 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Brazzaville Conference" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 | You can helpexpand this article with text translated fromthe corresponding article in French.Click [show] for important translation instructions.
|
TheBrazzaville Conference (French:Conférence de Brazzaville) was a meeting of prominentFree French leaders held from 30 January to 8 February 1944 inBrazzaville, the capital ofFrench Equatorial Africa, duringWorld War II.
After theFall of France toNazi Germany, the collaborationistVichy France regime controlled the colonies. One by one, however, they peeled off and switched their allegiance to the exiledFree France government led byCharles de Gaulle. In January 1944, Free French politicians and high-ranking colonial officials from the French African colonies met in Brazzaville, now in theRepublic of the Congo. The conference recommended political, social and economic reforms and led to an agreement called theBrazzaville Declaration.
De Gaulle believed that the survival of France depended on support from the colonies, and he made numerous concessions. They included the end of forced labour, the end of special legal restrictions that applied to indigenous peoples but not to whites, the establishment of elected territorial assemblies, representation in Paris in a new "French Federation" and the eventual entry of black Africans in the French National Assembly. However, independence and even limited "self-government" were explicitly rejected as a future possibility, and the model ofassimilation was reinforced.
| This sectiondoes notcite anysources. Please helpimprove this section byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged andremoved.(January 2025) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Part ofa series on the |
|---|
|
 |
Early history |
Colonial period
|
Independence
|
Current period
|
DuringWorld War II, theFrench colonial empire played an essential role in theLiberation of France by gradually aligning withFree France. After the end of theTunisia campaign, the entire colonial empire reunited toward theAllies with the exception ofFrench Indochina, which remained loyal to theVichy government.
That made theFrench Committee of National Liberation begin questioning the future of the colonies. The war created many difficulties for local people and saw the growth of nationalist aspirations and tensions between communities inFrench North Africa, particularly inAlgeria andTunisia. In addition, the French were being aided by theUnited States which opposed colonialism. InMadagascar, the month of occupation by theUnited Kingdom after the invasion of the island had weakened French authority.
René Pleven, Commissioner for the Colonies in the French Committee of National Liberation, wanted to avoid international arbitration of the future of theFrench Empire and in that regard organized the Brazzaville Conference inFrench Equatorial Africa.
The Brazzaville Conference was held in early February 1944 inBrazzaville, the capital ofFrench Equatorial Africa, during World War II.[1]
Initially, theFrench Committee of National Liberation wanted to include all the governors from all free territories, but difficulties from the war made the Committee include administrative représentants from French territories in Africa, which had already joined de Gaulle andRené Pleven. Invitations were sent to 21 governors; nine members of theProvisional Consultative Assembly and six observers fromAlgeria,Tunisia andMorocco.
De Gaulle opened the Conference by saying that he wanted to build new foundations for France after years under the domination ofPhilippe Pétain's authoritarianVichy France regime. There was also a seemingly more open tone towards the French colonies. De Gaulle wanted to renew the relationship[clarification needed] between France andFrench Africa.
The administratorFélix Éboué prominently figured in the conference.[2] Éboué brought in the localCercle desÉvolués of Brazzaville to write essays presented as "African Opinions". However, this group largely consisted of "elite Congolese men" and its written contributions "advocated for a very narrow type of citizenship that was dependent uponassimilation".[3]
The Brazzaville Declaration included the following points:[citation needed]
The possibility of complete independence was soundly rejected,[4] as was the idea of more limited "self-government"along British lines for the colonies.[2][5]: 314 De Gaulle stated:
The aims of France'scivilizing mission preclude any thought of autonomy or any possibility of development outside the French empire. Self-government must be rejected - even in the more distant future.[6]
Likewise, the preamble of the draft document of the Conference states:[7]
The Conference also recommended ending forced labour.[4]
The Brazzaville Conference is still regarded as a turning point for France and its colonial empire. Many historians[who?] view it as the first step towardsdecolonization, albeit a precarious one.
Others have challenged this view. According to historianXavier Yacono [fr], the Brazzaville Conference considered decolonization "unthinkable" (as it explicitly rejected even the long-term prospect of autonomy for the colonies).[8] Other analysts have stated that the conference's aim was exactly to render the French colonial enterprise more durable through a modernized approach to governance. An internal governmental note which circulated after the Brazzaville Conference pointed out that citizenship in the colonies was to be "reserved for local elites favorable to the continuation of privileged ties to France", and that the assimilation of these local elites "corrected [the colonies'] natural tendency towards independence".[2]
Martin Shipway has argued that the Brazzaville Conference "was staged in large part as a propaganda event" to convince both the colonial subjects and the Western rivals of France that its colonial empire was characterized by "generosity and efficiency". Rather than trying and failing to make substantial steps towards decolonization, according to Shipway, the conference "succeeded in passing the recommendations with which the colonial service as a whole no doubt felt most comfortable."[9]
| Creation and control |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Free France | ||
| Domestic operations | ||
| Underground media | ||
| Free French Africa | ||
| Liberation of France | ||
| Leaders | ||
| Museums and Memorials | ||
| Life and career |
| ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governments and political parties | |||||||||||||
| Speeches and statements | |||||||||||||
| Gaullism | |||||||||||||
| Legacy and depictions | |||||||||||||
| Related |
| ||||||||||||
