They Have a Plan: French Africa and the Fourth Republic
"In irrigated terrain, there must be an average of two workers per hectare. Thus it is necessary to place in the Segou region 1,500,00 workers, or 3 million to 4 million individuals. Where will they come from? Where will they be recruited?"-Colonel Fernand Bernard, opponent of plans to irrigate the Niger Delta.
With the Polish diktat, Italy's descent into chaos that would lead to the end of Fascist rule, and Britain's disentanglement from the continent, France found itself bordered by a more industrialized, more populous neighbor which had to a large extent secured its eastern front. There were those who worried that France's time as a great power was over. But La Rocque, Daladier, and other Frenchmen knew that France would not just, and would never be just [1] a European power. La Rocque can be criticized for much: but to the surprise of many, he was capable of making painful, far-reaching reforms that shape Africa to this day.
First, we have to disregard the notion that the 4th Republic was more or less assimilationist than its predecessors, or that it was somehow more "meritocratic." The simple truth was that it was an empire ruling, in French West Africa alone, some 5 million square kilometers and fifteen and a half million souls. It covered the Four Communes of Senegal[2] and villages huddling around oases in the Sahara. Now with that touching description of its variety, let's paint a broad picture with big strokes.
French West Africa was a predominantly rural society. Its largest city was Dakar, with a mere 92,000 souls; outside of Senegal, there was no town with a population above 25,000. There were only 20,000 Europeans across this vast terrain, and most of these were garrisoned in the major towns and cities. And the 4th Republic prepared to turn this into a base of support for the French Empire. The 4th Republic's presidential administration gave France's government stability it had longed lacked, and the new regime's support for technocratic bureaucrats for plans to reshape the map of Africa.
Since the 1870s, Frenchmen had proposed a Trans-Saharan railway, running from Algeria to Timbuktu on the banks of the Niger, to Dakar. [3] The benefits were obvious: it would link all of French West Africa together, provide a route from Algeria to bypass an Atlantic Ocean where Uboats might hunt convoys, and show the world the might of French power, illustrating that the 4th Republic could accomplish feats the chaotic 3rd Republic could not.
The ensuing project would take over five years, leave several thousand construction workers dead, and become a bit of a white elephant, as it remained easier to ship goods across the Atlantic. Nevertheless, the railway would play a crucial role in linking the peoples of French West Africa together, and the eventual formation of the West African Union. [4]
Reality was less Glamorous than French propaganda portrayed
Far more important was the Niger Delta Program. Downstream of Bakamo lies the Inland Niger Delta, a territory the size of Belgium used for centuries by Bambara farmers to grow rice, millet, sorghum, and other crops. But to the French, the region seemed underpopulated, and after the First World War the French proposed a massive irrigation project to cover a million hectares with rice and cotton.
Given that Mali was underpopulated, the plan entailed moving 300,000 people to the region, and the French estimated it would take at least 25 years. In 1932 the Office due Niger (ODN) was created, but the project had stagnated. Through the use of compulsory labor [5], the ODN hoped to "drag the native from his miserable existence," and overcome the environmental constraints that Europeans believed kept Africans ignorant, malnourished, and strangely unwilling to construct irrigation systems designed to grow cotton for French industry. "But one day, when the waters of the Niger distribute through the irrigation arteries and onto their fields, ending the terrible famines of Africa, then 'the habits of whites' will make clear sense to the natives." [6]
However, mortality rates in the region were horrific, reaching 24 per 1,000 workers in 1934 due to inadequate food and medical care. Given said mortality rates, the colonists Belime thought would flock the region failed to come. In response, the ODN used a mix of the carrot (promising exemptions from corvee labor and taxes) and the stick (forcing village chiefs to provide families to settle in the region). Once there, settlers were forced to work exclusively on irrigation. [7] Slackers were denied food, medical treatment, and anything else. When the Popular Front took power, an investigation was made, but the Fourth Republic was born before anything could be done. Indeed, the Fourth Republic witnessed the intensification of the authoritarian impulses of the ODN. As a sign of Belime's growing influence, it is worth noting that he told students at the Ecole Supedrieure Coloniale that his success was due to "forced labor, an idea whose time had come." [8] Some reports reached France disagreeing; noting that the claylike soil of the Niger Delta was poorly suited to cotton, and that the region's yields were below estimates. But with the support of the Paris, the region became a vision of the modern, French West Africa. And at the ODN's urging, recruits were solicited from across French West Africa, bringing in people from across the empire to the Niger Delta.
