History UsefulNotes / TheFrenchColonialEmpire

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s colonial empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]] under the [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi monarchy restorations]], the Third Empire and the [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem Third Republic]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s colonial empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]] under both the [[UsefulNotes/LetatCestMoi monarchy restorations]], the Third Empire and the [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPoliticalSystem Third Republic]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s colonial empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

UsefulNotes/{{France}}'s Colonial Empire existed from the [[TheCavalierYears 1600s]] to the [[TheSixties 1960s]], roughly the same length of time as UsefulNotes/TheBritishEmpire lasted. Many historians like to speak of at least two French Empires, the first one being the one that France largely lost in the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar and UsefulNotes/TheNapoleonicWars (centering on UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica), the second one being the colonies France acquired after 1815, especially in North and West UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, [[UsefulNotes/{{Vietnam}} Indochina]] and [[UsefulNotes/FrenchPolynesia the Pacific]]. The French colonial empire's possessions included:

* [[UsefulNotes/UnitedStates United States of America]]: Parts of it (which explains patently French place names like Des Moines, Saint Louis, Louisiana, and Detroit). Almost all American territory between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River was claimed by France, and the French had active settlement in that region north of the Ohio River and in the lowermost parts of the Mississippi Valley and along the Gulf coast[[note]]French settlement in Louisiana started a few miles upstream from Baton Rouge and continued downriver to the sea. Additionally, the lands from Mobile (in today's Alabama) westward to New Orleans were French-controlled for quite some time.[[/note]]) this land was given up to the British after the UsefulNotes/FrenchAndIndianWar and to the United States in the Treaty of Paris that ended UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution. The Mississippi-Missouri basin west of the Mississippi became Spanish from 1762 until UsefulNotes/NapoleonBonaparte forced his then-ally King Charles IV to give it back to France. Barely three years later France sold it to the fledgling US government under UsefulNotes/ThomasJefferson in the Louisiana Purchase. Napoleon had bills to pay, since fighting "[[EnemyMine Perfidious Albion]]" and beating up the rest of Europe didn't come cheap, and it is not as if anyone in the French government had commercial interests or familial links to ''La Louisiane''[[note]] as opposed to, say, the highly profitable sugar-island of Martinique, home of Joséphine Bonaparte[[/note]]. There is still a considerable population of French-speakers in the bayous of Louisiana[[note]](to a large extent descended from people expelled from the former colony of Acadia in Canada by the British[[/note]], and in New England near the Quebec border.

* A few scattered colonies in East Africa, including the amusingly-named Djibouti (say it out loud)[[note]]"I'm going to invade Djibouti with the aid of Greece" is an ''extremely'' tired LARP/ModelUnitedNations pun.[[/note]] in the Horn of Africa (across the Strait of Aden from Yemen, making it deliciously strategic), which was then called French Somaliland; and Madagascar (which should be self-explanatory).

* ''Film/{{Algiers}}'' is set in French Algeria.

* A large part of ''Franchise/{{Tintin}}: [[Recap/TintinTheCrabWithTheGoldenClaws The Crab with the Golden Claws]]'' is set in the French Protectorate of Morocco.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' briefly touches upon the French and Indian War (part of the UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar).
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'' focuses on the post-Seven Years' War history of UsefulNotes/NewOrleans when it was still a predominantly French-speaking colony under the control of the Spanish Empire.
* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRogue'' features some French colonies of Canada during the Seven Years' War.

* French Polynesia and New Caledonia: colonized late in the 19th century. They are still part of France today but retain more autonomy as "overseas collectivity" rather than overseas "department".

* ''Film/{{Algiers}}'' is set in French Algeria.

* ''Film/ThePrinceOfThePacific'' is set in late World War I on a fictional island of French Polynesia and concerns a French officer who's come to recruit locals to form a battalion, as well as a revolt of the local natives against the [[AntagonisticGovernor evil French governor]].

* ''Film/ThePrinceOfThePacific'' is set in late World War I on a fictional island of French Polynesia.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIIILiberation'' focuses on the post-UsefulNotes/SevenYearsWar history of UsefulNotes/NewOrleans when it was still a predominantly French-speaking colony under the control of the Spanish Empire.

!!Media about the French Colonial Empire: