An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French Colonialism, 1880-1914Between 1880 and 1914, tens of thousands of men and women left France for distant religious missions, driven by the desire to spread the word of Jesus Christ, combat Satan, and convert the world's pagans to Catholicism. But they were not the only ones with eyes fixed on foreign shores. Just as the Catholic missionary movement reached its apex, the young, staunchly secular Third Republic launched the most aggressive campaign of colonial expansion in French history. Missionaries and republicans abroad knew they had much to gain from working together, but their starkly different motivations regularly led them to view one another with resentment, distrust, and even fear. In An Empire Divided, J.P. Daughton tells the story of how troubled relations between Catholic missionaries and a host of republican critics shaped colonial policies, Catholic perspectives, and domestic French politics in the tumultuous decades before the First World War. With case studies on Indochina, Polynesia, and Madagascar, An Empire Divided--the first book to examine the role of religious missionaries in shaping French colonialism--challenges the long-held view that French colonizing and "civilizing" goals were shaped by a distinctly secular republican ideology built on Enlightenment ideals. By exploring the experiences of Catholic missionaries, one of the largest groups of French men and women working abroad, Daughton argues that colonial policies were regularly wrought in the fires of religious discord--discord that indigenous communities exploited in responding to colonial rule. After decades of conflict, Catholics and republicans in the empire ultimately buried many of their disagreements by embracing a notion of French civilization that awkwardly melded both Catholic and republican ideals. But their entente came at a price, with both sides compromising long-held and much-cherished traditions for the benefit of establishing and maintaining authority. Focusing on the much-neglected intersection of politics, religion, and imperialism, Daughton offers a new understanding of both the nature of French culture and politics at the fin de siecle, as well as the power of the colonial experience to reshape European's most profound beliefs. |
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An Empire Divided: Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French ... J.P. Daughton Limited preview - 2006 |
An Empire Divided:Religion, Republicanism, and the Making of French ... J.P. Daughton No preview available - 2006 |
Common terms and phrases
Africa Aldegonde Almanach des Missions Annales Annam Antananarivo anticlerical apostolic apostolic vicars Atuona Augagneur bishop British CAOM Catholic missionaries Catholic missions Catholicism Cazet Christian Church civilizing mission Cochinchina colonial administration colonists critics cultural Dreyfus affair empire English Escande European evangelizing FM/SG/O Français France France’s Freemasons French Catholic French colonial French empire French missionaries French officials French Protestants Frenchmen Gallieni goals governor-general Groffier Guerlach Hanoi highlands Ibid indigenous Indo/GGI Indochina island Jesuits Joseph de Cluny Jules Ferry letter M/FM Madagascar Malagasy Marquesas Mayréna Merina Ministre des Colonies missionnaires Missions Catholiques Missions étrangères moral Mossard nation nineteenth century Oeuvre Papeete Paris patriotism Père Pigneau political Polynesia population priest propagation Protestant missionaries Protestantism Qui Nhon region religious workers republican civilizing republican colonialism schools secular sionaries sions sisters SMEP Société des missions society spread SSJC Tahiti Tananarive teaching tion Tonkin University Press Vietnamese wrote