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Elections in Algeria and the French Colonies Under the Third Republic
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 September 2013
Extract
The representation of colonies in the French parliament is one of the many oddities characterizing France's colonial system. Nothing similar is found in the political institutions of any other European colonial power. This representation is a direct result of the doctrines of the French Revolution, which preached the equality of man irrespective of race, color, or political education. Thus during the years of the National Assembly delegates from Santo Domingo, Martinique, and Guadeloupe were admitted, and on August 22, 1792, all of the colonies were given representation in the national parliament. This equality lasted until the advent of Napoleon and the constitution of the Year VIII, which suppressed the colonial deputies entirely for nearly fifty years. The political idealists of 1848 not only freed all slaves in the colonies, but also gave them the political rights of French citizens. In good Bonapartist tradition, Napoleon III, in 1852, put an end to this political experimentation, and only Algeria participated in the plebiscites of 1852 and 1870. When the Government of National Defense succeeded the Second Empire and by the decree of September 8, 1870, called an election on the basis of the electoral law of March 15, 1849, Algeria and the colonies regained their political representation at Paris; and they have kept it until the present time.
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References
1 Electoral legislation for the colonies can be found conveniently in Dislère, P., Traité de législation coloniale (Paris, 1906), Vol. I, pp. 366–369Google Scholar.
2 In the Antilles, citizenship was reëstablished for the free colored population in 1831 and 1833 after the racial troubles of the preceding years, but the régime censitaire prevented any political changes being derived from these decrees. Girault, A., Principes de colonisation et de législation coloniale (3rd ed., Paris, 1904), Vol. I, pp. 651–654Google Scholar.
3 A. Girault, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 405–407.
4 The most important decree is that of September 30, 1870, which established the above-mentioned division. It was confirmed by decision of the delegation at Bordeaux on January 30, 1871, and of the government at Paris on February 1 of the same year. The latter, however, added French India, not previously included.
5 The significant laws in this case are those of February 24, 1875, on the Organization of the Senate and of November 30, 1875, on the Election of the Chamber of Deputies.
6 Law of April 8, 1879. For the rather flimsy arguments of the colonialists de Mahy and Lacascade and the excellent response of the navy minister, Fournichon, , see Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, June 29, 1876, Vol. III, pp. 196–201Google Scholar; February 26, 1877, Vol. I, pp. 63–77.
7 Law of July 28, 1881.
8 Due to the eruption of Mont Pelée and the destruction of the surrounding countryside in May, 1902, Martinique was represented by only one deputy in the legislature of 1902.
9 See Roberts, S. H., History of French Colonial Policy (London, 1929), Vol. I, pp. 78–83Google Scholar.
10 Except for an outburst of generosity in 1919, which gave citizenship to the natives of Algeria who had served in the army or navy, could read and write French, had been able to obtain a French decoration, or were property owners. Because of this law, the number of registered voters in Algeria, which had increased about 10,000 every four years, jumped from 128,487 to 158,620 between 1914 and 1919.
11 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Documents Parlementaires, 1897, Vol. I, pp. 8–9, 208Google Scholar. Ibid., Dbats, July 9, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 428–429, and July 11, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 464–465.
12 If this argument were taken literally, the French colonies, with their population of approximately 63 millions, should have 460 senators and 897 deputies to France's 307 senators and 597 deputies.
13 For the arguments for and against colonial representation, see S. H. Roberts op. cit., Vol. I, p. 70; A. Girault, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 701–708.
14 In 1890, only 736 natives had been naturalized; in 1906, their number had risen to 1,362.
15 Law of February 6, 1919.
16 S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 235.
17 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, November 8, 1898, Vol. IV, pp. 59–75Google Scholar; November 11, pp. 84–99; March 3, 1899, Vol. I, pp. 781–795; ibid., Documents Parlementaires, 1899, Vol. I, pp. 611–699Google Scholar.
18 Ibid.,
19 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, February 21, 1895, Vol. I, pp. 594–595, 599–603Google Scholar.
20 Decree of October 7, 1871. To believe the deputy Forcioli, Thiers even wanted to abrogate the Crémieux decree entirely, but was prevented from doing it because he needed the support of the Jewish bankers in floating the loans for the German indemnity. Ibid., February 21, 1895, Vol. I, p. 580; Ibid., Documents Parlementaires, 1899, Vol. I, p. 643Google Scholar.
21 Ibid., Débats, November 19 and 23, 1885, Vol. III, pp. 45–50, 72–89; December 12 and 20, 1893, Vol. V, pp. 331–334, 483–491; November 4, 8, and 11, 1898, Vol. IV, pp. 37–39, 59–75, 84–99; June 19 and 23, 1902, Vol. II, pp. 229–230, 266–270.
22 Ibid., November 19, 1885, Vol. III, pp. 45–50.
23 Ibid., May 15, 1899, Vol. II, pp. 128–137.
24 The anti-semites had to call themselves anti-Jews in Algeria, in order not to offend the Arabs whose champions they tried to be.
