Free French Africa in World War Ii: The African Resistance
Cambridge University Press, 7/9/2015
EAN 9781107696976, ISBN10: 1107696976
Paperback, 318 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
Originally published in English
Only in recent years have historians rediscovered the critical role that French colonial troops played in the twentieth century's two world wars. What is perhaps still deeply under-appreciated is how much General de Gaulle's Free France drew its strength from 1940 to the middle of 1943 from fighting men, resources, and operations in French Equatorial Africa rather than London. Territorially, Free France spanned from the Libyan border with Chad down to the Congo River, and to the scattered tiny French territories of the South Pacific and India. Eric T. Jennings tells the story of an improbable French military and institutional rebirth through Central Africa and gives a unique, deep look at the key role Free French Africa played during World War II to help the Allied cause.
Part I. Free France's African Gambit
Introduction to Part I
1. Colonies without motherlands
2. Africa as legitimacy
3. Dysfunction in Gaullist Africa
Part II. The War
Introduction to Part II
4. The empire strikes back
5. Free French Africa in arms
Part III. Resource Extraction, Wartime Abuses, and African Experiences
Introduction to Part III
6. Rubber, gold, and the battle for resources
7. Colonial practices and wartime imperatives
Epilogue
Conclusion.