List of French possessions and colonies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about every French colonial possession in history. For the current French overseas possessions, see Overseas France.

From the 16th to the 17th centuries, the First French colonial empire stretched from a total area at its peak in 1680 to over 10,000,000 km2 (3,900,000 sq mi), the second largest empire in the world at the time behind only the Spanish Empire. During the 19th and 20th centuries, the French colonial empire was the second largest colonial empire in the world only behind the British Empire; it extended over 13,500,000 km2 (5,200,000 sq mi)[citation needed] of land at its height in the 1920s and 1930s. In terms of population however, on the eve of World War II, France and her colonial possessions totaled only 110 million inhabitants, compared with 330 million for British India alone.[citation needed]

France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean and India, following Spanish and Portuguese successes during the Age of Discovery, in rivalry with Britain. A series of wars with Britain during the 18th century and early 19th century, which France finally lost, almost ended its colonial ambitions in these regions, and without it what some historians term the "first" French colonial empire. In the 19th century, starting with the conquest of Algiers in 1830, France began to establish a new empire in Africa and Southeast Asia.

The following is a list of all countries that were part of the French colonial empires in the last 500 years, either entirely or in part, either under French sovereignty or as mandate.

In the Americas[]

Further information: List of French forts in North America
See also: Former colonies and territories in Canada and Timeline of the colonization of North America
Map of the northern part and upper southern parts of the Americas, showing the results of the expeditions of Father Marquette and Louis Jolliet (1673) and of Cavelier de la Salle in the Mississippi valley (1681).
Map of New France
This map shows the Louisiana Purchase area, which corresponds approximately with colonial French Louisiana.
Taking up of the Louisiana by La Salle in the name of the Kingdom of France


In Africa[]

Map of French colonies in Africa (in green)

French North Africa[]

French West Africa[]

French Equatorial Africa[]

East Africa and Indian Ocean[]

In Asia[]

  • French Indochina
  • India and Sri Lanka
    • French India
      • French Establishments of India, composed of Pondichéry (1765–1954); Karikal (1725–1954); Mahé (1721–1954) Yanaon (1723–1954); Chandernagor (1673–1952)
  • Taiwan
    • The city/port of Keelung (1884–1885)
    • Pescadores Islands (1885)
  • Basilan (1845)
  • China
    • The territory of Kouang-Tchéou-Wan, a dependency of French Indochina) (1898–1945)
    • The foreign concessions : French Concession of Shanghai (1849–1946), Tianjin (1860–1946) and Hankou (1898–1946)
    • The Spheres of French influence officially recognized by China on the provinces of Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong
    • Shamian Island (1859–1949) (a fifth of the island)
  • Palestine
  • Syria or French Syria (1920–1946) (French Mandate of Syria)
  • Lebanon or French Lebanon (1920–1946) (French Mandate of Lebanon)
  • Yemen
    • Cheikh Saïd (Some French atlases and history books claimed the territory was French, but France never occupied it and never claimed jurisdiction or sovereignty over the territory, which therefore was never French, remaining under Turkish, then Yemeni control.[3])

In Oceania[]

In Antarctica[]

Territory claim by France in Antarctic (Adélie Land)

See also[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-20. Retrieved 2011-02-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. ^ "BnF - Voyage en Orient". expositions.bnf.fr. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  3. ^ Cheikh Saïd - The territory of Cheikh Saïd was acquired in 1868 by a French company. It is for that reason that it was formerly shown with the French colours on certain atlases. In fact, Cheikh Saïd has been occupied by the Turks since 1870, and by the Yemenis since the First World War., Dictionnaire encyclopédique Quillet, (1985 ed.).
  4. ^ "Drapeau de Rurutu - Tahiti Heritage". www.tahitiheritage.pf. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
  5. ^ "Consulter le sujet - L'Australie serait-elle française ?!... • [Forums". Francedownunder.com. Retrieved 2011-03-26.
  6. ^ Godard, Philippe; Kerros, Tugdual de; Margot, Odette; Stanbury, Myra; Baxter, Sue; Western Australian Museum; Godard, Phillippe; De Kerros, Tugdual; Margot, Odette; Stanbury, Myra; Baxter, Sue (2008), 1772 : the French annexation of New Holland : the tale of Louis de Saint Aloürn, Western Australian Museum, ISBN 978-1-920843-98-4
  7. ^ Philippe Godard, Tugdual de Kerros 2002, "Louis de Saint Aloüarn, un marin breton à la conquête des terres australes", Les Portes du large, Saint-Jacques-de-la-Lande, 331-336
  8. ^ "TAAF". Taaf.fr. Archived from the original on 2012-01-20. Retrieved 2012-01-10.
  9. ^ "Kerguelen – yves trémarec – james cook – asia – hillsborough – rhodes". Kerguelen-voyages.com. Archived from the original on 2013-10-02.

External links[]

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