HIST 525 – France and Its Empire

How does a republic grounded in principles of liberty, equality, and fraternity justify the conquest and colonization of overseas territories? What do the tensions between universal republican ideals and colonial rule reveal about the history of France and its colonial empire? This course takes on these questions by studying modern France through the lens of its overseas empire. Drawing on primary and secondary sources, we will examine France’s “old regime” empire in North America and the plantation colonies of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, the intertwined histories the French and Haitian Revolutions, the conquest and colonization of Algeria, the consolidation of France’s “Second Empire” in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, the relationship between the French colonies and the World Wars, decolonization, and contemporary debates about postcolonial immigration, national identity, and imperial memory. Students will write a 10-page research paper on a topic of their choice.