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The French colonial empire (French: Empire colonial français) comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward.
France probably could have become the leading European colonial power in the 17th and 18th centuries. It had the largest population and wealth, the best army while Louis XIV ruled, and, for a time in his reign, the strongest navy.
The French colonial empire began to fall apart during the Second World War, when various parts of their empire were occupied by foreign powers (Japan in Indochina, Britain in Syria, Lebanon, and Madagascar, the U.S. and Britain in Morocco and Algeria, and Germany in Tunisia).
The following is a list of all countries that were part of the French colonial empires from 1534; 490 years ago to the present, either entirely or in part, either under French sovereignty or as mandate.
Evolution of the French colonial empire. From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 km 2 (3,900,000 sq mi), the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire.
Feb 25, 2016 · By 1930, French colonial Africa encompassed the vast confederations of French West Africa (AOF, f. 1895) and French Equatorial Africa (AEF, f. 1905), the western Maghreb, the Indian Ocean islands of Madagascar, Réunion, and the Comoros, and Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.
On the eve of World War I, France's colonial empire was the second largest in the world after the British Empire. The French colonial empire comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward.
The French colonial Empire (French: Empire colonial français) was land controlled by the French from the 16th century to the late 1960s. In the 17th and 18th centuries France gained and lost large territories in North America and India.
The French Colonial Historical Society (FCHS) promotes scholarship and interest in the study of all aspects of the history of French colonialism, the overseas French territories, and the multifaceted legacies of French imperialism.
France had the second largest empire in the world after Britain, but one with very different origins and purposes. Over more than four centuries, the French empire explained itself in many different ways through many different colonial regimes.
