De Quoi Fut Fait I'Empire: Les Guerres Coloniales au XIXe Siecle

摘要

This magisterial work fills a glaring gap in our literature on war: in 576 pages, Jacques Fremeaux, who holds a chair at the Sorbonne University and is the leading French expert on Franco-Algerian relations, provides a comparative history of colonial warfare in the nineteenth century. How typical of its age French colonialism thus appears when measured against the imperial policies of the British, Germans, Americans, Russians and others, with its 'civilising mission' towards the technologically and economically less-developed countries of the world. One of the deep ironies of nationalism, as Anne-Marie Thiesse notes so ably, is that by revelling in their uniqueness and 'chosenness', all nations are so similar. This differs little for their missionary colonialism. Admittedly, there is one difference between pure nationalism and colonialism.