one senator and two deputies), French India (one senator and one deputy), Guiana, Senegal and Cochin-China (one deputy each). The franchise in the three first-named colonies is enjoyed by all classes of inhabitants, white, negro and mulatto, who are all French citizens. In India the franchise is exercised without distinction of colour or nationality; in Senegal the electors are the inhabitants (black and white) of the communes which have been given full powers. In Guiana and Cochin-China the franchise is restricted to citizens, in which category the natives (in those colonies) are not included.[25] The inhabitants of Tahiti though accorded French citizenship have not been allotted a representative in parliament. The colonial representatives enjoy equal rights with those elected for constituencies in France.

The oversight of all the colonies and protectorates save Algeria and Tunisia is confided to a minister of the colonies (law of March 20, 1894)[26] whose powers correspond to those exercised in France by the minister of the interior. The colonial army is nevertheless attached (law of 1900) to the ministry of war. The colonial minister is assisted by a number of organizations of which the most important is the superior council of the colonies (created by decree in 1883), an advisory body which includes the senators and deputies elected by the colonies, and delegates elected by the universal suffrage of all citizens in the colonies and protectorates which do not return members to parliament. To the ministry appertains the duty of fixing the duties on foreign produce in those colonies which have not been, by law, subjected to the same tariff as in France. (Nearly all the colonies save those of West Africa and the Congo have been, with certain modifications, placed under the French tariff.) The budget of all colonies not possessing a council general (see below) must also be approved by the minister. Each colony and protectorate, including Algeria, has a separate budget. As provided by the law of 1900 all local charges are borne by the colonies--supplemented at need by grants in aid--but the military expenses are borne by the state. In all the colonies the judicature has been rendered independent of the executive.

The colonies are divisible into two classes, (1) those possessing considerable powers of local self-government, (2) those in which the local government is autocratic. To this second class may be added the protectorates (and some colonies) where the native form of government is maintained under the supervision of French officials.

Class (1) includes the American colonies, Réunion, French India, Senegal, Cochin-China and New Caledonia. In these colonies the system of assimilation was carried to great lengths. At the head of the administration is a governor under whom is a secretary-general, who replaces him at need. The governor is aided by a privy council, an advisory body to which the governor nominates a minority of unofficial members, and a council general, to which is confided the control of local affairs, including the voting of the budget. The councils general are elected by universal suffrage of all citizens and those who, though not citizens, have been granted the political franchise. In Cochin-China, in place of a council general, there is a colonial council which fulfils the functions of a council general.

In the second class of colonies the governor, sometimes assisted by a privy council, on which non-official members find seats, sometimes simply by a council of administration, is responsible only to the minister of the colonies. In Indo-China, West Africa, French Congo and Madagascar, the colonies and protectorates are grouped under governors-general, and to these high officials extensive powers have been granted by presidential decree. The colonies under the governor-general of West Africa are ruled by lieutenant-governors with restricted powers, the budget of each colony being fixed by the governor-general, who is assisted by an advisory government council comprising representatives of all the colonies under his control. In Indo-China the governor-general has under his authority the lieutenant-governor of the colony of Cochin-China, and the residents superior at the courts of the kings of Cambodia and Annam and in Tongking (nominally a viceroyalty of Annam). There is a superior council for the whole of Indo-China on which the natives and the European commercial community are represented, while in Cochin-China a privy council, and in the protectorates a council of the protectorate, assists in the work of administration. In each of the governments general there is a financial controller with extensive powers who corresponds directly with the metropolitan authorities (decree of March 22, 1907). Details and local differences in form of government will be found under the headings of the various colonies and protectorates.

_Colonial Finance._--The cost of the extra-European possessions, other
than Algeria and Tunisia, to the state is shown in the expenses of the
colonial ministry. In the budget of 1885 these expenses were put at
£1,380,000; in 1895 they had increased to £3,200,000 and in 1900 to
£5,100,000. In 1905 they were placed at £4,431,000. Fully
three-fourths of the state contributions is expenditure on military
necessities; in addition there are subventions to various colonies and
to colonial railways and cables, and the expenditure on the
penitentiary establishments; an item not properly chargeable to the
colonies. In return the state receives the produce of convict labour
in Guiana and New Caledonia. Save for the small item of military
expenditure Tunisia is no charge to the French exchequer. The similar
expenses of Algeria borne by the state are not separately shown, but
are estimated at £2,000,000.

