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the French Empire has not ended Yes you
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heard me correctly although the history
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books teach that it ended in 1870 and
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they're not technically wrong what many
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fail to realize is that France is bigger
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than it may seem and the Empire still
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lives on just in other ways sure the
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France of today is just this piece of
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land in Europe but they still maintain
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an insane level of control over many of
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its former colonies France's sphere of
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influence extends across virtually the
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entire globe and the country has
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perfected a highly sophisticated way of
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keeping an iron grip on its old
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territories but to understand how though
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we need to rewind a couple of centuries
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back and talk about the official French
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Empire while France had colonies going
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all the way back to the 16th century its
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real territorial expansion started with
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the establishment of the so-called
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Second French Empire in the 1800s
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spanning almost every continent Europe
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Asia Africa and the Americas the Empire
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rarely kicked off in 1830 with the
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invasion of Algiers having a
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particularly laser-focused obsession
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with Africa and eventually grew to a
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huge network of colonies in the Pacific
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Islands Indochina and the Middle East as
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well these colonies were explore
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anointed by France as an abundant source
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of raw materials labor power and
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farmland and as you might guess the
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situation could get quite bloody when
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these colonies didn't cooperate with
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their foreign overseers the French
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Empire committed numerous atrocities and
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mass killings in its territorial
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Holdings just in Algeria alone for
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example over 300 000 people were killed
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so not so shockingly most of these
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colonies were not very happy with this
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Arrangement and France's centuries-long
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Colonial Empire finally began to fall
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during World War II when various parts
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of their overseas colonies were occupied
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by foreign powers such as Japan in
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Indochina Britain in Syria Italy and
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Tunisia ETC control was eventually
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established again after the overseas
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colonies helped liberate France as 300
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000 North African Arabs fought in the
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ranks of the free French however then
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leader Charles de Gaulle had no
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intention of liberating these countries
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in return but rather clamped down on
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them even more which set the stage for
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violent decolonization movements through
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the 1950s and 60s and by the 1980s
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France's Colonial Empire was basically
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dead so what's the link between all this
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and France now the m Empire is over
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right well not exactly while France
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officially has no control over all the
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countries that gain independence it has
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its ways of keeping its old colonies
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under its thumb the first method that
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France uses to maintain power over its
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former territories is monetary policy
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see while the French government
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basically had no choice but to give up
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legal ownership over the colonies it
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wasn't willing to surrender control
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completely and the easiest way to
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maintain its power was through the CFA
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Franc set up in 1945 the CFA Franc was
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essentially a colonial currency to unify
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the monetary systems in all of France's
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West African colonies the currency is
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completely controlled by France
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effectively making all trade in the
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African colonies dependence on the
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French government and if you think a
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colonial currency would obviously end
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with Independence you'd be mistaken the
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CFA Franc continues to be used in 14
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African countries to this day and the
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French treasury still controls the
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currency meaning that those 14 countries
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use a currency established and run by
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France but it gets even crazier as part
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of the agreement to use the CFA currency
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these 14 countries have to keep 70
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percent of their monetary reserves in
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the French treasury in practice the that
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means all the West African countries
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that use France's currency only have
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access to 30 of their own money the rest
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is supposedly kept safe by France's own
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financial institutions and to rub salt
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into the wound further the CFA Franc is
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tied to the euro creating an
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artificially High exchange rate that
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benefits France as you'd expect this
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unequal Dynamic makes these African
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countries extraordinarily financially
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dependent on the French government and
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that dependence gets even worse when you
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consider how much Aid and investment
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money France pumps into Africa which
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brings us to the next reason the French
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Empire is still alive foreign aid now on
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the surface foreign aid should be a good
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thing in fact it is a good thing
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technically but it's also a ridiculously
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useful tool for keeping countries under
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your control and no one knows this
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better than France in 2022 alone France
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spent almost 16 billion dollars in
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foreign developmental Aid with the
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overwhelming majority of that money
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going into former French colonies now
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almost all of those countries are
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extremely poor so it makes sense to give
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them more aid but it also has the effect
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of tying further Economic Development to
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French money and Investments to give you
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an idea 85 percent of French foreign aid
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goes to countries in Africa and the
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southern Mediterranean with a vast bulk
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of the target countries being former
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French colonies 14 of those Nations even
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have French as their official language
