ABSTRACT
The period from the Revolution to the present day has, in spite of the vicissitudes of further revolutions, coups d’état, changes of constitution and external wars, been characterised by a highly centralised government and a highly standardised administration of a kind taken for granted in the modern world. In the course of the nineteenth century, France acquired a considerable overseas empire in Africa (Algeria, Gabon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Upper Volta), in the Far East (Indochina, Cambodia, Laos), and in Oceania (New Caledonia). Although this empire, consolidated in the early twentieth century, has since been lost, the territorial losses involved have not necessarily meant losses for the French language in the areas concerned.
