Vichy in the Tropics: Pétain’s National Revolution in Madagascar, Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 1940-44

by Eric T. Jennings

This book examines the role of the Vichy regime in bringing about profound changes in the French colonial empire after World War II. In the war's aftermath, the French colonial system began to break down. Indochina erupted into war in 1945 and Madagascar in 1947, while Guadeloupe chose an opposite course, becoming territorially part of France in 1946. The book traces the introduction of an integralist ideology of "National Revolution" to the French colonial realm, shedding new light on the nature of the Vichy regime, on the diversity of French colonialism, and on the beginnings of decolonization. Encompassing three very different regions and cultures, the study reveals both a unity in Vichy's self-reproduction overseas and a diversity of forms which this ideological cloning assumed. World War II is often presented as an agent of change in the French colonial empire only insofar as it engendered a loss of prestige for France as colonizer. The author argues that Marshal Philippe Pétain's Vichy regime contributed to decolonization in a much more substantial way, by ushering in an ideology based on a new, harsher brand of colonialism that both directly and indirectly fueled indigenous nationalism. The author also rejects the popular notion that Nazi pressure lurked behind the Vichy government's colonial actions, and that the regime lacked any real agency in colonial affairs. He shows that, far from allowing the Germans to run French colonies from behind the scenes, Vichy leaders vigorously promoted their own undiluted form of ultra-conservative ideology throughout the French empire. They delivered to the colonies an authoritarianism that not only elicited fierce opposition but sowed the seeds of nationalist resurgence among indigenous cultures. Ironically, the regime awoke long-dormant nationalist sentiments by introducing to the empire Pétain's cherished themes of authenticity, tradition, folklore, and völkism .

Genres: History, France

311 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Eric Jennings’ areas of interest include 19th and 20th century France, French colonialism, decolonization, and the francophone world.

In 2001, he published Vichy in the Tropics (Stanford University Press, translated into French with Grasset in 2004 under the title Vichy sous les tropiques), a book derived from his Berkeley thesis that explored the ultra-conservative and authoritarian Vichy regime’s colonial politics in the French Caribbean, Indochina, and Madagascar. Curing the Colonizers (Duke University Press, 2006, translated into French as A la Cure les Coloniaux! PUR, 2011) was situated at the crossroads of the histories of colonialism, medicine, culture, leisure, and tourism. His Dalat and the Making and Undoing of French Indochina (University of California Press, 2011, translated into French with Payot as La ville de l’éternel printemps, 2013) is a multi-angled study of the major French colonial hill station in Southeast Asia. Its focus lies on place, power, and colonial fault lines. His book on French Equatorial Africa and Cameroon under Free French rule, entitled La France libre fut africaine, appeared with Perrin in 2014, and is being translated into English with Cambridge University Press. It considers the centrality of sub-Saharan Africa for the early Fighting French movement, paying special attention to issues of legitimacy and coercion. His other publications include an edited volume with Jacques Cantier, L’Empire colonial sous Vichy (Odile Jacob, 2004), as well as many articles and chapters straddling the histories of France, Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, Africa, and the Caribbean.

Jennings has received a John Simon Guggenheim fellowship (2014), SSHRC and CIHR grants, the Alf Heggoy and Jean-François Coste book prizes as well as the Palmes académiques.

Reviews

[Dan McCallum · Rating 3 out of 5]

sections on guadeloupe and madagascar feel a little shallow unfortunately, but the chapters on indochina are fantastic + put forward a really interesting hypothesis. just wish the conclusion had been drawn out further! the influence of vichy colonialism on postwar nationalisms, whether settler or colonised, was one of the most interesting ideas put forward here yet never really detailed