CRIMES OF FRENCH IMPERIALISM: FROM ALGERIA TO UKRAINE

In this article, we will address colonialism, assimilation, and crimes against humanity committed by French imperialism in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

France’s Expansionist Policies

To summarize France’s imperialist expansion, which began in the 19th century:

The goal of this expansion was to establish a vast colonial empire covering as wide a territory as possible. To achieve this, France relied on military occupation, economic exploitation, cultural assimilation, and widespread human rights violations, including massacres and wars.

Imperialism is the establishment of direct or indirect dominance over other peoples by a state in pursuit of its economic, political, and cultural interests. In the 19th century, the main goal of imperialism was to meet the needs of industrialized countries for raw materials and new markets.

How was this achieved?

Military occupation and political domination

Economic exploitation

Cultural hegemony (reshaping identity through language, religion, and education)

Establishing dependency relationships

France became one of the most aggressive nations in carrying out imperialist expansionist policies.

Its expansion was not limited to military and economic means—it also involved imposing the French language, education, and culture under the guise of “bringing civilization” to supposedly “backward” nations. This amounted to a systematic policy of assimilation. The ideology of “bringing civilization” functioned as a tool to legitimize colonial occupation.

In other words, France masked its expansionist policies with the rhetoric of civilization.

In Africa and the Far East, French expansion was not only based on military victories but also on establishing long-term systems of political and economic exploitation.

In particular, the occupation of Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco on the African continent aimed at solidifying French dominance in the Mediterranean, both militarily and politically.

In the Far East, France established colonial control in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—both to compete with the British and to create a sphere of influence serving its imperialist interests.

France’s Colonial Policy in Africa

The colonization of Africa was not only about seizing economic resources but also about destroying the culture and political existence of entire peoples under the pretext of “bringing civilization.”

Thus, France’s colonial policies in Africa targeted not only economic and political domination but also systematic and long-term cultural erasure.

By the late 19th century, during the “Scramble for Africa,” France emerged as one of the most aggressive imperialist powers in Europe.

Following the 1885 Berlin Conference, France established extensive colonies in Western, Northern, and Central Africa:

North Africa: Algeria (1830), Tunisia (1881), Morocco (1912)

West Africa: Senegal, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Niger, Benin, Togo

Central Africa: Chad, Central African Republic, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon

Large Islands and Ocean Regions: Madagascar, Comoros, Mayotte

By the 1930s, France’s African colonies exceeded 12 million square kilometres, and around 65 million people lived under French colonial rule.

Crimes in Algeria

The Algerian War of Independence (1954–1962) was not just a national liberation struggle in North Africa, but also a war marked by systematic torture, repression, and assimilation within France’s own political framework.

The Sétif and Guelma Massacres

France began its occupation of Algeria in 1830 and soon transformed it into a colony.

Algerians were dispossessed of their lands, which were handed to French settlers.

Muslim Algerians were reduced to second-class citizens, stripped of political rights.

In 1936, the Blum–Violette Project proposed granting French citizenship to a limited number of Algerians, but French settler opposition blocked it.

During World War II, over 130,000 Algerian soldiers fought for France, yet they continued to be denied basic rights in their own homeland.

On May 8, 1945, as France celebrated victory over Germany, Algerians organized peaceful demonstrations in Sétif, calling for independence. The French authorities responded with violence.

Shots were fired at demonstrators. After the deaths of approximately 100 French settlers, the French state launched a brutal “counter-attack.”

The French army bombed villages in the Sétif–Guelma–Kherrata region.

Mass executions, arrests, and torture followed.

Aircraft and naval forces bombed Algerian civilians.

Reprisals targeted unarmed civilians under the guise of “counter-terrorism.”

In this massacre, 45,000 Algerians were killed.

Mass graves were dug outside cities, bodies were incinerated in lime kilns, and some were burned in death ovens resembling Nazi furnaces.

When the war of independence began in 1954, France intensified its terror both in Algeria and against Algerians in France itself.

Crimes Inside France

In the 1950s, Algerian immigrant workers in Paris and surrounding areas were identified as potential “internal threats.”

With the start of the independence war, French authorities subjected FLN (National Liberation Front) networks in France to surveillance, repression, and mass arrests. Algerians were systematically tracked, detained without trial, and tortured.

Even Algerians who had acquired French citizenship were targeted, exposing the racist hypocrisy behind France’s constitutional principle of “equality of citizens.”