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so what's the problem shouldn't Money
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Getting invested into those poor
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countries help them out though this Aid
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money is definitely helpful for building
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infrastructure and finding health and
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education projects it comes with a big
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catch debt much of the aid that France
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sends to developing nations is in the
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form of loans and credit lines these
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Investments are expected to be paid back
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and often accrue interest but since the
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country's the foreign aid is going to
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tend to be extremely poor in the first
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place they have very little ability to
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pay back their debt and as a result
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their national debt builds up so they
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end up owing France an insane amount of
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money on top of all this there's also
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the territories that France does still
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have that make it more of an Empire than
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it seems naturally let me explain once
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you zoom out of Metropolitan France you
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can see these small territories spread
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across the entire world they make up
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what is part of overseas France this
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territory is like Guadalupe and
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Martinique located in the Caribbean
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French Guyana in South America mayat and
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reunion in the Indian Ocean and further
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eight more scattered around everywhere
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in between although they're all mostly
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small and barely populated they're
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actually much more than just a few tiny
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Islands see because of them France is
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able to massively expand their economic
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exclusive zone or eez for short to a
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point where they have the largest in the
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world covering 4.5 million square miles
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of land just to put this into
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perspective the eez of France covers
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approximately nine percent of the total
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surface of the eez of the world whereas
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the land area of the French Republic is
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only 0.45 percent of the total land area
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of Earth this is a huge thing too
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because a country's eez basically
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defines how much area of the sea you own
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and all the natural resources that come
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with it but all of this is overshadowed
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by a more obvious representation of
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France's modern Empire its military
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though certainly not what it used to be
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the French military is still very
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powerful and has spread itself all over
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the globe France maintains a huge
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military presence in Africa and though
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many of these armed forces have been
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deployed as part of anti-terrorist
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campaigns they nonetheless create a big
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Power imbalance in France's sphere of
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influence for example French troops and
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airstrikes have propped up weak and
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unpopular governments in Mali Burkina
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Faso Chad and Niger as part of operation
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barakhan a military initiative to fight
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off islamist militants in Africa while
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some of these countries governments have
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cooperated with the French military
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others are extremely hesitant to allow
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French troops in their borders Burkina
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Faso recently kicked all France's
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military forces out of the country
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because of how unpopular the armed
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prisons is and this is just one instance
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of recent attempts to push back against
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France's post-colonial influence by its
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former colonies in developing countries
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that used to be ruled by France
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increasingly popular public campaigns
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have been launched to eliminate French
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influence over these nations the
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economic community of the West African
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states have even announced a proposed
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common currency known as Eco to
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eventually gain monetary independence
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from France all of these things have led
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to France trying to do damage control
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and improve diplomatic relationships
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with these countries and it's not
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difficult to see why they so invested in
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keeping all these ex-colonies under his
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government's influence France receives
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massive benefits from maintaining a
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colonial relationship with these
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countries you can see this in the French
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Iranian mine in Niger that supplies
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roughly 20 five percent of the eu's
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uranium as well as countless gold mines
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oil fields and natural resource
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extraction sites under France's control
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all over Africa so macron did things
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like called French imperialism a crime
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against humanity in a speech he gave in
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Algeria and he has also taken steps to
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reform the CFA Franc as part of these
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reforms he has proposed measures like
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getting rid of the requirement for 70 of
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those countries money to remain in
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French hands along with renaming the
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currency to distance it from its
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Colonial past France is also starting to
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play a big role in preventing ecological
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damage in its territorial Waters since
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the country has control over 4.2 million
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square miles in Ocean territory mainly
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in the South Pacific and Indian oceans
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it's been able to do things like protect
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endangered fish populations by creating
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massive Marine reserves but reforms like
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this might be a case of too little too
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late former colonies continue to drift
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away from France and toward new
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Partnerships with the UK China and
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Russia so what's in store for the future
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of the Hidden French Empire in short
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it's unclear France continues to
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exercise extreme control over its Old
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Colonial territories with monetary
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policy bar and direct investment and
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military aid on the other hand protests
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break out periodically in those
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countries and France is increasingly
00:08:05
losing its iron grip on their
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governments if these Trends continue the
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future of France's secret Empire May
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remain in jeopardy
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