The Politics of Disaster in a Colony of Citizens: Compatriotism, Citizenship, and Catastrophe in French Martinique (1870 – 1902) By Christopher Michael Church A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Tyler Stovall, Chair Professor James P. Daughton Professor Thomas Laqueur Professor Percy Hintzen Spring 2014 The Politics of Disaster in a Colony of Citizens: Compatriotism, Citizenship, and Catastrophe in French Martinique (1870 – 1902) © Copyright 2014 Christopher Michael Church Abstract The Politics of Disaster in a Colony of Citizens: Compatriotism, Citizenship, and Catastrophe in French Martinique (1870 – 1902) By Christopher Michael Church Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Tyler Stovall, Chair As politicians of France’s Third Republic vied to build a democratic consensus and distance themselves from France’s recent autocratic past, they projected a fantasy of assimilation onto Martinique—one of France’s oldest colonies where the predominately non-white population had received full citizenship and universal manhood suffrage with the ratification of the Constitution of 1875. However, at the close of the nineteenth century, a series of disasters struck the French island of Martinique that threatened the republican fantasy of seamless assimilation: (1) the 1890 fire that destroyed the island’s capital of Fort-de-France; (2) the 1891 Atlantic hurricane that devastated the island’s economy and prompted a reevaluation of the place of the colony within the French nation; (3) the first general strike in 1900 wherein civil unrest in the colonies caused a political disaster in the metropole; and (4) the 1902 eruption of Mount Pelée that killed over 30,000 people nearly instantaneously and cemented a postcolonial relationship characterized by dependence. Throughout the Third Republic, the Martiniquais sugar economy was in rapid decline, and as capital was injected into the island in the form of disaster relief, the “old colony” that had once been a valuable asset was fast becoming a financial drain on the French economy. In their interactions with French economic and political imperatives, environmental disasters brought to the fore existing racial and social tensions and held to the fire France’s ideological convictions of assimilation and citizenship. The present work intervenes in the current historiography of France by bringing France’s old colonies into the story of late-nineteenth-century nation-building and by underscoring the role played by the environment in race-making, identity formation, and class-based politics. Scholars of the French West Indies have extensively examined the importance of assimilation in Antillean politics and culture, clearly elucidating the significance of the short-lived emancipation of 1794; the transient citizenship gained in 1848 and suspended in 1851; and finally the full citizenship restored in 1871 and codified in the Third Republic’s Constitution of 1875. This work does not seek to retrace their steps, but to explore how disastrous events in the French West Indies shaped the colonial relationship and interacted with broader developments in the metropole itself. During the age of new empire, the “old colony” of Martinique redefined what it meant to be a French citizen by precipitating a discussion over economic rights and social welfare. 1 Dedication To my parents, who always encouraged me to pursue the education they were never afforded. i Table of Contents Acknowledgments iv INTRODUCTION 1 Disasters: Environmental Catastrophe and Civil Unrest in Martinique “Old Colonies” in an Age of New Empire Colonialism, Catastrophe, and National Integration Overview of Chapters I. French Race, Tropical Space: Martinique during the Third Republic 13 Martinique: a Case Study in the French Caribbean An Overview of Martinique and the Metropole: Economic Reality and Political Aspiration "Old" France with a new race of Frenchmen Problems of Climate: It's not like France here Anthropogenic: the Built and Social Environment Education Conclusion II. Fort-de-France Burning: the Great Fire of 1890 43 Fort-de-France: “A Town of Silent Ashes” The Commission de Secours in Martinique and the Comité de Secours in Paris Laicization: Religious Fundraising in Martinique, Lay in the Metropole Nearly an Algeria: the Cultural Significance of Antillean Citizenship and Disaster Relief Embers in the Ashes: Looters, Brigands, and Smoldering Political Differences From Colonial Citizens to Metropolitan Colonials: The Saint Etienne Mine Collapse Conclusion ii III. The Calculus of Disaster: The Hurricane of 18 August 1891 80 The Howling Wind: a Description of the Hurricane The Road to Economic Recovery: a Calculus of Human Suffering and Colonial Belonging If Only We Were a Department: Martinique’s Demand for Aid It would be a Mistake to Consider Martinique a Department The Méline Tariff of 1892 Conclusion IV. Strikingly French: Labor Unrest, Metropolitan Politics, and 111 Martinique at the Turn of the Century Fire to the Fields Employing a French