The French Union () was a political entity created by the French Fourth Republic to replace the old French colonial empire system, colloquially known as the "French Empire" (). It was de jure the end of the "indigenous" () status of French subjects in colonial areas.
Composition
The French Union had five components: Metropolitan France, which included French Algeria. 'Old' colonies, notably those of the French West Indies in the Caribbean that became overseas departments in 1946: Guadeloupe, French Guiana, Martinique, Réunion. 'New' colonies, renamed overseas territories: Ivory Coast, Dahomey, Guinea, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, French Sudan, Upper Volta, Congo, Gabon, Ubangi-Shari, Chad, Comoros, French India, Madagascar, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, French Somaliland. Associated states: Protectorates of French Indochina. It had been expected that other protectorates would become part of the French Union, but the rulers of French Morocco and French Tunisia refused to become members and never belonged. United Nations Trust Territories, such as French Cameroons and French Togoland, successors of the League of Nations mandates.
History
The French Union was established by the French constitution of 27 October 1946 (Fourth Republic). Under it, it was said that there were no French colonies, but that metropolitan France, the overseas departments, and the overseas territories combined to create a single French Union, or just one France.
The goal of this union was "assimilation of the overseas territories into a greater France, inhabited by French citizens, and blessed by French culture". Whereas the British colonial system had local colonial governments which would eventually evolve into separate national governments, France wanted to create a single government under a single French state.
This French Union had a President, a High Council, and an Assembly. The President was the President of the Republic. The Assembly of the Union had membership from the Council of the Republic, from the National Assembly and from regional assemblies of the overseas territories and departments but ultimately had no power. The High Council ultimately met only three times, first in 1951. The Assembly was the only actually functioning institution that could manage legislation within the overseas territories.
In reality, the colonial areas had representation but all power remained in the French Parliament and thus was centralized. The colonies had local assemblies but these had only limited local power. Instead, various natives of the overseas territories in metropolitan France grew into a group of elites, known as .
On 31 January 1956, in response to the Algerian War, the system changed, abandoning assimilation in favour of autonomy, allowing territories to develop their own local government and eventually gain their independence. This adjustment would not succeed, however, and in 1958 the French Union was replaced by the French Community by Charles de Gaulle's Fifth Republic wherein France was now a federation of states with their own self-government.
Contemporary views on the French Union
The limited democratic reforms and increased investment in the French colonies brought about by the formation of the French Union did receive some support from African leaders at the time. For instance, Félix Houphouet-Boigny, at the time a member of the French National Assembly, was very supportive of France’s investment in Cote d’Ivoire through the Central Fund for France Overseas, which disbursed over 600Bn Francs to French colonies. He was also supportive of the greater democratic freedoms that were granted to Africans within the Union, such as new elected territorial assemblies.
Leopold Senghor was similarly supportive of the French Union, and after visiting Cote d’Ivoire in 1952, believed that cooperation between France and its colony was mutually beneficial and that such French assistance should be “extended…to all the territories of the Federation”.
Yet more support for the French Union came from French Togoland, now Togo, where in June 1955 the locally elected Territorial Assembly voted unanimously on a motion to remain within France’s sphere of influence.