War of Movement: Military and Labor Migration in France, 1914–18

The Great War stands as the ultimate example of a war of position, a static war of trenches and mud on the Western Front.  But 1914-1918 saw unprecedented movements of people and materials from all corners of the globe, to all corners of the globe.  This paper will consider some of these movements, of people that France’s possession of a global empire made possible, migrations that this first total, industrialized war made necessary as the imperial nation struggled to meet demands for soldiers and workers.  Scholars commonly argue that this first large-scale resort to imported manpower from areas beyond Europe set patterns for France’s later experiences with immigration from areas under its colonial control, and from these same areas after they were no longer French colonies.  But the French army and government shipped virtually all colonial soldiers and workers home to their colonies of origin as soon as possible after the war ended, so later immigration was distinct from that of the war years.  Moreover, traveling to France to fight as a soldier on the Western Front or to work in war industries was arguably very different from migrating during peacetime exclusively for work and under significantly altered circumstances.

            What patterns really were created during the war years, and can we trace continuities between them and later experiences with immigration?  The paper will answer these questions by examining French wartime policies and the wartime experiences of soldiers and workers in order to determine which of these were specific to the 1914-1918 context, and which set precedents for colonial and postcolonial migration during the 1920s and after.  The paper will also explore the cultural and racial implications of interactions between native French citizens and colonial migrants, seeking to distinguish how these might have shaped such encounters in later decades.