The Trans-Saharan Railway and the Politics of Imperial Expansion, 1890–1900

Abstract

The trans-Saharan railway scheme was the dominant, if intermittent, theme of French African expansion in the last 20 years of the nineteenth century. Behind political and economic arguments for the scheme lay a hidden agenda—the promotion of Algerian railway interests. Its revival in 1890, after a ten-year interval, was driven by a need to safeguard returns on railway investments, threatened by the growing political influence of the Radicals. Success in a campaign on its behalf was dependent on reinvigorating empire-building in tropical Africa, a function performed by the Chad plan, which also provided the required territorial configuration for a trans-Saharan railway. Subsequently, interest shifted from West Africa to the Sahara where efforts to promote railway construction through exploitation of the Tuat question stood greater chances of success. Saharan expansion was delayed for almost a decade by the obstinacy of the Algerian generals and the timidity of governments in France, before finally being resolved by a fait accompli. However, political circumstances at home, and the emergence of new railway competition in the Sahara, prevented the railway companies from reaping the full reward for their efforts. On the map, if not in any practical sense, a territorially unified French African empire had been completed by 1900, whose origins can be traced directly to the activities of the railway lobby.

Notes

[1] Rouvier, rapport 10 June 1879, Journal Officiel de la République Française (hereafter JO), Documents Parlementaires, Chambre, no. 1497, 6328; Leroy-Beaulieu, De la Colonisation, 429–48, 644–68; and Julien, ‘Jules Ferry’, 70–71.

[2] Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians; and Forster, Mommsen and Robinson, Bismarck, Europe and Africa.

[3] Brunschwig, Mythes et réalités; Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘The French Colonial Party’; Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘French Business and the French Colonialists'; and Persell, The French Colonial Lobby.

[4] Speech defending the Anglo-French Convention of 1890 cited in Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, 303; see also Brunschwig, Mythes et réalités, 22; and Cooke, The New French Imperialism, 10.

[5] Kanya-Forstner, Conquest of the Western Sudan; and Newbury and Kanya-Forstner, ‘French Policy’.

[6] Langer, Diplomacy of Imperialism.

[7] Robinson, ‘Introduction’ and ‘Conclusion’.

[8] Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 418–20.

[9] Mommsen and Osterhammel, Imperialism and After, 268.

[10] Ganiage, Les Origines du protectorat français; and Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 403–07.

[11] Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 402–10; and Duponchel, Chemin de fer Trans-Saharien. esp. 24–27, 193–94.

[12] Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 410–13.

[13] Statistique des chemin de fer, 366–69, 376–77, Ministère des Travaux Publics (hereafter MTP); and Leroy-Beaulieu, De la colonisation. 439–45.

[14] Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 407–08.

[15] Ibid., 408.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Receuil des délibérations du Congrès Colonial National (hereafter CNN), vol. 2, 83–84; Chemin de fer algériens et tunisiens. Garantie d'intérêt … 1887–98, F14 12412, Archives Nationales (hereafter AN). The total rose from 17,849,000 fr. to a peak of 25,100, 00 fr. in 1897.

[18] MTP, Statistique des chemins de fer, 366–69. Concessions ran for 99 years, renewable after 25 years.

[19] Note confidentielle, Ouest-Algérien, 1887, Note, 11 May 1889, enclosed Tirman to Mon cher directeur, 13 May 1889, F14 12412, AN.

[20] Ganiage, L'Expansion coloniale, 155–56. Rouvier served as finance minister under Tirard, with Constans at the Interior and Spuller at the Quai d'Orsay. The first two remained in office under Freycinet.

[21] Roberts, ‘Republicanism, Railway Imperialism’, 413–16.

[22] Stengers, ‘Rapport sur le dossier’, 1199–200; Cornet, La Bataille du rail, 144–58; and Bruhat, ‘Léopold II’, 102–03.

[23] Etienne's support for Brazza's scheme and its subsequent withdrawal is documented in Archives Nationales: Section Outre-Mer (hereafter ANSOM), Gabon-Congo 15.

