Why did Guadeloupe, Martinique and French Guiana not decolonise?

It seems strange to compare them to the vast majority of colonial empires. Their geographic presence doesn't explain it because of Jamaica, Surinam etc, and French policy doesn't either because of the Ivory Coast, Senegal etc.

So what were the special factors involved here? Can we repeat those factors with other countries in alternate timelines to maintain colonialism elsewhere?
 
It seems strange to compare them to the vast majority of colonial empires. Their geographic presence doesn't explain it because of Jamaica, Surinam etc, and French policy doesn't either because of the Ivory Coast, Senegal etc.

So what were the special factors involved here? Can we repeat those factors with other countries in alternate timelines to maintain colonialism elsewhere?

I can only speak about Surinam, but I know that the Netherlands basically "aborted" Surinam because they saw it as a money drain, even though Surinam would have liked to stay part of its mother country.

French Guinea is a similiar case: The people there are French through and through and France saw no reason to let it go.
 
Slavery was abolished in Guadeloupe & Martinique in 1848, though in the latter continuing racial tensions led to a short uprising in the 1870s. In general though they both were generally turned into sleepy backwaters after 1848, especially after the general lump in the sugar industry in the 1870s and 1880s.

As toward French Guiana, as Iserlohn said the people there were French, so there was no reason for them to break away. In general by the 20th century all three were settled by a large French majority, unlike, say, Senegal or Indochina.
 
Slavery was abolished in Guadeloupe & Martinique in 1848, though in the latter continuing racial tensions led to a short uprising in the 1870s. In general though they both were generally turned into sleepy backwaters after 1848, especially after the general lump in the sugar industry in the 1870s and 1880s.

How does that make them different from Jamaica?

As toward French Guiana, as Iserlohn said the people there were French, so there was no reason for them to break away. In general by the 20th century all three were settled by a large French majority, unlike, say, Senegal or Indochina.

The place is currently majority black/mulatto.
 
When the other colonies were gaining independence in the 60s, the French were building a spaceport in Guiana. They had some stresses for autonomy or independence in the 70s and 80s but they fizzled out.

The space programme was good for the Guianans. I don't think it had anything to do with ethnicitiy or nationality, it was about their economy, which was far stronger as a part of France compared to neighbouring Suriname.
 
"Different strokes for different folks."

Maybe so, but what makes them different?

Ethnicity =/= nationality. They were French citizens and viewed themselves as French, therefore there was no reason for them to break away from or be let go by Paris.
I'm yet to be convinced that's true. But even if it was, why did the blacks of Guyana and Guadeloupe consider themselves French while the blacks of Senegal didn't?
 
I suppose in Senegal they could look back on the pre-colonial era to rally around their non-French cultural heritage, but they couldn't really do that in Guadeloupe or French Guiana.
 
Maybe so, but what makes them different?

I'm not expert on Jamaican history, but a quick Wikipedia search reveals that Jamaicans never had quite the same level of equality before the law and immigration patterns as Guadeloupe, Martinique, and French Guiana had.

I'm yet to be convinced that's true. But even if it was, why did the blacks of Guyana and Guadeloupe consider themselves French while the blacks of Senegal didn't?

Senegal is actually a bad comparison, as most blacks in French Senegal, especially along the coast, did consider themselves French. Senegal gained its independence in a rather backward way; it and French Sudan merged into the Mali Federation, a sub-polity within the French Community, in 1959, and due the two being treated as one unit with power effectively in Bamako the overwhelming Malian majority was able to guarantee the federation's independence in June 1960. By August of that year the Senegalese broke away and they've been somewhat adrift since then TBH.
 
When the other colonies were gaining independence in the 60s, the French were building a spaceport in Guiana. They had some stresses for autonomy or independence in the 70s and 80s but they fizzled out.

The space programme was good for the Guianans. I don't think it had anything to do with ethnicitiy or nationality, it was about their economy, which was far stronger as a part of France compared to neighbouring Suriname.

Quoting myself here. I googled it. This is literally the primary reason.
 
Tourism is a big chunk of their revenue, isn't it? By remaining departments of France, maybe it's easier for French tourists to travel there (same currency, no passports, etc) and they weren't willing to risk that for the economic uncertainty of independence?
 
Senegal is actually a bad comparison, as most blacks in French Senegal, especially along the coast, did consider themselves French. Senegal gained its independence in a rather backward way; it and French Sudan merged into the Mali Federation, a sub-polity within the French Community, in 1959, and due the two being treated as one unit with power effectively in Bamako the overwhelming Malian majority was able to guarantee the federation's independence in June 1960. By August of that year the Senegalese broke away and they've been somewhat adrift since then TBH.

Interesting - so why do we think they managed to convince some of the indigenous population to be French in some places and not others? Why not Algeria and Indochina - was it the existence of actual French white settlers that put them off? What was the situation in Ivory Coast, Gabon?

Unless I'm mistaken, Portugal also tried similar things to the French. Why do we think the French were more successful?
 
The elite in many French colonies received pretty decent treatment during the colonial era, and they saw assimilation as the only way for upward social mobility. IIRC, they even elected distinguished citizens from amongst the local elites to serve in the French Senate.
 

HJ Tulp

Donor
I can only speak about Surinam, but I know that the Netherlands basically "aborted" Surinam because they saw it as a money drain, even though Surinam would have liked to stay part of its mother country.


Not as much a money drain but deep embarrassment the Social Democratic government felt for the nation still having colonies. The Netherlands ended up giving the new nation of Suriname billions because otherwise they wouldn't go. If not for the (even without hindsight bloody obvious) ensuing political instability and dictatorship the Dutch Antilles would have faced the same treatment.
 
Well, for French Guyana some factors avoided independence of that territory:

1- Late colonization: French Guyana started to really receive non-native people in the late 19th. Century, much later from early 19th. Century Latin American independence movements and in a era when communication links with the French mainland were much better, avoiding the giant gaps that where developed between Latin American colonies and its metropolis in early centuries, that helped to those future countries develop a proper culture. As said before, arriving later and keeping closer ties with Paris, French Guyana population feels as a part of the French élan.

2- Lack of social-economic links with its neighbors: French Guyana is located in a remote corner of South America, with precarious links with Suriname and the almost inhabited and poor Brazilian state of Amapa, so almost all French Guyana economy is dependent of France.

3- Why independence? Being a colony, French Guyana is part of the European Union and receiver of generous aids from France, in a much more comfortable and stable position from its neighbors (Guyana is one of the poorest countries in South America, Suriname is a drug cartels heaven and Amapa (the Brazilian "Guyana" is trying to build its first paved highway since the 1970s)

3- Low population: With a population of 200,000 habitants,
 
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