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In the 19th and 20th century’s, France was doing very well in terms of geopolitical domination. In Fact, France held the largest empire in Africa thus making it the second largest  empire in the world right behind Britain (Korkmaz, 2019, p. 1). On the surface, France's main objective in dominating such vast territories was to spread French culture, politics, and values (Benneyworth, 2011, p. 1). If one were to take a deeper look though, they would find that the French had darker alternative motives for colonization that involved heavy exploitation of raw materials and cheap labor (Korkmaz, 2019, pp. 1-2). As time passed, the connections between the colonizers and colonized nations became increasingly intertwined and to this day their cultures and economies bidirectionally influence one another.

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There were a variety of causes for the initial invasion of Africa by the French and European colonists. The top reasons are listed below.

1.  By far the most consequential reason lies in the 1884 Berlin Conference that officially authorized the 'scramble' for Africa. At the time of the conference, only 10% of Africa was colonized. By the year 1914, approximately 90% was ruled by Europe (Shisia, 2018). This is also a time when European countries decided on which areas of Africa each country would take over, thus dividing up Africa into its prospective countries we see today. The borders made during this period did not take into consideration the ethnic groups that already lived on this land (Sylvester & Anthony, 2014, pp. 11-12)

2. Africa was a gold mine of untapped raw materials. As the scramble started happening, many European countries were just coming out of a 23-year long economic depression. The majority of countries saw Africa as their path to economic recovery (Shisia, 2018).

3. The invasion of Africa was a way to show the world that France was a force to be reckoned with. During colonization, France felt that it had something to prove and thus wanted to create a "Greater France" in Africa. The belief was that France was improving these 'lesser' countries by advancing colonialist cultures and economies (Iverson, 2007, pp. 6-7).

4.  Social Darwinism was popularized by philosopher Hubert Spencer in the late 19th century. Social Darwinism or 'scientific racism' is essentially the idea that some societies are fundamentally better than others. In this ideology, only the best societies survive the test of time and spread throughout the world (Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019). In many ways, the notion of social Darwinism justified colonization. People felt as if they were making societies better by spreading their culture and doing away with ineffective ways of living practiced by the indigenous peoples (Korkmaz, 2019, p. 2).

a. Earlier works such as Von den verschiedenen Rassen der Menschen (1775) by philosopher Maurice Makumba, proposed that racism and slavery were justified because the 'original' race of humans was white and therefore must be superior to all other races. Ideas like this was a main justification for slavery (Sylvester & Anthony, 2014, p. 10)

5. Parti colonial was a favored special interest group in France that promoted the idea of Eurafrique or the colonization of Africa by Europe. The Parti ideology consisted of the belief that Europe and Africa's fates were so intertwined that colonizing Africa was the next logical step in achieving both Africa's and Frances's common economic goals (Martin, 1995, p. 2). These economic goals were to be fulfilled when Africa provided raw materials to Europe which manufactured the final product (pp. 2-3).

6. Mission civilisatrice or "civilizing mission" was the belief that France had a responsibility to spread its culture, language, values, and beliefs to the African world. In essence, this was a mission to convert African colonists into French people (Martin, 1995, p. 2). This mission attempted social engineering by implementing westernized education, politics, and infrastructure (Benneyworth, 2011, p. 1). It was Frances version of the "white man's burden".

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This racist poster depicts a tirailleurs senegalais soldier happily munching on  Banania, a popular French banana-chocolate Drink.  In the eyes of the French, this image would have portrayed this Senegalese peoples as harmless child-like figure that should not be taken seriously (Voon, 2017)

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From the beginning, the French had an unstable relationship with its colonies. At the onset of colonization, many of the ethnic groups living in Africa fought back against the imperialists. In fact, rulers of modern-day nations like Mali, Benin, Algeria, and the Ivory Coast fought for years before they submitted to French rule. Nearly all the battles in the French colonies were fought and won by France by the year 1900 (Korkmaz, 2019, pp. 3-4). In addition, when France was occupied during various wars, some African chiefs started rebellions against the colonizers (Conklin, 1998, pp. 427-428 as cited by Benneyworth, 2011, p. 1). These rebellions usually did not last long and ended up in the death of the local peoples.

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France came up with several strategies to retain its power hold in Africa during the colonial times which include the following.

- The French colonies education system was biased towards French ideals and values. To the French, having an educated colonial  workforce was not a top priority. Instead, the primary mission of was to teach children how to be faithful laborers who were unquestionably loyal to France (Korkmaz, 2019, pp. 3-4).

o  The educational material in schools was littered with propaganda that glorified France. None of these schools allowed students to speak any language but French (Iverson, 2007, p. 16). The use of the French language in schools was designed to persuade educated colonial students to think of France as a 'superior' or educated language.

o  Some of the more elite colonial educated individuals went on to become important French ambassadors and politicians. These individuals were essential at the time of France's decolonization-- when it promoted these loyalists to top-ranking positions in their prospective countries (Iverson, 2007, pp. 16-17).

-   In 1887 a law called 'Le Code de l'indigénat' was adopted in nearly all of the French colonies. The law forced indigenous peoples to do manual labor for little to no payment (Korkmaz, 2019, p. 3). In 1903 and 1905, these labor laws were revised but did little to protect the safety or dignity of the colonial people (Benneyworth, 2011, p. 1).

-  Economic colonial policies kept the colonies in a perpetual state of servitude to the imperial empire. France enforced a policy of supression of all forms of independent colonial manufacturing which prevented the colonies from making independent finished goods (Iverson, 2007, p. 16). The colonies would thus be reliant on France for all manufactured products.

- France also attempted to keep bilateral trade agreements strictly between France and its colonies. This resulted in France maintain a monopoly on these regions' goods by setting the selling price artificially low and export price artificially high (Iverson, 2007, pp. 16-17).

-  In an effort to assimilate local peoples, France created a policy that allowed some local customs (that allied with French values) to be practiced by local ethnic groups (Conklin, 1997 as cited by Benneyworth, 2011, p. 1). Even though this was not precisely what France envisioned when creating their policies of assimilation, they hoped that granting more autonomy to the colony's chiefs would increase their compliance to French standards and customs.

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The definition of Eurafrique or Eurafrica is highly contested among historians. Some writers in the days of colonization defined it as the European effort to collectively dominate Africa with multilateral polities while others claimed it was France's efforts to forge a path into Africa for the sake of European domination (Charbonneau, 2008, p. 286). The latter definition is closely related to the idea of France-Afrique or Francafrique, which acknowledges that France has bilateral and independent relationships with its colonies outside of European control (p. 287). The original thread of both of these ideas is that eventually, Europe would dominate Africa in significant ways.

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After WWII, many African countries were inspired by nations like India to initiate rebellions against colonial rule. This was especially true for Algeria, which became involved in a bloody, vicious war with France against colonization from the years 1954-1962 (Korkmaz, 2019, p. 5). The liberation of the other French colonies turned out to be much more peaceful. In Sub-Saharan Africa, public referendums were used to let the citizens vote on if they wanted to remain as a French colony. Surprisingly, in 1958 many of the colonies, apart from Guinea, decided to stay as a benefactor of the French empire (Sylvester & Anthony, 2014, p. 22). In 1960 the vote was retaken and this time, the colonies decided to go independent.

The colony's initial refusal of independence from France can be traced back to Charles de Gaulle who was the president of France's Fifth Republic during this time. Between the years 1946 to 1956, de Gaulle started granting France's colonies a significant amount of independence (Korkmaz, 2019, p. 5). The most important change came from the Loi-Carde Deffer Law, which made it possible for local electorate's power to be recognized and legitimized in the French government as well as gave the majority of colonial citizens the right to vote (Iverson, 2007, p. 18). This law was set in place to actively discourage decolonization, but eventually became a vital part of protecting the faltering relationship between the French and its colonies after colonization (p. 19).

The granting of autonomy to colonial Africa was all part of de Gaulle's plan to maintain a neo-colonial relationship with these nations. At the end of colonization, all of France's former colonies, excluding Guinea, where required by law to follow the rules of Communauté ƒranco-aƒricaine also known as Accords de coopération (Martin, 1995, pp. 4-5). These laws were made to target and influence the colony's political, military, and socioeconomic policies.

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Since the Berlin Conference in 1894, the fates of France and Sub-Saharan Africa have closely aligned. As the French were just coming out of a depression, they saw Africa as an unexplored opportunity to finally start to make some capital. Unfortunately, France adhered to the false notion of Social Darwinism that led it to unapologetically exploit many different ethnic groups indigenous to Africa. The french felt that it was their job to 'civilize' these indigenous groups and spread the way of the French around the nation. The exploitation of ethnic groups took place in the form of economic, social, and political power taken from the local peoples.

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Benneyworth, I. (2011, June). The Ongoing Relationship Between France and its
Former African Colonies. E-International Relations Students.

Charbonneau, B. (2008). Dreams of Empire: France, Europe, and the New
Interventionism in Africa. Modern & Contemporary France, 16(3), 279-295.
Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (2019). Social Darwinism. Retrieved from
https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-Darwinism

Iverson, A. W. (2007). From Eurafrica to Multilateralis: The Europeanization of
Frence's Africa Policy. The University of British Columbia.

Korkmaz, T. (2019). ‘La Françafrique’: The Special Relationship Between France and
Its Former Colonies in Africa. IHH Humanitarian and Social Research Center
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Martin, G. (1995). Continuity and Change in Franco-African Relations. The Journal
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Shisia, M. (2018). What Was the Scramble For Africa? WorldAtlas. Retrieved from
worldatlas.com/what-was-the-scramble-for-africa.html.

Sylvester, O. A., & Anthony, O. I. (2014). Decolonization in Africa and Pan-
Africanism. Yönetim Bilimleri Dergisi, 12(23), 7-31.
Voon, C. (2017). The Racist Caricatures of African Soldiers that Soothed French
Colonial Anxieties. Hypoallergenic Media. Retrieved from The Racist
Caricatures of African Soldiers that Soothed French Colonial Anxieties.