The colonial budgets totalled in 1907 some £16,760,000, being
divisible into six categories: Algeria £4,120,000; Tunisia £3,640,000;
Indo-China[27] about £5,000,000; West Africa £1,600,000; Madagascar
£960,000; all other colonies combined £1,440,000. The authorized
colonial loans, omitting Algeria and Tunisia, during the period
1884-1904 amounted to £19,200,000, the sums paid for interest and
sinking funds on loans varying from £600,000 to £800,000 a year. The
amount of French capital invested in French colonies and
protectorates, including Algeria and Tunisia, was estimated in 1905 at
£120,000,000, French capital invested in foreign countries at the same
date being estimated at ten times that amount (see _Ques. Dip. et
Col._, February 16, 1905).

_Commerce._--The value of the external trade of the French
possessions, exclusive of Algeria and Tunisia, increased in the ten
years 1896-1905 from £18,784,060 to £34,957,479. In the last-named
year the commerce of Algeria amounted to £24,506,020 and that of
Tunisia to £5,969,248, making a grand total for French colonial trade
in 1905 of £65,432,746. The figures were made up as follows:

+--------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+
| | Imports. | Exports. | Total. |
+--------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+
| Algeria | £15,355,500 | £9,150,520 | £24,506,020 |
| Tunisia | 3,638,185 | 2,331,063 | 5,969,248 |
| Indo-China | 10,182,411 | 6,750,306 | 16,932,717 |
| West Africa | 3,874,698 | 2,248,317 | 6,123,015 |
| Madagascar | 1,247,936 | 914,024 | 2,161,960 |
| All other colonies.| 4,258,134 | 5,481,652 | 9,739,786 |
+--------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+
| Total | £38,556,864 |£26,875,882 | £65,432,746 |
+--------------------+-------------+------------+-------------+

Over three-fourths of the trade of Algeria and Tunisia is with France
and other French possessions. In the other colonies and protectorates
more than half the trade is with foreign countries. The foreign
countries trading most largely with the French colonies are, in the
order named, British colonies and Great Britain, China and Japan, the
United States and Germany. The value of the trade with British
colonies and Great Britain in 1905 was over £7,200,000. (F. R. C.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY.--P. Joanne, _Dictionnaire géographique et administrative
de la France_ (8 vols., Paris, 1890-1905); C. Brossard, _La France et
ses colonies_ (6 vols., Paris, 1900-1906); O. Reclus, _Le Plus Beau
Royaume sous le ciel_ (Paris, 1899); Vidal de La Blache, _La France.
Tableau géographique_ (Paris, 1908); V.E. Ardouin-Dumazet, _Voyage en
France_ (Paris, 1894); H. Havard, _La France artistique et
monumentale_ (6 vols., Paris, 1892-1895); A. Lebon and P. Pelet,
_France as it is_, tr. Mrs W. Arnold (London, 1888); articles on
"Local Government in France" in the _Stock Exchange Official
Intelligence Annuals_ (London, 1908 and 1909); M. Block, _Dictionnaire
de l'administration française_, the articles in which contain full
bibliographies (2 vols., Paris, 1905); E. Levasseur, _La France et ses
colonies_ (3 vols., Paris, 1890); M. Fallex and A. Mairey, _La France
et sis colonies au début du XX^e siècle_, which has numerous
bibliographies (Paris, 1909); J. du Plessis de Grenédan, _Géographie
agricole de la France et du monde_ (Paris, 1903); F. de St Genis, _La
Propriété rurale en France_ (Paris, 1902); H. Baudrillart, _Les
Populations agricoles de la France_ (3 vols., Paris, 1885-1893);
J.E.C. Bodley, _France_ (London, 1899); A. Girault, _Principes de
colonisation et de législation coloniale_ (3 vols., Paris, 1907-1908);
_Les Colonies françaises_, an encyclopaedia edited by M. Petit (2
vols., Paris, 1902). Official statistical works: _Annuaire statistique
de la France_ (a summary of the statistical publications of the
government), _Statistique agricole annuelle, Statistique de
l'industrie minérale et des appareils de vapeur, Tableau général du
commerce et de la navigation_, Reports on the various colonies issued
annually by the British Foreign Office, &c. Guide Books: Karl
Baedeker, _Northern France, Southern France_; P. Joanne, _Nord,
Champagne et Ardenne; Normandie_; and other volumes dealing with every
region of the country.

