ABSTRACT
Competent observers of all shades of opinion agree in emphasizing the fundamental importance of the War of 1914–1918 on French colonization. The French had conquered a vast Empire of 1012 million square kilometres, but, when the conquest was finally over in Mauretania and Wadai, nobody knew what to do. Frenchman realized the individuality of the various French possessions and saw how each could produce something that France needed. Colonials were actually in France in large numbers, and the stay-at-home Frenchman saw, as it were, a living kaleidoscope of the Empire in his streets. As the French Empire expanded, one of the first and most difficult problems that emerged was that of the budgets, because herein lay most of the colonial problem. France was receiving revenues and defraying expenses, part of which were in the colonies; and each colony was similarly getting and spending.
