French Union (Twilight of a New Era)

The French Union its the association of France with its noneuropean territories. Its origins are in the French Colonial Union (Union coloniale française) a pressure and lobby group founded in 1893. Its main leader and President of the Union was Joseph Chailley-Bert. In a short time it became the colonial party in the French National Assembly. The main purpose was to ensure that French colonialism had the support and investment of national industry and capital. The economic importance of the colonies was overlooked by many and the mission of the Union was to correct this misconception. Therefore it favored all measures that would facilitate the administration and integration to the homeland of the colonies. In other groups there was also the idea of the civilizing mission (Mission civilisatrice) of France upon its colonial possessions. It became the rationale for intervention or colonization, proposing to contribute to spread the civilization (mainly the French one), or Westernization of indigenous peoples.

Until them no great importance was given to the colonial question. After the Moroccan Crisis of 1911 it seemed clear that the Franco-German tensions, could break in a full war and the colonies could give a military advantage. In 1915 the Minister of Colonies Gaston Doumergue asked Chailley-Bert to propose a governmental plan for the better administration of the French colonies, protectorates and overseas territories. Until his death in 1928, Chailley-Bert became the chief architect and adviser for the various administrations on the colonial system.

After World War I a series of event would lead to the French Union. The first one would be the granting of French Citizenship to all persons and soldiers that participated in the defense of Metropolitan France. This measure benefited not only the Colonial Force but also habitants and native administrators in the colonies that helped in the defense of the Republic. The law on Overseas Departments that changed the status of the Caribbean colonies (French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon) into full French departments integrated to the mainland with full rights and political representation, it also gave full French citizenship to its habitants. Territorial and administrative reorganization of Indochina, West Africa, Equatorial Africa, Pacific and India. And finally the establishment of a monetary union of the territories and colonies. The licenses of the private banks to emit the colonial or regional francs is revoked. All the functions are transfered to the caisse centrale de la France d'outre-mer.

Territories of the French Union
The French Union, compromises the French departments of Metropolitan France and the Overseas Departments of Algeria, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Mayotte, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon.

The territories and colonies of Africa:
 * French Magreb Compact (Morocco and Tunisia)
 * French West Africa (Afrique occidentale française, AOF) Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Dahomey (now Benin) and Niger. Capital Dakar
 * French Equatorial Africa (Afrique équatoriale française, AEF) Gabon, Middle Congo, Oubangui-Chari and Chad. Capital Brazaville.
 * Comoros
 * French Somaliland
 * Madagascar
 * Mauritius
 * Seychelles
 * Réunion

The protectorates and colonies of Asia:
 * French India (Pondichéry, Karikal, Yanaon on the Coromandel Coast, Mahé on the Malabar coast, and Chandannagar in Bengal)
 * Union of Indochina. That unites the protectorates of Cambodia and Laos and the colony of Vietnam (Annam, Cochinchina and Tonkin)

The territories of Oceania:
 * French Polynesia
 * Wallis and Futuna