HISTORY

Pre-historic Gaul.

The identity of the earliest inhabitants of Gaul is veiled in obscurity, though philologists, anthropologists and archaeologists are using the glimmer of traditions collected by ancient historians to shed a faint twilight upon that remote past. The subjugation of those primitive tribes did not mean their annihilation: their blood still flows in the veins of Frenchmen; and they survive also on those megalithic monuments (see STONE MONUMENTS) with which the soil cf France is dotted, in the drawings and sculptures of caves hollowed out along the sides of the valleys, and in the arms and ornaments yielded by sepulchral tumuli, while the names of the rivers and mountains of France probably perpetuate the first utterances of those nameless generations.

Iberians and Ligurians.

The first peoples of whom we have actual knowledge are the Iberians and Ligurians. The Basques who now inhabit both sides of the Pyrenean range are probably the last representatives of the Iberians, who came from Spain to settle between the Mediterranean and the Bay of Biscay. The Ligurians, who exhibited the hard cunning characteristic of the Genoese Riviera, must have been descendants of that Indo-European vanguard who occupied all northern Italy and the centre and south-east of France, who in the 7th century B.C. received the Phocaean immigrants at Marseilles, and who at a much later period were encountered by Hannibal during his march to Rome, on the banks of the Rhône, the frontier of the Iberian and Ligurian territories. Upon these peoples it was that the conquering minority of Celts or Gauls imposed themselves, to be succeeded at a later date by the Roman aristocracy.

Empire of the Celts.

The Roman Conquest.

When Gaul first enters the field of history, Rome has already laid the foundation of her freedom, Athens dazzles the eastern Mediterranean with her literature and her art, while in the west Carthage and Marseilles are lining opposite shores with their great houses of commerce. Coming from the valley of the Danube in the 6th century, the Celts or Gauls had little by little occupied central and southern Europe long before they penetrated into the plains of the Saône, the Seine, and the Loire as far as the Spanish border, driving out the former inhabitants of the country. A century later their political hegemony, extending from the Black Sea to the Strait of Gibraltar, began to disintegrate, and the Gauls then embarked on more distant migrations, from the Columns of Hercules to the plateaux of Asia Minor, taking Rome on their way. Their empire in Gaul, encroached upon in the north by the Belgae, a kindred race, and in the south by the Iberians, gradually contracted in area and eventually crumbled to pieces. This process served the turn of the Romans, who little by little had subjugated first the Cisalpine Gauls and afterwards those inhabiting the south-east of France, which was turned into a Roman province in the 2nd century. Up to this time Hellenism and the mercantile spirit of the Jews had almost exclusively dominated the Mediterranean littoral, and at first the Latin spirit only won foothold for itself in various spots on the western coast--as at Aix in Provence (123 B.C.) and at Narbonne (118 B.C.). A refuge of Italian pauperism in the time of the Gracchi, after the triumph of the oligarchy the Narbonnaise became a field for shameless exploitation, besides providing, under the proconsulate of Caesar, an excellent point of observation whence to watch the intestine quarrels between the different nations of Gaul.

Political divisions of Gaul.

