Book presentation “Un Empire bon marché, Histoire et économie politique de la colonisation française XIXè-XXIè siècle, Seuil, 2023”

In the 19th century, France embarked on the colonisation of entire countries in Africa and Asia. What were the motivations and methods behind this policy? How were the dominated societies disrupted, and what economic and social development did they experience? Is decolonisation complete today? A Cheap Empire offers new answers to these controversial questions. Thanks to extensive archival research and statistical analysis, the book provides a detailed description of the colonial states and how they functioned, particularly in terms of taxation, military recruitment, capital flows and inequalities. It shows that the empire cost the metropolis little until the wars of independence, and that French capital did not trickle down to the colonies. The ‘civilising mission’ that the French Republic had set itself did not therefore lead to the development of the occupied countries, and instead a regime that was both violent and ambiguous was established there. In fact, the colonial regime mainly benefited a small minority of French colonists and capitalists. As for the nationalist elites, they most often reinstated an authoritarian and unequal state after independence. By focusing on the evolution of colonised societies and their future, Denis Cogneau makes a major contribution and sheds new light on imperialism, from yesterday to today.

Denis COGNEAU is a professor at the Paris School of Economics (PSE), director of research at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD), and director of studies at Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS).