Ferry was twice prime minister of France, from [1880-1881, 1883-1885]. He is
especially remembered for championing laws that removed Catholic influence from most
education in France and for promoting a vast extension of the French colonial empire.
The policy of colonial expansion is a political and economic system ... that can be
connected to three sets of ideas: economic ideas; the most far-reaching ideas of
civilization; and ideas of a political and patriotic sort.
In the area of economics, I am placing before you, with the support of some statistics,
the considerations that justify the policy of colonial expansion, as seen from the
perspective of a need, felt more and more urgently by the industrialized population of
Europe and especially the people of our rich and hardworking country of France: the need
for outlets [for exports]. Is this a fantasy? Is this a concern [that can wait] for the
future? Or is this not a pressing need, one may say a crying need, of our industrial
population? I merely express in a general way what each one of you can see for himself in
the various parts of France. Yes, what our major industries [textiles, etc.], irrevocably
steered by the treaties of 18601 into exports, lack more and more are outlets. Why?
Because next door Germany is setting up trade barriers; because across the ocean the
United States of America have become protectionists, and extreme protectionists at that;
because not only are these great markets ... shrinking, becoming more and more difficult
of access, but these great states are beginning to pour into our own markets products not
seen there before. This is true not only for our agriculture, which has been so sorely
tried ... and for which competition is no longer limited to the circle of large European
states .... Today, as you know, competition, the law of supply and demand, freedom of
trade, the effects of speculation, all radiate in a circle that reaches to the ends of the
earth .... That is a great complication, a great economic difficulty; ... an extremely
serious problem. It is so serious, gentlemen, so acute, that the least informed persons
must already glimpse, foresee, and take precautions against the time when the great South
American market that has, in a manner of speaking, belonged to us forever will be disputed
and perhaps taken away from us by North American products. Nothing is more serious; there
can be no graver social problem; and these matters are linked intimately to colonial
policy.
Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed
the higher races have a right over the lower races ....
I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the
duty to civilize the inferior races .... In the history of earlier centuries these duties,
gentlemen, have often been misunderstood; and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and
explorers introduced slavery into Central America, they did not fulfill their duty as men
of a higher race .... But, in our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves
with generosity, with grandeur, and with sincerity of this superior civilizing duty.
I say that French colonial policy, the policy of colonial expansion, the policy that
has taken us under the Empire [the Second Empire, of Napoleon 1111, to Saigon, to
Indochina [Vietnam], that has led us to Tunisia, to Madagascar-I say that this policy of
colonial expansion was inspired by... the fact that a navy such as ours cannot do without
safe harbors, defenses, supply centers on the high seas .... Are you unaware of this? Look
at a map of the world.
Gentlemen, these are considerations that merit the full attention of patriots. The
conditions of naval warfare have greatly changed .... At present, as you know, a warship,
however perfect its design, cannot carry more than two weeks' supply of coal; and a vessel
without coal is a wreck on the high seas, abandoned to the first occupier. Hence the need
to have places of supply, shelters, ports for defense and provisioning.... And that is why
we needed Tunisia; that is why we needed Saigon and Indochina; that is why we need
Madagascar... and why we shall never leave them! ... Gentlemen, in Europe such as it is
today, in this competition of the many rivals we see rising up around us, some by military
or naval improvements, others by the prodigious development of a constantly growing
population; in a Europe, or rather in a universe thus constituted, a policy of withdrawal
or abstention is simply the high road to decadence! In our time nations are great only
through the activity they deploy; it is not by spreading the peaceable light of their
institutions ... that they are great, in the present day.
Spreading light without acting, without taking part in the affairs of the world,
keeping out of all European alliances and seeing as a trap, an adventure, all expansion
into Africa or the Orient-for a great nation to live this way, believe me, is to abdicate
and, in less time than you may think, to sink from the first rank to the third and fourth.
Source:
From Jules François Camille Ferry, "Speech Before the French Chamber of Deputies,
March 28, 1884," Discours et Opinions de Jules Ferry, ed. Paul Robiquet
(Paris: Armand Colin & Cie., 1897), -1. 5, pp. 199-201, 210-11, 215-18. Translated by
Ruth Kleinman in Brooklyn College Core Four Sourcebook
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg
has modernized the text.
This text is part of the Internet
Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and
copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and World history.