Precedent Debating the Strike of 1900 Remember Martinique, Remember Chalon! Fears of the Right Coming to Blows in the Chamber The Cultural Backdrop: Opening of the Exposition of 1900 The Special Session of the Chamber Conclusion V. Martinique Decapitated: the Eruption of Mount Pelée 130 The Eruption A National Emergency with or without a Colonial Citizenry Consequences of the Eruption Martinique Decapitated Conclusion CONCLUSION 160 BIBLIOGRAPHY 164 iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my amazing advisors—Tyler Stovall, Thomas Laqueur, J.P. Daughton, and Percy Hintzen—for their advice, intellectual feedback, and support over the course of my graduate career. Tyler Stovall has helped me beyond measure as I worked through the graduate program at UC Berkeley, giving me unvarying support and assistance on all manner of topics—from navigating the French archival system, to preparing for my qualifying exams, to writing my dissertation prospectus, to preparing for my first conference, and finally to situating my work within French historiography. I thank J. P. Daughton’s for his advice on humanitarianism and colonial ideology; Thomas Laqueur for always pushing me to keep sight of the forest and not get lost in the trees, as well as for his considerable support for the digital humanities at Berkeley; and Percy Hintzen for his engaging and helpful recommendations with respect to my work’s theoretical implications for the Caribbean Basin. I would also like to thank all my fellow graduate students in the history department for their help, support, and critiques over the years: Gene Zubovich, Katherine Eady, Jennifer Allen, Terry Renaud, Vanessa Lincoln, Scott McGinnis, and many others—more than I have space to mention. I would like to thank all my colleagues at the Social Sciences Data Lab (D-Lab). Without the D-Lab’s founding director, Cathryn Carson, I would not have had access to the invaluable digital tools and data science methodologies that shaped much of my work. I also would not have had the invigorating experience of working at a start-up and the opportunity to learn from so many other disciplines: sociology, demography, education, political science—just to name a few. I would especially like to thank Savet Hong for giving me feedback on my chapters and for helping me with the demographics I used in my dissertation. And last but not least, I would not be here if it were not for my family. I would like to thank my loving and wonderful wife, Courtney, for accompanying me on this long and demanding journey. Her unconditional support has helped me throughout the past six years, and she has kept me grounded as I worked toward finishing the dissertation. Thank you, as well, to my rambunctious daughter, whose shenanigans and levity helped me to keep my spirits up while I got trudged through creating datasets, deciphering archival documents, hunting through libraries, and getting my narrative just right. I also would like to thank Eric Kalisher for reading and providing essential feedback on nearly all of my work for the better part of two decades. And finally, thank you to my parents for instilling in me a love of knowledge and an unending respect for education. iv Introduction "It is rather curious to observe that these possessions, so long under French control, do not enjoy more popularity among us, that is, the vogue which goes to the new colonies of Africa or Asia. We are speaking of Tonkin, the Congo, Madagascar, Soudan: Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Reunion have run out of stories. It is that these are no longer new lands. They are settlement colonies where a creole race remained very French and where the indigenous peoples acquired a certain degree of civilization. Their administration is moreover nearly the same as that of the metropole. They have deputies, senators, counselor generals, municipal counselors; they are familiar with all the misdeeds of electoral politics, and for some years they have presented strikes and social conflicts which have nothing to envy from those of France: here we are quite far from Soudan or the coast of Somalia!" August Terrier, Journal des voyages, 19001 Characterized by a violent ecological climate and a volatile political landscape, the late nineteenth century was a rough yet transformative time for the French island of Martinique, as it was for the entire French nation. With the humiliating defeat suffered during the Franco-Prussian War in 1870 came the first democratic government in France in a generation—the Third Republic. While nationalist fervor was at its height and the French empire grew to its greatest extent, politicians of France’s Third Republic vied to build a democratic consensus and distance themselves from France’s recent autocratic past. Republicans projected a fantasy of assimilation onto the Caribbean island of Martinique—one of France’s oldest colonies where the predominately non-white population received full citizenship and governmental representation with the Constitution of 1875.