[24] Ballay to Chavannes, 9 Nov. 1889, Chavannes Papers 12809, Bibliothèque Nationale: nouvelles acquisitions françaises (hereafter BN naf); Alis, A la conquête du Tchad, 83–90; Compte Crampel (n.d.), Institut de France (hereafter IF); Crampel to Alis, telegram, 22 Feb 1890, Terrier Papers, 5891, IF; Cornet, Bataille du rail, 152–54. Contributors included Georges Patinot, director of the Suez Canal Company, and the Prince d'Arenberg, later its president. Édouard Aynard was president of the Société lyonnaise de dépôts et de comptes courants, affiliated to the Société de dépôts, which, like the Suez Canal Company, had been involved in the Congo project. The Paris Rothschilds had long-standing links with Leopold and were contemplating investing in his railway. Arenberg and Comte Greffulhe had banking and family connections in Belgium.

[25] Crampel to Etienne, 4 Feb. 1890, 12 March 1890, Missions 5, ANSOM.

[26] Haussman to Etienne, 30 Dec. 1889, Soudan VII 1/a, ANSOM; Procès-verbal de la séance du 15 janvier 1890, Soudan VII 1/a, ANSOM.

[27] Procès-verbal du 29 janvier 1890, Soudan VII 1/a, ANSOM; Gallieni, note … annexe au … procès-verbal du 29 janvier 1890, Soudan VII 1/a, ANSOM; Vallon to sous-sécretaire d’état aux colonies (hereafter SSC), 22 March 1890, Sénégal IV 95/c, ANSOM. ‘C'est la négation de tout notre programme. C'est la guerre au lieu de la paix.’

[28] République Française, 4 Dec. 1890; Siècle, 4 March 1890; Débats Parlementaires, Chambre, séance du 10 mai 1890, 750, JO.

[29] République Française, 11 July 1890, reporting rumours that Crampel was intending to survey the route for a trans-Saharan railway.

[30] Rolland and Philibert, La France en Afrique, 95. The Congress was an offshoot of the Exposition Universelle of 1889. Rolland's Société de Batna owned oases in the Oued Rir through which the line would pass.

[31] For the negotiations as a whole, see Kanya-Forstner, ‘French African Policy’. For a detailed analysis of the emergence of the West African issue, see Roberts, ‘Railway Imperialism’, 97–104.

[32] Waddington to Ribot, 23 July 1890, Ribot Papers 3, Affaires Etrangères (hereafter AE); and E-M. de Vogüé, ‘Les Indes Noires', Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 Nov. 1890, 52.

[33] Bulletin du Comité de l'Afrique Française (hereafter BCAF), Jan. 1891, 1. The best account of the Comité is given in Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘The French Colonial Party’, 103–07. It understates the role of the Congo syndicate. Up to eight of its 30 founding members, including the president, Prince d'Arenberg, had connections with the syndicate or with wider railway interests and, if the Rothschilds, who were never formally members, are included, they supplied approximately 10 per cent of its income up to 1900.

[34] Documents Parlementaires, chambres, proposition de résolution, 16 July 1890, no. 841, 1592–93, JO; Président de la compagnie Franco-Algérienne to Guyot, 14 Aug. 1890, F14 12440, AN; Sabatier to Etienne, 11 Aug. 1890, Afrique XII 2/b, ANSOM.

[35] Note confidentielle, n.d., F14 12412, AN; Situation de la compagnie Franco-Algérienne, 5 April 1894, F14 12412, AN. Sabatier, (representative of Franco-Algérienne), to Etienne, 11 Aug. 1890, Afrique XII 2/b, ANSOM. The company's capital was raised largely from small investors, while its political connections were originally Monarchist and later Radical.

[36] Commission du chemin de fer Transsaharien, Rapport, 20 Aug. 1890, enclosed Président du Conseil (hereafter PC) and Ministre de le Guerre (hereafter MG) to SSC, 30 Aug. 1890, Afrique XII 2/b, ANSOM. Note sur la Transsaharien, 8 Aug. 1890, Afrique XII 2/b, ANSOM. The commission's report included a particularly bleak assessment of the railway's economic prospects.

[37] Mémoire sur le Maroc [April 1890] cited in Messal, Le Gènese de notre victoire marocaine, 124–36; Note pour M. Hanotaux, 27 Aug. 1890, Hanotaux Papers 8, AE.

[38] Le Bissuel to Percher, 10 July 1890, 21 July 1890, Terrier Papers 5892, IF; general Poizat to [Percher], 10 Aug. 1890, Terrier Papers 5907, IF.

[39] For conflicts between military and railway priorities in the Soudan, see Roberts, ‘Republicans, Railway Imperialism’, 411–12, 418.

