L'Empire des geographes: geographic, exploration et colonisation, XIXe-XXe siecle

摘要

In our post-colonial times, it may come as a surprise that the story of colonization retains popular and academic fascination in France. The Palais de la Porte Doree in Paris, built for the Exposition coloniale of 1931, may have changed from housing the Musee National des Arts d'Afrique et d'Oceanie to accommodating the Cite Nationale de l'Histoire de l'Immigration, but it remains a shrine to French imperial power. The great bas-relief on its main facade evokes the economic contribution of the former colonies to the Hexagon, with Asian territories depicted, appropriately, on the eastern side and African colonies on the west. In the interior, two oval salons created for Paul Reynaud (minister for the colonies in 1931) and for Marechal Lyautey (director of the colonial exhibition) depict the cultures and economies of France's former African and Asian colonies. In the great forum, art deco frescoes display France transmitting the values of equality, liberty, justice and peace to the five continents. Such was the imperial myth in its heyday.