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Europe |
Historians upset as France burnishes its colonial past: |
2005-10-30 |
Link goes to the always-excellent No Pasaran blog. Their link goes to a registration-required Wash. Times article. Excerpt: France, grappling for decades with its colonial past, has passed a law to put an upbeat spin on the era, making it mandatory to enshrine in textbooks the country's "positive role" in its far-flung colonies. |
Posted by:Seafarious |
#6 Thanks for the info about the colonies :). I stand corrected - learn something everyday. |
Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-10-30 10:24 |
#5 Don't forget Louisiana. Not that that disproves SU's point in any way. |
Posted by: Jackal 2005-10-30 09:33 |
#4 It took a while for the Ghanans, Nigerians, ans Sierra Leonans to get to where they are. It didn't happen overnight. Same for Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa. I wonder if Africa is really a good example of anyone's colonial ability, except the Belgians. OTOH look at the Francophone countries: Belgium Benin Burkina-Faso Burundi Cameroon Canada Central African Republic Chad Comoros Democratic Republic of Congo Djibouti France Gabon Guinea Haiti Ivory Coast Luxembourg Madagascar Mali Monaco Niger Republic of Congo Rwanda Senegal Seychelles Switzerland Togo Vanuatu Not many there I'd include in a League of Democracies. |
Posted by: Slaimp Ulineper9814 2005-10-30 07:57 |
#3 Careful Crazy, the one American colony the Philippines isn't a second world wonder either. Now the former post-WWII quasi-colonies of Germany and Japan are doing much better. However each a had the structures though not the heart for representative instututions for many decades prior to their post war de-militarizations. Given the witnessed events in Africa, I believe a reasonable case for colonial/adult supervision could be made. The amount of manmade dead bodies generated by the local population certainly is a starting point. |
Posted by: Grereng Hupavirt7442 2005-10-30 07:09 |
#2 With all due regard, the French colonies in Africa generally did better than the English or Portuguese ones after independence, mainly because the French never really left (with the exception of Guinea, where they cleared out lock, stock and barrel.) They just changed the flag to some pattern of red, yellow and green, changed the faces on the postage stamps to whoever they had chosen to be the puppet ruler, and left their civil servants in place--and the knowledge of French troops on immediate call. Consequently, most of France's former African colonies actually continued to run much better than those of Britain, where when the British left they actually left completely--with the horrible results one still sees in Ghana, Sierra Leone and Nigeria. |
Posted by: mac 2005-10-30 05:57 |
#1 Is there any French Colony which wasn't a total fuckup after they left? Not Vietnam... not north africa.... Any others? |
Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-10-30 00:09 |