Police Violence and Massacres

October 17, 1961 Massacre: During an FLN-organized peaceful protest in Paris, police chief Maurice Papon ordered a violent crackdown. Hundreds were detained, tortured, and killed—many drowned in the Seine River. More than 400 people were murdered. France suppressed the truth for decades, only partially acknowledging it after a lawsuit by a historian.

February 8, 1962 – Charonne Massacre: During an anti-OAS protest, police trapped demonstrators in a metro station, killing nine union members.

Torture and Detentions

From 1958 onward, French authorities systematically detained Algerian immigrants, subjecting them to torture including:

Electric shocks

Drowning (water torture)

Sleep and food deprivation

Sexual harassment and threats

These crimes were excused under a so-called “state of war.” Only decades later did some police and military personnel admit their roles. Yet France still refuses to accept full responsibility.

Media Censorship

In the 1950s and 60s, reporting on torture or exposing atrocities was censored and punished.

France killed 1.5 million Algerians during the war, both in Algeria and on French soil.

Crimes in Chad

French policies in Chad were marked by genocide, slavery, and assimilation.

Occupation and Massacres

In 1900, France established control after defeating Rabih el-Fadlallah and the Wadai Sultanate at the Battle of Kousséri. Civilian corpses were left in the sun as warnings.

Cut-Cut Massacre (1917): French forces lured 400 Islamic leaders to a “meeting” in Abeché and slaughtered them with machetes.

Exploitation and Oppression

France forced southern Chadians to grow cotton, bought it at low prices, and refused to invest in infrastructure.

Villages that resisted taxation were destroyed. In 1928, 5,000 people were massacred in Bouna. In 1952, in Bébalem, women, children, and the elderly were killed during election protests.

Cultural Erasure

Religious schools, mosques, and libraries were burned; manuscripts were looted and taken to Paris. France sought to erase Chad’s memory and culture.

Rwanda (1994 Genocide)

France supported the Hutu regime, remained passive during the genocide, and in some cases actively assisted.

800,000 people were killed.

UN reports confirm France’s awareness, complicity, and direct support—including weapons supplies, intelligence, and military training.

French troops deployed under “humanitarian” missions supported Hutu militias.

Madagascar (1947 Uprising)

When independence was demanded, France suppressed the revolt, killing 90,000 civilians.

Other Crimes in Africa

Congo, Senegal, Mali, Niger: forced labor, taxation, exploitation, and assimilation.

After 1960, France carried out 20+ military interventions in “independent” African countries, mostly under the pretext of “counter-terrorism.”

Mali & Sahel (2013–2022 Barkhane Operation): marked by civilian deaths and extrajudicial killings.

Central African Republic (2013–2015): French troops committed sexual abuse against children.

France still supports authoritarian regimes in Gabon, Chad, and Togo, continuing repression through indirect rule.

French Colonialism in Indochina

France established Indochina in 1887, encompassing Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Its goals were to:

Exploit natural resources (rubber, rice, tin)

Secure markets for French capital

Spread Catholic missionary influence

Enforce assimilation through French language and culture

Impose forced labour and taxation

Between 1887 and 1954, an estimated 500,000 civilians died.

Atrocities

1930–1931 Nghe-Tinh Uprisings: villages destroyed, 1,300 killed.

1945 Famine: 2 million died while French authorities stood by.

1947 Haiphong Massacre: French navy bombarded the city, killing 6,000.

1950–1954 Peasant Rebellions: 20,000 executed.

French Foreign Legion atrocities included mass rape and torture.

Resistance

1930 Yen Bai Uprising: brutally suppressed.

Indochinese Communist Party (Ho Chi Minh, 1930): launched people’s war.

Dien Bien Phu (1954): decisive Viet Minh victory. France surrendered, leading to the Geneva Conference and independence for Indochina.

The Pacific and Caribbean

New Caledonia

Annexed in 1853, used as a penal colony.

Indigenous Kanaks subjected to forced relocations, disease, and loss of land.

1878 Kanak Uprising: brutally suppressed. Half of the Kanak population perished.

Resistance continued into the 1980s–1990s, and in 2024, protests against French voting manipulation left six dead. Martial law was imposed.

Caribbean & Guiana

Martinique & Guadeloupe: 300,000 enslaved Africans worked plantations; life expectancy was only 7–8 years.

Haiti (Saint-Domingue): France’s richest colony; independence won in 1804 after a massive slave revolt.

French Guiana: used as a penal colony; 90% of indigenous tribes wiped out. Today, gold mining poisons water and land while the Guiana Space Centre expropriates indigenous land.