[40] Sabatier to Etienne, 11 Aug. 1890, Afrique XII 2/b, ANSOM; [40] Sabbatier [sic] to Ribot [copy], 23 Nov. 1890, Algérie 1, Affaires Etrangères: Nouvelle Série Afrique (hereafter AENSA); Freycinet to Ministre des Affaires Etrangères (hereafter MAE), 28 Oct. 1891, Algérie 1, AENSA; Sabatier to MAE, 13 Nov. 1891, Algérie 1, AENSA; J. Cambon to Percher [Oct. 1891] nos 108 and 109, Terrier Papers 5891, IF; Cambon to Ribot, 15 May 1892, Ribot Papers 4, AE.

[41] Sabatier to Ribot, 13 Nov. 1891, 25 Nov. 1891 [copy], Algérie 1, AENSA.

[42] Examples of such intervention are provided by Dahomey, 1890 and 1892, and the Niger crisis, 1897–98.

[43] Cambon to Percher, Oct. 1891, 31 Oct. 1891, Terrier Papers 5891, IF.

[44] Tirman to PC and MG, 12 Oct. 1890, enclosed Freycinet to MAE, 16 Oct 1890, Algérie 1, AENSA; Cambon to Percher, 24 Oct .1891, Terrier Papers 5891, IF. Colonel Flatters was killed near In Salah in 1881 as was Lieutenant Palat in 1886. Tirman ended his career on the board of the Ouest-Algérien.

[45] Sabbatier [sic] to Ribot, 23 Nov. 1890 [copy], Algérie 1, AENSA; Freycinet to MAE, 12 March 1891, 21 May 1891, Algérie 1, AENSA.

[46] Freycinet to MAE, 18 July 1891, Algérie 1, AENSA; Cambon to Percher, 24 Oct. 1891, Terrier Papers 5891, IF.

[47] Freycinet to MAE, 16 Nov. 1891, Algérie 1, AENSA.

[48] Commission des chemins de fer (hereafter CCF), Séance du 25 novembre/26 novembre (1891), C5454, AN; Séance du 6 juillet 1893, 395–96, Séance du 12 décembre 1896, 43, Compte Rendu Analytique, Chambre des Députés (hereafter CRA), JO. It took almost seven years to complete 50 miles of track.

[49] Questions Sahariennes, Touat-Chaamba-Touaregs [1890], cited in Messal, Le Gènese de notre victoire marocaine, 79–81; Cambon to Percher, 31 Oct. 1891, Terrier Papers 5891, IF. Le Châtelier's scheme was also designed to promote the railway ambitions of Rolland with whom he had worked in the 1880s.

[50] Cambon to Percher, 11 Feb. 1892, Terrier Papers 5891, IF; Cambon to Ribot, 5 April 1892, Ribot Papers 4, AE; Hanotaux to Cambon, 12 Dec. 1894, Algérie 4, AENSA.

[51] Etienne to MAE, 9 Aug. 1890, Quest. Gén. I, AENSA; Projet de Chemin de fer Transsaharien, 30 June 1890 [map], Missions 19, ANSOM. The itinerary of the missions, coinciding almost exactly with the route of the projected railway, has been traced on the map by someone in the department.

[52] Cf. Brunschwig, Mythes et réalités, 102; Kanya-Forstner, Conquest of the Western Sudan, 168–69. Etienne himself, with the benefit of hindsight, was the principal source of the myth.

[53] Flint, Sir George Goldie, 168–72; Mizon to SSC, 18 Nov. 1893, enclosed M. Lebon to MAE, 8 Dec. 1893, Questions Générales (Quest. Gén.) 3, AENSA. The convention excluded from the French sphere ‘everything pertaining to the kingdom of Sokoto’. Adamawa was, nominally at least, a vassal of Sokoto.

[54] Mizon to SSC, 1 Sept. 1891, Afrique III 16/A, ANSOM; Percher to Delcassé, 1 June 1893, Terrier Papers 5891, IF; [circular], 15 July 1892, Quest. Gén. 2, AENSA; Tharel and Béraud to Casimir-Périer, 7 March 1894, Quest. Gén. 4, AENSA. The CFAC was backed by Chargeurs- Réunis, a Le Havre shipping company, which operated the mail boat service to the French Congo.

[55] Siècle, 26 Oct. 1890; Séance du 22 janvier 1891, 34–35, CRA, JO.

