一九五六年基本法とフランス植民地帝国の変容

―同化、自治、独立―

抄録

This article aims to examine why and how French colonial empire was transformed in the post-WWII era. Immediately after the end of the war, the principle of French colonial policy was assimilation. However, in the mid-1950s, France suddenly changed its stance towards decolonization, and most French overseas territories obtained independence in 1960. The turning-point is, as usually argued, the so-called Loi-cadre in 1956, which allowed self-government in each overseas territory. However, existing research have failed to address the question of why and how the French government determined to turn to decolonization. It is sometimes pointed out that Indochinese affairs brought about France’s new thinking, but the logic behind the recognition of the Indochinese countries’ independence was different from that behind the Loi-cadre. Indeed, under this law, the territorial assembly in each territory was elected through universal suffrage. This article points to the links between Tunisian and sub-Saharan African affairs. Indeed, Paris’s decision to introduce internal autonomy to Tunisia through the Carthage Declaration in July 1954 meant that France chose collaboration with the nationalists and adopted a new way of preserving its influence: decolonization.

In order to analyze the significance of the Loi-cadre, this article categorizes the concepts of decolonization into the following two: the first is ‘independence’ and the second ‘self-government’. Indeed, these two concepts were already apparent in President Wilson’s ideas, which had been misinterpreted as merely indicating the first trend, i.e., the territorial divisions of ethnic states. These two types of decolonization constituted serious challenges to French assimilation policy in the post-war era. The challenges derived from the birth of independent Asian countries on the one hand, and gradual if slow devolution of power to local peoples in Africa by Britain, France’s fellow colonial power, on the other. Clearly, aiming to transfer certain power to local assemblies in each overseas territory and to introduce universal suffrage for elections for such assemblies, the Loi-cadre meant the French volte-face to follow the British way of decolonization.

France’s effort to reorganize its colonial empire through the Loi-cadre was, ironically, to be soon overwhelmed by a new trend for the independence of African countries which were produced as a result of France’s recognition of Morocco in November 1955, and which were different from the independence of Asian countries resulting from the power vacuum left by Japan’s surrender. However, creating embryotic state machinery and legitimizing new political power, the Loi-cadre enabled France to outride the spate of independence, epitomized by the Year of Africa, 1960, and to retain political influence in its former dependencies after their independence.