These are divided by Caesar in his _Commentaries_ into three groups: the Aquitanians to the south of the Garonne; the Celts, properly so called, from the Garonne to the Seine and the Marne; and the Belgae, from the Seine to the Rhine. But these ethnological names cover a very great variety of half-savage tribes, differing in speech and in institutions, each surrounded by frontiers of dense forests abounding in game. On the edges of these forests stood isolated dwellings like sentinel outposts; while the inhabitants of the scattered hamlets, caves hollowed in the ground, rude circular huts or lake-dwellings, were less occupied with domestic life than with war and the chase. On the heights, as at Bibracte, or on islands in the rivers, as at Lutetia, or protected by marshes, as at Avaricum, _oppida_--at once fortresses and places of refuge, like the Greek Acropolis--kept watch and ward over the beaten tracks and the rivers of Gaul.

Political institutions of Gaul.

These primitive societies of tall, fair-skinned warriors, blue-eyed and red-haired, were gradually organized into political bodies of various kinds--kingdoms, republics and federations--and divided into districts or _pagi_ (_pays_) to which divisions the minds of the country folk have remained faithfully attached ever since. The victorious aristocracy of the kingdom dominated the other classes, strengthened by the prestige of birth, the ownership of the soil and the practice of arms. Side by side with this martial nobility the Druids constituted a priesthood unique in ancient times; neither hereditary as in India, nor composed of isolated priests as in Greece, nor of independent colleges as at Rome, it was a true corporation, which at first possessed great moral authority, though by Caesar's time it had lost both strength and prestige. Beneath these were the common people attached to the soil, who did not count for much, but who reacted against the insufficient protection of the regular institutions by a voluntary subordination to certain powerful chiefs.

Caesar in Gaul.

This impotence of the state was a permanent cause of those discords and revolts, which in the 1st century B.C. were so singularly favourable to Caesar's ambition. Thus after eight years of incoherent struggles, of scattered revolts, and then of more and more energetic efforts, Gaul, at last aroused by Vercingetorix, for once concentrated her strength, only to perish at Alesia, vanquished by Roman discipline and struck at from the rear by the conquest of Britain (58-50 B.C.).

Roman Gaul.

This defeat completely altered the destiny of Gaul, and she became one of the principal centres of Roman civilization. Of the vast Celtic empire which had dominated Europe nothing now remained but scattered remnants in the farthest corners of the land, refuges for all the vanquished Gaels, Picts or Gauls; and of its civilization there lingered only idioms and dialects--Gaelic, Pict and Gallic--which gradually dropped out of use. During five centuries Gaul was unfalteringly loyal to her conquerors; for to conquer is nothing if the conquered be not assimilated by the conqueror, and Rome was a past-mistress of this art. The personal charm of Caesar and the prestige of Rome are not of themselves sufficient to explain this double conquest. The generous and enlightened policy of the imperial administration asked nothing of the people of Gaul but military service and the payment of the tax; in return it freed individuals from patronal domination, the people from oligarchic greed or Druidic excommunication, and every one in general from material anxiety. Petty tyrannies gave place to the great _Pax Romana_. The Julio-Claudian dynasty did much to attach the Gauls to the empire; they always occupied the first place in the mind of Augustus, and the revolt of the Aeduan Julius Sacrovir, provoked by the census of A.D. 21, was easily repressed by Tiberius. Caligula visited Gaul and founded literary competitions at Lyons, which had become the political and intellectual capital of the country. Claudius, who was a native of Lyons, extended the right of Roman citizenship to many of his fellow-townsmen, gave them access to the magistracy and to the senate, and supplemented the annexation of Gaul by that of Britain. The speech which he pronounced on this occasion was engraved on tables of bronze at Lyons, and is the first authentic record of Gaul's admission to the citizenship of Rome. Though the crimes of Nero and the catastrophes which resulted from his downfall, provoked the troubles of the year A.D. 70, the revolt of Sabinus was in the main an attempt by the Germans to pillage Gaul and the prelude to military insurrections. The government of the Flavians and the Antonines completed a definite reconciliation. After the extinction of the family of Augustus in the 1st century Gaul had made many emperors--Galba, Otho, Vitellius, Vespasian and Domitian; and in the 2nd century she provided Gauls to rule the empire--Antoninus (138-161) came from Nîmes and Claudius from Lyons, as did also Caracalla later on (211-217).

