ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the French political party that best exemplified the new imperialism of postwar France: the Christian Democrat Mouvement Republicain Populaire (MRP). It traces the evolution of MRP colonial policies from the party's foundation in November 1944 to the Geneva settlement of the first Indo-China war a decade later. The Union Democratique et Socialiste et la Resistance (UDSR) many colonial federations from Algeria to Tahiti were overwhelmingly European-controlled. The racialized authoritarianism of Vichy colonial rule was already inherent in the imperial system. The MRP leadership did, however, secure the backing of the right-wing Parti Republicain de la Liberte over colonial issues. Reform should increase inter-dependence between metropole and colony, not pave the way for French disengagement. The MRP commitment to social reform conferred a progressive image in the left-dominated years of the apres-liberation. Ministers selected from these smaller parties opposed accelerated colonial reform. MRP ministers resisted reform on grounds of national and western alliance interest.