A Velvet Empire: French Informal Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century

by David Todd

How France's elites used soft power to pursue their imperial ambitions in the nineteenth century

After Napoleon's downfall in 1815, France embraced a mostly informal style of empire, one that emphasized economic and cultural influence rather than military conquest. A Velvet Empire is a new global history of French imperialism in the nineteenth century, providing new insights into the mechanisms of imperial collaboration that extended France's power from the Middle East to Latin America and ushered in the modern age of globalization.

David Todd shows how French elites pursued a cunning strategy of imperial expansion in which new and conspicuous commodities such as champagne and silk textiles, together with loans to client states, contributed to a global campaign of seduction. French imperialism was no less brutal than that of the British. But while Britain widened its imperial reach through settler colonialism and the acquisition of far-flung territories, France built a velvet empire backed by frequent military interventions and a broadening extraterritorial jurisdiction. Todd demonstrates how France drew vast benefits from these asymmetric, imperial-like relations until a succession of setbacks around the world brought about their unravelling in the 1870s.

A Velvet Empire sheds light on France's neglected contribution to the conservative reinvention of modernity and offers a new interpretation of the resurgence of French colonialism on a global scale after 1880. This panoramic book also highlights the crucial role of collaboration among European empires during this period--including archrivals Britain and France--and cooperation with indigenous elites in facilitating imperial expansion and the globalization of capitalism.

Genres: History, France, Nonfiction

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Eric Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fascinating glimpse into the preference of the July Monarchy and Second Empire for relying principally on soft power to project French imperial influence across the mid-nineteenth century globe. Offering what the author calls an “impressionistic” window into the intellectual, economic, cultural, and legal aspects of mid-century French “informal imperialism,” the book provides a lucid and quite relevant (given the increasing predilection for “grey zone” strategies between competing great powers today) look at how by relying principally upon soft power for power projection, Imperial France curated an impressive global presence in the wake of the downfall of Napoleon’s First Empire, relying far more on influence and ideas than on bullets and bayonets (though there were plenty of the latter in Algeria) prior to the latter third of the century and the Third Republic’s embrace of a more traditional territorial empire. Such an informal Bonapartist empire proved highly vulnerable to major shifts in global popular opinion (most especially the decreasing desirability of French luxury and semi-luxury goods and the waning prestige of French military power in the wake of dramatic reverses in Mexico and then against Prussia), and thus ultimately its “velvet” character itself, the author argues, would play a central role in its dramatic collapse in 1871.

Approaching this from outside the mainstream French economic historiography field, I was pleasantly surprised by how readable and accessible the book and argument were. By no means an economic historian myself, I’ve always believed that the mark of a true economic historian (or economist for that matter) is the ability to convey somewhat dry and dense detail in a compelling fashion. This work succeeds admirably in that regard.

[Winston B-S · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not a particularly rewarding book to read. This is somewhat surprising. It presents information in a clear manner about an engaging subject. The author, Professor David Todd, clearly understands this subject well and has an interesting and persuasive thesis. He writes well. Somewhere else in the Library of Babel is a good version of this book. But not here.

A Velvet Empire recounts the history of French Informal Imperialism, which mostly occurred from the years 1820-1880. Todd discusses in 5 chapters: how French liberal intellectuals desired to create an empire without outright conquest, the conquest and colonization of Algeria, how French luxury goods came to dominate the global imagination, how French finance gained them enormous influence in the Middle East, and how France dominated and then lost Egypt.

The problem with this book is primarily what Prof. Todd chooses to include and focus on. For starters, the book has a near-exclusive Mediterranean focus (with the exception of a brief sojourn into Mexico), and that Mediterranean focus is primarily on Egypt and Algeria. This is a rather unfortunate choice. The book opens with a discussion of a painting depicted Siamese ambassadors in the court of Napoleon III. As best I can tell, that is the closest the book gets to a discussion of Southeast Asia, which was an important part of the French Empire, even during this time period. Latin America outside of Mexico? No information given. East Asia? nada. Oceania? zip. Sub-Saharan Africa? love.

But not only is there a geographic problem, but also a complete neglect of the perspective of non-French people. Todd states the following near the end of the book: "Much [research] remains to be done... : what some contemporaries found so appealing about French culture and commodities... why Britain tolerated this expansion of French power, and who so many foreign elites... embraced cooperation with France". Mr. Todd: that should've been the book you wrote.

So what is in the book? Well this is another problem: there is an intense focus on French intellectual history. This was a shock to me because the book did not bill itself as being an intellectual history. Yet, especially in the first three chapters, what French intellectuals and politicians thought, wrote, and said is considered by Todd to be the most important story to tell. There is far more discussion of Talleyrand and Michel Chevalier than any foreigner working with or against the French. Adolphe Thiers, Emile Zola, and Manet all get a surprising amount of discussion for a book with 286 pages of content.

Finally, the book does not focus enough on the benefits local collaborators received from French informal empire, the harm caused by French informal empire, and the benefits the French received from their informal empire. The deep dives on Algeria and Egypt were far more interesting than the rest of the book because they attempted to tackle these questions. On the other hand, the chapter on champagne capitalism and financial imperialism are much less interesting because many of these questions are elided. It isn't clear what benefits the French received from exporting their luxury goods to the world. It isn't clear why French capital was desired by foreign countries.

Ultimately, I consider this book intriguing but a failure. I think that this topic deserves a longer, more global, and more in-depth analysis. I very much hope that this occurs

[Nikhil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book which attempts to tackle the frame and nature of the French empire from the fall of Napoleon I to the fall of Napoleon III. Todd argues that the French policy was, rather than to acquire direct colonies, to use financial, military, and commercial power to establish client regimes and extend influence around the world. I think there was much more he could have said, since he gives a fairly narrow geographic treatment of the phenomenon: Algeria (the exception that proves the rule to Todd), Mexico, Egypt, and (with less detailed coverage) Haiti. It's more limited in discussing much of Asia and Africa, which is where his "informal empire" also extended and in fact evolved into direct rule in some cases. Algeria was perhaps the most interesting case and I found Todd's arguments innovative and persuasive.

He discusses ideological influences, certain forms of law, the nature of French exports and the global demand for "French taste" in luxury goods. I was more interested in the political history, but it was interesting nonetheless.