Colonial aims of a surviving Second French Empire

The scenario here is that Germany, as an unified empire, never arises in the 1860's or 1870's, thus preserving french domination over western Europe. Napoleon III's France manages to retain Alsace-Lorraine and perhaps annex the Saarland and Luxembourg.
So, i ask: which colonies will the SFE desire? How differently will french expansion across the Sahara and Sahel play out? What happens to Indochina, and will the french seek out more asian colonies?
I could imagine the french purchasing the Philippines from the spanish.
 
Shy bump.

Were there any hints of the bonapartists supporting the "white man's burden" ideology?
I also believe the western Sahara and Sahel were doomed to fall into french hands by the time Algeria ceased being a colony.
 
Colonisation would probably be less around Africa but more on "high status" colonies and client kingdoms, like Vietnam, Korea or Mexico.

Interestingly, those colonies would probably be led by the Marine rather than civilians and be more about client relationship and be less heavy on the natives (see the Bureaux Arabes)

Napoleon's aim was to reassert France on an economic and diplomatic level, while the IIIrd Republic was more of a map filling empire, doing colonisation for ego boosting purposes so he'd stick on the coasts of Africa, work on South America and probably try to work on Korea and Japan
 
Let's keep in mind that Bonapartist France had eyes on Egypt for a long time. They may try to woo the Pasha to their side.
 
Maybe with Napoleon's direct heirs ruling France it is Napoleon Louis or Louis Napoleon who is the Emperor of Mexico not Maxmillian
 
Maybe with Napoleon's direct heirs ruling France it is Napoleon Louis or Louis Napoleon who is the Emperor of Mexico not Maxmillian

I think the idea of the OP is that French history is basically the same as OTL until the 1860s (Napoléon III is on the throne), so Maximilian is presumably still Emperor of Mexico.
 
Oops, miscounted Empires

Without Germany maybe If World War I breaks out It's France, A-H, and Italy Versus the English and the Russians?

So if the French side wins then the French, Italians, and Austrians split Africa

If the English side wins then the English and Russians split Africa

Japan and America grab the loser's Asian colonies

Russian Madagascar sounds intriguing to me
 
Under Napoleon III the French built Suez, invaded Mexico, and took Cochinchina, so there's no reason to think they wouldn't be expansionist-minded.

Still, much of the Third Republic's colonial expansion was just an ego-trip to make up for losing Alsace-Lorraine and no longer being top dog on the continent. Most of this expansion for the sake of expansion was in central Africa however, with the French presence in Dahomey, Ivory Coast, and Senegal existing during the Second Empire.

In East Africa, Djibouti, Mayotte, Reunion, and Comoros were French under the second Empire as well, but they're fairly small colonies.



If I had to guess, the French might still be interested in building contiguity in their Empire in West Africa and would still desire Tunisia so that rebels can't hide out there. If they aren't expanding just to expand, they might be less interested in Central Africa. The idea of a Dakar-Djibouti railroad may still come up though, and the French likely would still be interested in Egypt.

Napoleon III was fairly asian-minded and wanted close relations with the British so France could get access to Chinese Ports. Under Napoleon III the expedition to Korea happened too. I could see Louis Napoleon focusing on expanding in Asia (Yunnan, Hainan, Penghu, Taiwan, Guangxi, Vassalizing Korea, Upper Burma, the Philippines, other Chinese ports, etc).
 
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