The French Colonial Mind, Volume 1: Mental Maps of Empire and Colonial Encounters

Preface and Acknowledgments

ix Preface and Acknowledgments Historical inquiry is often predicated on deceptively simple questions, one of which is “Why did people do that?” Answers are typically formulated around a combination of internal motivations and external factors: prevailing socioeconomic conditions, calculations of personal or political advantage, national security requirements, ethnic loyalties, or other cultural norms. The question of the objective sought becomes more urgent when the action taken appears, at least to the contemporary observer, hard to justify. Thus we tend to be more engaged by the actions of history’s wrongdoers than by those of the well intentioned, who remain, for many, historically dull. Does the work of European colonialists fall into that category of historical wrongdoing? Superficially at least, the answer must surely be “yes.” Imperial conquest and a colonial domination founded on racial differentiation and exclusion is indefensible on numerous grounds. Yet to scratch the surface of colonial history is to reveal countless ardent imperialists for whom colonialism was self-evidently virtuous, morally unimpeachable, even ethically imperative . Thus we return to our opening question: “Why?” The external factors mentioned above provide answers, but not a comprehensive explanation of imperialists’ motivations. To reach that, we need to think about the components of their cultural outlook, the sources of their attitudes toward such issues as nation, race, ethnicity, gender, and religion. In short, we have to look deeper into the colonizers ’ minds. It is the purpose of this book and its companion volume, The French Colonial Mind, Volume 2: Violence, Military Encounters, and Colonialism, to explore these questions. The two linked volumes of The French Colonial Mind originated in x Preface and Acknowledgments a conference held at the University of Exeter’s Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies over a sunny spring weekend in April 2007. Hosted by the Centre for the Study of War, State, and Society, the conference was generously supported by the Leverhulme Trust and the University of Exeter ’s Department of History. It is a pleasure to acknowledge their support here. The two anonymous readers who each read the manuscripts for each volume did a wonderful job in pointing us to additional lines of enquiry. Robert Aldrich helped clarify the conference’s organizing theme, and his outstanding work over many years was a key inspiration for it. Ruth Ginio also kindly read my introductions to both volumes and, as usual, made incisive suggestions about how to improve them. As editor, I would also like to thank Claire Keyte and Andrew Thorpe at Exeter and Heather Lundine, Bridget Barry, Joeth Zucco, and Jim Le Sueur at the University of Nebraska Press for their invaluable help in bringing the project to fruition. Editing is sometimes regarded as a rather thankless task. That has certainly not been the case for me, for which I thank all of the contributors to The French Colonial Mind, as well as our outstanding copyeditor, Jane Curran. Producing the volumes has been a real pleasure and a rich source of insight into the many facets of French colonialism. I’ve learned a lot and enjoyed myself doing so. I hope that readers will derive something similar from the chapters that follow. ...