Why is France more influential in Africa than the United States?

Thanks to the historic rise of the maritime era, all countries in the world have broken the boundaries between countries; Now it has evolved into global cooperation and development. However, although the era of navigation promoted the development of the whole world, it also brought extremely deep disasters to the weak and backward countries in the world. The world powers plundered, invaded and colonized countries with lower strength than themselves, and thus set off a wave of competition for colonies. In this cruel struggle, Africa can be said to be one of the most persecuted countries and one of the most fiercely contested countries. After all, Africa is the second largest continent in the world, with a large population and rich resources. Otherwise, how can it be praised by all countries in the world? Rich continent? . At that time, Africa, which was so rich in resources and extremely backward in strength, naturally became the object and goal of the great powers.

After some competitions and games, France, which was very powerful in the western continental countries at that time, took the lead; It occupied more than half of African territory and established its own colonial regime on it, which had a far-reaching impact on many African countries. Even now, France still has great influence in Africa; Even the United States, the world giant, has less influence on Africa than France. Therefore, some people call Africa? French backyard? . This can't help but make people puzzled. Why does France, which is obviously not as powerful as the United States or even Russia and China, have such a great influence in Africa? Where did his superior influence come from?

In fact, this is about the historical origin of France and Africa in the maritime era, and the relationship between them is very special. Although France is a country far from the European continent, it is only separated from Africa by the Mediterranean Sea. Africa is located on the southern shore of the Mediterranean and France is located on the northern shore of the Mediterranean; Therefore, this excellent geographical advantage gave France an advantage in colonizing Africa. /kloc-At the beginning of global colonial expansion in the 6th century, Spain monopolized Central and South America. The national strength is getting stronger and stronger. France, on the other hand, suffered serious civil strife because of the religious war, which made the French government aware of the necessity of expanding its colonies overseas and plundering resources. So with the strong advocacy and support of the French government, navigators opened up a new route; As a result, more and more French people sailed around Newfoundland, and the colonial expansion of France began.

After that, the French government began to establish a vast colonial area in the North American continent with Newfoundland as the starting point. They named this new colony? New France? . It can be seen how ambitious France was at that time. However, the ambitious French rulers set far more goals than these. After the religious war subsided, the ruling king of France began to strongly encourage domestic enterprises to develop trade in other regions. This seemingly trade expansion is essentially the basis for France to further occupy the territory of other countries. This time, they set their sights on Africa and Asia, which have one of the best resources.

When France established the East India Company in the Eastern Hemisphere, it robbed Asia of colonial resources with the maritime overlord Britain. But they didn't leave the colonial layout of Africa. After all, he is only separated from Africa by a sea, so it is much easier to arrange things than in Asia. After the French government occupied Senegal in West Africa, it established the first trading port in Africa in this coastal area. At the beginning of the establishment, because the infrastructure of the trading station was backward and developed late, the temperature and climate were quite different; Therefore, France does not attach much importance to non-trade and colonial expansion. At that time, the main trade of French colonists in Africa was slave trade and cheap labor; His colonial focus was mainly on America and Asia.

However, there are too many empires competing for Asia and the United States. In addition to France, Britain, Spain and other powerful countries covet this big fat meat. However, there must be losers in the group struggle. Unfortunately, France has become the biggest loser in this struggle. Under the conflict of a series of powers vying for colonies, France suffered heavy losses and lost many colonies in Asia and America. At this time, they began to look to Africa. After all, ambitious France will not give up the great cause of colonial expansion. France with ideas will naturally put them into practice. In the name of diplomatic conflict, they sent troops to capture Algeria and its coast.

Then, the French government took this place as a breakthrough point and invaded from northern Africa to the south; Prepare to occupy the land of West Africa, North Africa and even the whole of Africa and establish Li's colonial hegemony. After the Franco-Prussian War, the French colonies got a breakthrough expansion. Get a large colony. At that time, neighboring countries such as Libya and Tunisia were brought into his sphere of influence, and Morocco became a French vassal state. In the central and western parts of Africa, many countries are included in the scope of French rule and management; Even the long and narrow coast of Djibouti in East Africa is under its control. France is very different from other empires in managing its colonial countries in Africa.

Take Britain as an example. What is their management of the colony? Let go? Form; Colonies have greater autonomy. On the other hand, this is not the case in France. They exercise a kind of direct rule. Colonial countries have little autonomy. In every ruled colonial area, the French government will send a governor to supervise the area; The governor needs to follow the instructions of the French authorities. And down to the colonial provinces and counties, there are officials in charge. Therefore, colonies have almost no autonomy.

In education, France has implemented a complete French-based education system in African colonies; And select outstanding students from the colonies to go to France for further study. For those colonial people who have made outstanding contributions to France, the French government will grant them citizenship and opportunities to work in state organs. In this way, France will fall into the crisis of being ruled by puppet regime in the future. General de Gaulle's? Free France? Will receive enthusiastic support from the African people; They are eager to help France through this crisis. Therefore, although France has done great harm to the African people, some measures he has implemented have objectively promoted the progress of African countries. Not only that, after World War II, France opened its doors to immigrants in order to inject fresh blood; French Africans immigrated to France in large numbers, accounting for 7% of the French population.

Later, France established the franc currency system and held summit meetings with many French-speaking countries in Africa. A win-win situation has been formed. Therefore, although the French colonial countries in Africa went out independently, they were still deeply influenced by France in culture and economy. Although the United States is a world superpower, it has little interest in Africa; Plus what happened in Somalia? Black Hawk Down? The incident led the United States to gradually open up Africa. Under such circumstances, France's influence in Africa will naturally be greater than that of the United States!