Material and political transformation of Roman Gaul.

The romanization of the Gauls, like that of the other subject nations, was effected by slow stages and by very diverse means, furnishing an example of the constant adaptability of Roman policy. It was begun by establishing a network of roads with Lyons as the central point, and by the development of a prosperous urban life in the increasingly wealthy Roman colonies; and it was continued by the disintegration into independent cities of nearly all the Gaulish states of the Narbonnaise, together with the substitution of the Roman collegial magistracy for the isolated magistracy of the Gauls. This alteration came about more quickly in the north-east in the Rhine-land than in the west and the centre, owing to the near neighbourhood of the legions on the frontiers. Rome was too tolerant to impose her own institutions by force; it was the conquered peoples who collectively and individually solicited as a favour the right of adopting the municipal system, the magistracy, the sacerdotal and aristocratic social system of their conquerors. The edict of Caracalla, at the beginning of the 3rd century, by conferring the right of citizenship on all the inhabitants of the empire, completed an assimilation for which commercial relations, schools, a taste for officialism, and the adaptability and quick intelligence of the race had already made preparation. The Gauls now called themselves Romans and their language Romance. There was neither oppression on the one hand nor servility on the other to explain this abandonment of their traditions. Thanks to the political and religious unity which a common worship of the emperor and of Rome gave them, thanks to administrative centralization tempered by a certain amount of municipal autonomy, Gaul prospered throughout three centuries.

Decline of the imperial authority in Gaul.

But this stability of the Roman peace had barely been realized when events began to threaten it both from within and without. The _Pax Romana_ having rendered any armed force unnecessary amid a formerly very bellicose people, only eight legions mounted guard over the Rhine to protect it from the barbarians who surrounded the empire. The raids made by the Germans on the eastern frontiers, the incessant competitions for the imperial power, and the repeated revolts of the Pretorian guard, gradually undermined the internal cohesion of Gaul; while the insurrections of the Bagaudae aggravated the destruction wrought by a grasping treasury and by barbarian incursions; so that the anarchy of the 3rd century soon aroused separatist ideas. Under Postumus Gaul had already attempted to restore an independent though short-lived empire (258-267); and twenty-eight years later the tetrarchy of Diocletian proved that the blood now circulated with difficulty from the heart to the extremities of an empire on the eve of disintegration. Rome was to see her universal dominion gradually menaced from all sides. It was in Gaul that the decisive revolutions of the time were first prepared; Constantine's crusades to overthrow the altars of paganism, and Julian's campaigns to set them up again. After Constantine the emperors of the East in the 4th century merely put in an occasional appearance at Rome; they resided at Milan or in the prefectorial capitals of Gaul--at Arles, at Treves (Trier), at Reims or in Paris. The ancient territorial divisions--Belgium, Gallia Lugdunensis (Lyonnaise), Gallia Narbonensis (Narbonnaise)--were split up into seventeen little provinces, which in their turn were divided into two dioceses. Thus the great historic division was made between southern and northern France. Roman nationality persisted, but the administrative system was tottering.

Social disorganization of Gaul.

Upon ground that had been so well levelled by Roman legislation aristocratic institutions naturally flourished. From the 4th century onward the balance of classes was disturbed by the development of a landed aristocracy that grew more powerful day by day, and by the corresponding ruin of the small proprietors and industrial and commercial corporations. The members of the _curia_ who assisted the magistrates in the cities, crushed by the burden of taxes, now evaded as far as possible public office or senatorial honours. The vacancies left in this middle class by this continual desertion were not compensated for by the progressive advance of a lower class destitute of personal property and constantly unsettled in their work. The peasants, no less than the industrial labourers, suffered from the absence of any capital laid by, which alone could have enabled them to improve their land or to face a time of bad harvests. Having no credit they found themselves at the mercy of their neighbours, the great landholders, and by degrees fell into the position of tenants, or into servitude. The curia was thus emptied both from above and from below. It was in vain that the emperors tried to rivet the chains of the curia in this hereditary bondage, by attaching the small proprietor to his glebe, like the artisan to his gild and the soldier to his legion. To such a miserable pretence of freedom they all preferred servitude, which at least ensured them a livelihood; and the middle class of freemen thus became gradually extinct.