25 In Constantine, where this division was effected in 1889, it worked well until 1898, while in the department of Algeria, where the moderates refused to compromise, a combination of radicals and anti-Jews was victorious in 1893.
26 Representative of this ministerialism are men like fitienne, deputy of Oran from 1881 to 1919, and Thomson, representative of Constantine from 1877 to 1928, who voted for radical and moderate governments alike, for Bourgeois and Meline in the 1893 legislature, for Méline and Waldeck-Rousseau in the one of 1898, for Combes and Rouvier in 1905, for Barthou and Doumergue in 1913, though Étienne abstained from voting on the first Doumergue vote.
27 Recent political development illustrates this tendency. In the 1928 legislature, four Algerian deputies voted consistently for Tardieu and Laval and against the radical cabinet of Chautemps and Steeg. Two of these deputies were defeated in 1932, and in 1936 only the second district of Oran, long the least radical part of Algeria, elected a conservative deputy.
28 For an excellent account of the problems of these colonies, see S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 499–509.
29 Aube, Contre-Amiral, La Martinique (Paris, 1882), pp. 83–85Google Scholar.
30 S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. II, pp. 504–505; Gaffarel, P., Les colonies françaises (6th ed., Paris, 1899), pp. 133–134Google Scholar.
31 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, February 22 and 28, 1907, pp. 1558–59, 639–651; July 1, 5, and 6, 1910, Vol. II, pp. 489–496, 537–539, 565–567; July 7, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 461–463; March 30, 1920, Vol. I, p. 673.
32 Ibid., February 28, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 639–651.
33 Ibid., July 7, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 462–463.
34 1Ibid., July 5, 1910, Vol. II, p. 537.
35 Ibid., March 26, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 1221–22.
36 Ibid., February 12 and 13, March 26, 1900, Vol. I, pp. 497–498, 526, 530, 1220–41.
37 Ibid., November 29, 1906, Vol. III, pp. 496–499.
38 Ibid., November 29, 1906, Vol. III, pp. 496–499; June 9 and 11, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 134, 139–141; March 31, 1920, Vol. I, pp. 686–688; June 4, 1924, Vol. II, pp. 34–35.
39 Ibid., June 16 and 24, 1906, Vol. II, pp. 241–243, 357–359; July 9, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 562–566; March 2, 1920, Vol. I, pp. 324–325.
40 Ibid., June 16 and 17, 1906, Vol. II, pp. 240–241, 251–257.
41 Ibid., December 4, 1902, Vol. III, pp. 706–710.
42 Hanotaux, G. and Martineau, A., Histoire des colonies françaises et de l'expansion française dans le monde (Paris, 1934), Vol. V, pp. 307–308Google Scholar.
43 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, March 4, 11, and 15, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 697–701, 790–791, 807–816Google Scholar.
44 Ibid., July 1 and 5, 1910, pp. 490–492, 530–534.
45 Ibid., July 11, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 466–468.
46 According to the deputy d'Estournelles, the “great elector” did not even bother in 1898 to put the ballots in the boxes, but simply reported fictitious results. Ibid., July 11, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 464–466.
47 Ibid., December 4, 1902, Vol. III, pp. 706–710.
48 Ibid., December 2, 1893, Vol. V, p. 191; July 8 and 11, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 408–409, 464–468; December 4, 1902, Vol. III, pp. 706–710; March 4, 11, and 15, 1907, Vol. I, pp. 697–701, 790–791, 807–816; July 1 and 5, 1910, Vol. II, pp. 490–492, 533–534; June 22, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 274–276; March 2, 1920, Vol. I, pp. 325–326; July 31, 1924, Vol. II, p. 648.
49 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Documents parlementaires, 1876, Vol. IV, pp. 239–243Google Scholar.
50 Of these 44,000 inhabitants, about 6,000 are prisoners, 3,000 are natives living in impenetrable forests, and over 10,000 are gold miners without a permanent residence.
51 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, March 30, 1920, Vol. I, pp. 673–674Google Scholar; July 11, 1924, Vol. II, pp. 393–394; July 6, 1928, Vol. II, pp. 539–540.
52 Gorée was amalgamated with Dakar in April, 1929.
53 S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 81.
54 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, July 7 and 9, 1898, Vol. III, pp. 366–367, 428–432Google Scholar.
55 Ibid., July 7, 1914, Vol. II, pp. 463–465. In 1916, the natives of the four communes were made full-fledged citizens, but the unrest created by this law among the white Arabs and the other natives led to the revocation of the favor in 1922. S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 314–316.
56 S. H. Roberts, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 452.
57 Journal Officiel, Chambre des Députés, Débats, October 30 and November 5, 1888, Vol. IV, pp. 282–283, 297–307Google Scholar.
58 Ibid., February 26 and March 1, 1886, Vol. I, pp. 323–324, 400–415; July 10, 1902, Vol. II, p. 695; July 9, 1914, Vol. II, p. 562.
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