Abstract
Hugo and Michelet's enthusiasm for the universal vocation of the French Revolution coincided with the conquest and subsequent colonization ofAlgeria. This session looks at the evolution of French colonial doctrine, around what iscommonlyreferred to as " the civilizing mission ", an expression thatneeds to bequestioned as it was in fact littleused andcoversdifferentpolicies.
A first time is devoted to the reversal of liberal thinkers such as Tocqueville, in the mid-19th century, who abandoned theanti-imperialism inherited from theEnlightenmentand helped promote, within the elites, a " colonial good conscience " (Jennifer Pitts). We then return to the famous parliamentary debate of 1885, in which Jules Ferry and Georges Clemenceau were pitted against each other. Colonization was both justified and denounced. While Ferry, in the words of the Catholic Right, defended the " right and duty of the superior races to civilize the inferior races ", in an appropriation and radicalizationof the civilizing universal of theEnlightenment, Clemenceau responded to him with the anti-colonialist accents of Diderot, and a claim tohumanrights.Athird moment of the session attempts to identify the mutations ofFrench colonial discourse, through the notions of " civilisation " and " mise en valeur des colonies ", and describes the aporias of the assimilative discourse, rapidly abandonedin favor ofunequal management of rights (régime de l'indigénat) anda decoupling of nationality and citizenship. Finally, we evoke thecolonial exhibitionheld in Paris in 1931, a moment of imperial propaganda thatrevealed the contradictionsof colonial universalism.