FRANCE at the end of the 10th. Century.

FRANCE in the 13th. Century.

FRANCE in the 14th. Century.

FRANCE The Eastern Frontier, 1598-1789.]

Absorption of land and power by the aristocracy of Gaul.

The aristocracy, on the contrary, went on increasing in power, and eventually became masters of the situation. It was through them that the emperor, theoretically absolute, practically carried on his administration; but he was no longer either strong or a divinity, and possessed nothing but the semblance of omnipotence. His official despotism was opposed by the passive but invincible competition of an aristocracy, more powerful than himself because it derived its support from the revived relation of patron and dependants. But though the aristocracy administered, yet they did not govern. They suffered, as did the Empire, from a general state of lassitude. Like their private life, their public life, no longer stimulated by struggles and difficulties, had become sluggish; their power of initiative was enfeebled. Feeling their incapacity they no longer embarked on great political schemes; and the army, the instrument by which such schemes were carried on, was only held together by the force of habit. In this society, where there was no traffic in anything but wealth and ideas, the soldier was nothing more than an agitator or a parasite. The egoism of the upper classes held military duty in contempt, while their avarice depopulated the countryside, whence the legions had drawn their recruits. And now come the barbarians! A prey to perpetual alarm, the people entrenched themselves behind those high walls of the _oppida_ which Roman security had razed to the ground, but imperial impotence had restored, and where life in the middle ages was destined to vegetate in unrestful isolation.

Intellectual decadence of Gaul.

Amidst this general apathy, intellectual activity alone persisted. In the 4th century there was a veritable renaissance in Gaul, the last outburst of a dying flame, which yet bore witness also to the general decadence. The agreeable versification of an amateur like Ausonius, the refined panegyrics of a Eumenius, disguising nullity of thought beneath elegance of form, already foretold the perilous sterility of scholasticism. Art, so widespread in the wealthy villas of Gaul, contented itself with imitation, produced nothing original and remained mediocre. Human curiosity, no longer concerned with philosophy and science, seemed as though stifled, religious polemics alone continuing to hold public attention. Disinclination for the self-sacrifice of active life and weariness of the things of the earth lead naturally to absorption in the things of heaven. After bringing about the success of the Asiatic cults of Mithra and Cybele, these same factors now assured the triumph over exhausted paganism of yet another oriental religion--Christianity--after a duel which had lasted two centuries.

Christianity in Gaul.

This new faith had appeared to Constantine likely to infuse young and healthy blood into the Empire. In reality Christianity, which had contributed not a little to stimulate the political unity of continental Gaul, now tended to dissolve it by destroying that religious unity which had heretofore been its complement. Before this there had been complete harmony between Church and State; but afterwards came indifference and then disagreement between political and religious institutions, between the City of God and that of Caesar. Christianity, introduced into Gaul during the 1st century of the Christian era by those foreign merchants who traded along the coasts of the Mediterranean, had by the middle of the 2nd century founded communities at Vienne, at Autun and at Lyons. Their propagandizing zeal soon exposed them to the wrath of an ignorant populace and the contempt of the educated; and thus it was that in A.D. 177, under Marcus Aurelius, the Church of Lyons, founded by St Pothinus, suffered those persecutions which were the effective cause of her ultimate victory. These Christian communities, disguised under the legally authorized name of burial societies, gradually formed a vast secret cosmopolitan association, superimposed upon Roman society but incompatible with the Empire. Christianity had to be either destroyed or absorbed. The persecutions under Aurelian and Diocletian almost succeeded in accomplishing the former; the Christian churches were saved by the instability of the existing authorities, by military anarchy and by the incursions of the barbarians. Despite tortures and martyrdoms, and thanks to the seven apostles sent from Rome in 250, during the 3rd century their branches extended all over Gaul.