Both the Niger Delta and the Trans-Saharan Railway are only examples of a comprehensive effort to reshape the region. There was also a plan to spend 18.4 billion francs funding industrialization in the region [9]. A small sum of money, but France's investment laid the groundwork for Senegal's textile industry, which would help the region's economy in the 1950s and 1960s. French administration for the region was also reorganized, combining all of the colonies into a single administrative unit run from Dakar. [10]
Finally, we must mention the role of the empire in the Fourth Republic's ideology. French Radio programs discussed the role of the Empire in the French economy, the French civilizing mission, and the exploits that gave birth to it. In the words of Robert Devalignette, spokesman for the colonial lobby, "there could be no empire without a conscious metropole." And so children went to schools where a quarter of the geography textbooks discussed the subjects of France; and learned about the role of Africans in the Great War, while the government organized tours to discuss exciting careers available in the colonies. This went hand in hand with propaganda in Africa, including radio broadcasts, comics, and broadsheets discussing the gloire of France.
Children attending a travelling exhibit on French Africa
Yet French West Africa was only one of the regions France ruled. The Fourth Republic's policy in Algeria and Indochina would also have far-reaching implications.
[1] I hope people find this post interesting; I think we tend to ignore Africa in alternate history, and this is a modest attempt to redress that.
[2] The Four Communes were the oldest towns in French West Africa Saint-Louis, Dakar, Goree, and Rufisqu. These were communes which had representation in the French Parliament.
[3] This got as far as a Parliamentary Study and Report in 1928, and Vichy supported it (and laid a few miles before North Africa fell) as an effort to show how awesome they were. El Pip can rejoice at the construction of a train.
It occurs to me that somebody might suggest it would be easier, logistically, if the trains were atomic powered. This can only end well.
OTL's Vichy may have shown an increased use of forced labor compared to the Third Republic, but this is heavily debated and might have been due to wartime conditinos. There are some accounts that people preferred Vichy to Free France; the latter imposed heavier requisitions and drafted more labor, because it was more desperate.
[4] In OTL, Senegal and Mali actually hoped to form one nation, using the railroad as a unifying factor. It fell apart because Mali elected a Maoist, and richer Senegal elected a conservative Francophile. The Senegalians promptly kicked the Mali delegation back to Bamako.
And then tore up the tracks between the two countries.
[5] Implemented, I'll note, in the 1920s. It actually developed out of military recruitment drives. Please add "widespread use of corvee labor" to reasons I doubt European empires can last much longer than OTL.
[6] This is an OTL quote from Emile Bolime, head of the Office Du Niger.
[7] One notable example entailed farmers who were caught fishing after dark having their nets confiscated, because if they caught fish they would be less willing to work in the fields, or have their first year rations (since the settlers brought no food) cut. There's a reason the settlers were known
as tubabu jonw, or "slaves of the white person."
[8] Belime gave this speech in OTL in 1941. What's most creepy about this post is how much of it is OTL.
[9] In OTL, the Vichy government proposed spending 18 billion francs to industrialize French West Africa, with the goal of keeping some essential industry out of bombing range. In practice this didn't happen due to the war, but I think some effort would be made. This would have included textiles, and I don't think it's improbable for the West African textile industry to be focused on the Niger Delta's cotton.
[10] I think this fits well with the technocratic planning of the regime, with its emphasis on economic development, intercolonial movements of people, etc.
Thanks to Ed Thomas for letting me use his Trans-saharan railway poster.
D): The German postal service was better and provided more and better facilities when it was still nationalized.