[56] Mizon to SSC, 16 July 1892, Afrique III 16/b, ANSOM; Mizon, Note, 10 July 1895, Afrique III 17/b, ANSOM; Politique Coloniale, 18, 25 June 1892; Temps, 7 July 1892; BCAF, July 1892, 16–17. For the Groupe colonial, see Andrew and Kanya-Forstner, ‘The French Colonial Party’, 107–09.

[57] Flint, Sir George Goldie, 172–79. Mizon's credibility was undermined by allegations of slave raiding. He was eventually withdrawn after the Niger company threatened to use force against him. Claims by the CFAC for an indemnity for the loss of its boats and cargo constituted a significant obstacle to a diplomatic settlement on the Niger.

[58] Note sur les rapports Mizon, 17 June 1893, Quest. Gén. 2, AENSA; M. Lebon to MAE, 23 Dec. 1893, Quest. Gén. 4, AENSA.

[59] Siècle, 24 May 1894; H. Dehérain, ‘La succession de l'Egypte dans la Province Équatoriale’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 15 May 1894, 312–47; E. Auzou, ‘La boucle du Niger’, Revue des Deux Mondes, 1 May 1898, 163–88.

[60] Estournelles to Develle, 13 Nov. 1893, X no. 451, Documents diplomatiques français, série 2 (hereafter DDF); Estournelles to Develle, 1 Dec. 1893, X. no. 455, DDF.

[61] Roberts, ‘Railway Imperialism and French Advances', ch. 6.

[62] Cambon to Percher [Oct. 1891], no. 109, Terrier Papers 5891, IF.

[63] Cambon to Percher, 11 Feb. 1892, Terrier Papers 5891, IF; Cambon to Ribot, 15 May 1892, Ribot Papers 4, AE; Note pour le ministre, 7 June 1899, Algérie 6, AENSA.

[64] [Note], 10 April 1896, Algérie 5, AENSA; Conseil du 11 avril 1896, Algérie 5, AENSA; Etienne to Hanotaux, 9 May 1896 and enclosure, Hanotaux Papers 22, AE; MAE to Cambon, 9 Nov. 1896, Algérie 5, AENSA. The proposal was for use of a mixed military and tribal force from Géryville in the Sud Oranais, quite some distance from the proposed route of the railway.

[65] BCAF, Aug. 1893, 4–5, Feb. 1896, 39–40; Spuller to Etienne, 17 June 1895, Etienne Papers 24327, BN naf; Etienne to Hanotaux, 9 May 1896, Hanotaux Papers 22, AE.

[66] Note pour le ministre, 7 June 1899, Algérie 6, AENSA; Ageron, Histoire de l'Algérie, vol. 2, 56–68.

[67] Concessions ran for 99 years, renewable after 25 years. The dates applicable to the companies (with some slight variations) were as follows: PLM algérien, 1875; Ouest-Algérien, 1898; Franco-Algérienne, 1899; Bône-Guelma, 1902; Est-Algérien, 1904. The Bône-Guelma, as a mainly Tunisian enterprise, was most often excluded from any new arrangement.

[68] Waldeck-Rousseau, like Etienne, had been a member of Gambetta's inner circle, which was also frequented socially by Galliffet, the minister of war.

[69] Chapman, The Dreyfus Trials, 214–17.

[70] CCF, Séance du 13 décembre [1891], C5454, AN; A Dehaynin to MTP, 12 April 1899, MTP to Minister of Finance, 31 Oct. 1899, Réorganisation des réseaux algériens, 6 Nov. 1899, Résultat financier des conventions de rachat des compagnies algériennes [n.d.], F14 12412, AN. Annual savings of 717,000 fr. were anticipated on a total of nearly 16 million francs.

[71] Statement by MTP, Séance du 16 janvier 1900, 58–61, Débats Parlementaires, Chambre, JO.

[72] Note pour le Ministre, 7 June 1889 and enclosure, Algérie 6, AENSA; Laferrière to Delcassé, 21 July 1899 and annotation du Département, 15, no. 240, DDF. Laferrière's proposals envisaged forces from the forts south of El Golea advancing on Timimoun and In Salah.

[73] Cambon to Percher, 24 Oct. 1891, Terrier Papers 5891, IF; BCAF Nov. 1891, 2–3; Note pour le ministre, 7 June 1899, 15 no. 206 with annotation du ministre, DDF.

