alternatehistory.com

Slightly clickbaity title I'll admit.

Question ss this.

During the IIIrd Republic, there was a massive centralized effort to assert one French identity, with a suppression of local dialects. The teachers were even called hussards.

There was a forced change in belief through a secularisation of society.

There was also a lot of great work to better exploit the resources of the peripheries.

The peripheries were seen as uncouth and backwards, to be brought to the light.

Can we equate this effort with the colonisation that was going on in the same time period? It seems to me a lot of the ideological aspect ss the same in both case. Thoughts?
Top