Reintegrating without changing colonial hierarchies? Ethnic and territorial inequalities in the policies to assist war-disabled men from the French colonial empire (1916–1939)

Abstract

This article focuses on the policies to assist war-disabled men in the various territories of the Empire. Policies to assist the war-disabled men were the result of a set of evolving actions and interactions between multiple actors with extremely unequal resources: ministries (War, Colonies, Foreign Affairs, Labour, Pensions); parliamentarians; the National Office of the Disabled; associations of war-disabled and senior colonial officials. Based on multiple archives, associative journals and the colonial press, this article aims to analyse the status granted to war-disabled in these territories. By virtue of their sacrifice for the Fatherland, did they deserve credit equal to those from Metropolitan France? The research shows the extreme heterogeneity of the assistance policies in the colonial Empire, with strong territorial and ethnic inequalities in the allocation of the various services. The Empire's war-disabled men enjoyed a range of rights almost similar to those of Metropolitan France (including economic rights) a few years after those of France. The French and indigenous war-disabled in North Africa and the four municipalities of Senegal had a pension relatively similar than that of the war-disabled of France. In all other colonies, indigenous war-disabled were severely discriminated against, they only had a pension that was much lower than that of the French disabled. Throughout the Empire, indigenous war-disabled had less access to administrative jobs, agricultural land and bank loans. This social policy, which was costly for France, was a priority because of the political imperative of showing gratitude for those who sacrificed themselves for the country, but also and above all to maintain the backing of the colonized populations and the political support of the disabled and former combatants in a context of growing anti-colonial nationalism.