[74] [Note], 29 Nov. 1898, Note pour le ministre, 28 March 1899, Algérie 6, AENSA; cf. Andrew, Théophile Delcassé, 155–56.

[75] Économiste Français, 8 Oct. 1898, 477–78, 18 Feb. 1899, 206–08, 18 March 1899, 341–42. Leroy-Beaulieu established the Société des phosphates du chemin de fer de Gafsa in Tunisia in 1896.

[76] Depêche Coloniale [Etienne's newspaper], 8–9 May 1898, 20 May, 1899, 7–8 Jan. 1900.

[77] BCAF, April 1892, 12.

[78] Ibid.; Siècle, 20 June 1894; Rolland, La situation dans le Sud Algérien et le chemin de fer de Biskra, 10 Jan. 1895, Algérie 4, AENSA. Rolland funded the Méry and Attanoux missions and set up the Syndicat d'Ouargla au Soudan with Léon Tharel in 1894.

[79] Boudenoot to Monestier, 27 Aug. 1899, Tharel to Monestier, May 1899 and enclosure, F14 12441, AN.

[80] Leroy-Beaulieu, De la colonisation, 439–45.

[81] Tharel to MC, 17 May 1894, Afrique XII 3/a, ANSOM; [Brochure) Chemin de fer Biskra à Ouargla (Paris, 1895), F14 12441, AN; CCF, Séance du 26 juin 1900, 94–95, 12 décembre 1900, 29–33 (remarks by Boudenoot), C5634, AN. Leroy-Beaulieu was attempting to repeat his success in Tunisia in breaking the monopoly of the Bône-Guelma with his Gafsa railway. Boudenoot and Berthelot were both deputies, the former president of the Mines de Carvin, the latter a director of the Métro and president of the Société parisienne pour l'industrie des chemins de fer et tramways électriques.

[82] Séance du 15 mai 1899, 1362, Séance du 19 mai 1899, 1430–46, Séance du 26 mai 1899, 1491–92, Débats Parlementaires, Chambre, JO; Libre Parole, 16 Nov. 1899, 24 Nov. 1899.

[83] Laferrière was appointed from the Conseil d'Etat to a post others were reluctant to fill after the abrupt transfer of Cambon. The military clique centred on Le Châtelier and captain Lamy. One of its members, captain Pein, commanded the escort of the geological mission.

[84] Laferrière to PC, 9 Feb. 1900, Laferrière to PC, 9 Feb. 1900, Waldeck-Rousseau Papers 4583, IF; Gov. Gén. to PC, 23 Feb. 1900 (telegram), Marginal note on Laferrière to MAE, 29 March 1900, Algérie 7, AENSA; Édouard [Laferrière] to Etienne, 5 March 1900 (2 telegrams), Waldeck-Rousseau Papers 4583, IF.

[85] Note, 5 Feb. 1900, F14 12412, AN; BCAF, March 1900, 93–94; Questions diplomatiques et coloniales, 15 Feb. 1900, 209–16.

[86] Séance du 2 juillet, 1900, 1733–38, Débats Parlementaires, Chambre, JO.

[87] Ibid.; Projet de résolution, 23 May 1900, no. 1653, 118, Documents Parlementaires, Chambre, JO; CCF, séance du 13 juin 1900, 94–95, C5634 AN; President of CCF to M. le Ministre, 5 Dec. 1900, Waldeck-Rousseau to Guyot-Dessaigne, 12 Dec. 1900, C5634, AN; Séance du 28 décembre 1900, 1417–20, Débats Parlementaires Chambre, JO; Libre Parole, 24 Nov. 1899.

[88] CCF, Séance du 3 mars 1900, 71–74, C5634, AN; Projet de réorganisation des réseaux algériens [1901], Note sur la constitution de réseau à l'ouest d'Alger, 15 Nov. 1900, Chemins de fer algériens, Note remis par M. le Gouverneur général de l'Algérie, 19 Sept. 1901, F14 12412, AN.

[89] Gaston Thomson to MTP, 13 Nov. 1901, F14 12412, AN; Naval Intelligence Division, vol. 2, 343–44.

[90] For local sub-imperialism and the role of railways in South Africa, see Robinson and Gallagher, Africa and the Victorians, chs 3, 7; Wilburn, ‘Engines of Empire’; and Travis Hanes, ‘Railway Politics and Imperialism’.

[91] Robinson, ‘The Excentric Idea of Imperialism’.