Triumph of Christianity in Gaul.

The emperors had now to make terms with these churches, which served to group together all sorts of malcontents, and this was the object of the edict of Milan (313), by which the Church, at the outset simply a Jewish institution, was naturalized as Roman; while in 325 the Council of Nicaea endowed her with unity. But for the security and the power thus attained she had to pay with her independence. On the other hand, pagan and Christian elements in society existed side by side without intermingling, and even openly antagonistic to each other--one aristocratic and the other democratic. In order to induce the masses of the people once more to become loyal to the imperial form of government the emperor Julian tried by founding a new religion to give its functionaries a religious prestige which should impress the popular mind. His plan failed; and the emperor Theodosius, aided by Ambrose, bishop of Milan, preferred to make the Christian clergy into a body of imperial and conservative officials; while in return for their adhesion he abolished the Arian heresy and paganism itself, which could not survive without his support. Thenceforward it was in the name of Christ that persecutions took place in an Empire now entirely won over to Christianity.

Organisation of the Church.

In Gaul the most famous leader of this first merciless, if still perilous crusade, was a soldier-monk, Saint Martin of Tours. Thanks to him and his disciples in the middle of the 4th century and the beginning of the 5th many of the towns possessed well-established churches; but the militant ardour of monks and centuries of labour were needed to conquer the country districts, and in the meantime both dogma and internal organization were subjected to important modifications. As regards the former the Church adopted a course midway between metaphysical explanations and historical traditions, and reconciled the more extreme theories; while with the admission of pagans a great deal of paganism itself was introduced. On the other hand, the need for political and social order involved the necessity for a disciplined and homogeneous religious body; the exercise of power, moreover, soon transformed the democratic Christianity of the earlier churches into a federation of little conservative monarchies. The increasing number of her adherents, and her inexperience of government on such a vast and complicated scale, obliged her to comply with political necessity and to adopt the system of the state and its social customs. The Church was no longer a fraternity, on a footing of equality, with freedom of belief and tentative as to dogma, but an authoritative aristocratic hierarchy. The episcopate was now recruited from the great families in the same way as the imperial and the municipal public services. The Church called on the emperor to convoke and preside over her councils and to combat heresy; and in order more effectually to crush the latter she replaced primitive independence and local diversity by uniformity of doctrine and worship, and by the hierarchy of dioceses and ecclesiastical provinces. The heads of the Church, her bishops, her metropolitans, took the titles of their pagan predecessors as well as their places, and their jurisdiction was enforced by the laws of the state. Rich and powerful chiefs, they were administrators as much as priests: Germanus (Germain), bishop of Auxerre (d. 448), St Eucherius of Lyons (d. 450), Apollinaris Sidonius of Clermont (d. c. 490) assumed the leadership of society, fed the poor, levied tithes, administered justice, and in the towns where they resided, surrounded by priests and deacons, ruled both in temporal and spiritual matters.

The Church's independence of the Empire.

But the humiliation of Theodosius before St Ambrose proved that the emperor could never claim to be a pontiff, and that the dogma of the Church remained independent of the sovereign as well as of the people; if she sacrificed her liberty it was but to claim it again and maintain it more effectively amid the general languor. The Church thus escaped the unpopularity of this decadent empire, and during the 5th century she provided a refuge for all those who, wishing to preserve the Roman unity, were terrified by the blackness of the horizon. In fact, whilst in the Eastern Church the metaphysical ardour of the Greeks was spending itself in terrible combats in the oecumenical councils over the interpretation of the Nicene Creed, the clergy of Gaul, more simple and strict in their faith, abjured these theological logomachies; from the first they had preferred action to criticism and had taken no part in the great controversy on free-will raised by Pelagius. Another kind of warfare was about to absorb their whole attention; the barbarians were attacking the frontiers of the Empire on every side, and their advent once again modified Gallo-Roman civilization.

The barbarian invasion.