XXᵉ siècle
Africa
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Pax Europaea describes the colonial peace established across Africa by the end of the 1930s. It rested on the authority of small numbers of European administrators backed by limited African military and paramilitary forces, and it coexisted with extensive economic exploitation. Beneath its appearance of stability, colonial control remained administratively thin and dependent on coercive power.
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Le récit
On the eve of the Second World War, Pax Europaea was firmly established across Africa. Its apparent durability concealed a striking imbalance between the size of the territories governed and the small number of European administrators available to govern them. Colonial governments exercised authority through administrative structures that were sparse but supported by overwhelming reserves of power.
Nigeria illustrates this paradox. In 1930 it had only about 4,000 soldiers and 4,000 police, almost all of them black apart from approximately 75 members of each force. By the late 1930s, only 386 administrators served a population estimated at twenty million, a ratio of one administrator to 54,000 inhabitants. Comparable ratios were recorded for the Belgian Congo and French West Africa.
The colonial peace also enabled intensive economic exploitation. Railways and roads were built primarily to connect mines and export-crop areas with the coast, while taxation, forced labour, and compulsory cultivation supported the colonial economy. The resulting stability was therefore not an absence of coercion, but a political order capable of enforcing an export-oriented system with limited personnel.
XXᵉ siècle
Africa
Traduction non disponible · Original (anglais) · français indisponible
Pax Europaea describes the colonial peace established across Africa by the end of the 1930s. It rested on the authority of small numbers of European administrators backed by limited African military and paramilitary forces, and it coexisted with extensive economic exploitation. Beneath its appearance of stability, colonial control remained administratively thin and dependent on coercive power.
Poursuivre l’exploration
Le récit
On the eve of the Second World War, Pax Europaea was firmly established across Africa. Its apparent durability concealed a striking imbalance between the size of the territories governed and the small number of European administrators available to govern them. Colonial governments exercised authority through administrative structures that were sparse but supported by overwhelming reserves of power.
Nigeria illustrates this paradox. In 1930 it had only about 4,000 soldiers and 4,000 police, almost all of them black apart from approximately 75 members of each force. By the late 1930s, only 386 administrators served a population estimated at twenty million, a ratio of one administrator to 54,000 inhabitants. Comparable ratios were recorded for the Belgian Congo and French West Africa.
The colonial peace also enabled intensive economic exploitation. Railways and roads were built primarily to connect mines and export-crop areas with the coast, while taxation, forced labour, and compulsory cultivation supported the colonial economy. The resulting stability was therefore not an absence of coercion, but a political order capable of enforcing an export-oriented system with limited personnel.
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