THE COLOXIAL EXPANSION OF FRANCE 231 



At the same period she advanced from Cochin China and Cambodia 

 to Anam, Tonkin, and Laos. The whole Mekong Valley thus 

 opened to her, and the territories to the east constitute what is now 

 known as Indo-China. She is thus well situated for a Avork of pene- 

 tration into China. Indo-China contains about 285,000 square miles, 

 and is therefore larger than the South Atlantic States. This makes 

 France an Asiatic as well as an African power. 



Her colonies are seventeen times larger than her own European 

 territory'. Those of Africa are thirteen times her size. After making 

 allowances for the worthlessness of a large part of these territories, 

 there still remains an empire five or six times as extensive as France, 

 with immense economic possibilities. 



THE REACTION OF COLONIZATION ON FRENCH LIFE AND THOUGHT 



'lliis expansion is not only the realization of a national purpose, 

 but the outlet of a new life which has arisen during the Rei)ublic. 

 Some have spoken of the unusual development of the army and 

 navy, but tliis is only a part of a larger movement that has mani- 

 fested itself by a corresponding educational, scientific, artistic, in- 

 dustrial, i^hilosophical, ethical, and religious development. Even 

 though appearances ma}^ be to the contrar}^ never has France seen 

 such a display of national energy. The territorial expansion has 

 called for the cooperation of every one of these forces and modified 

 them. The army has witnessed its own transformation, not only Ijy 

 the introduction of new picturesque African and Asiatic elements, 

 but by changing the soldier in the colonies into an overseer, a teacher, 

 a gardener, a farmer, or a road-builder ; it is modifying the national 

 education. The contact with varied ethnographical types forces 

 Frenchmen to reconsider their fundamental conception of man. 



This movement, as well as the development of interest in the 

 science of geography, contributed to a vast work of exploration. 

 The list of French explorers during the Third Republic is as long as 

 it is choice. Galieni, De Brazza, Gentil, Mizan, Monteil, Binger, 

 Fonte, and Marcliand are names long to ])e remembered in France 

 for their services, no less to their country than to the cause of know- 

 ledge. Science, enriched by enormous contributions to geography, 

 botany, anthropology, and ethnograph}', is lieli)ing in return. Scien- 

 tific literature relating to tlie colonies is accumulating. Colonial 

 methods have become rationalized, as may be seen in Tunis, Mmhi- 

 gascar, and Indo-China. Fearless and able historians arc shedding 



