The Indigénat and France’s Empire in New Caledonia

This book provides a long history of France’s infamous indigénat regime, from its origins in Algeria to its contested practices and legacies in France’s South Pacific territory of New Caledonia. The term indigénat is synonymous throughout the francophone world with the rigours and injustices of the colonial era under French rule. The indigénat regime or ‘Native Code’ governed the lives of peoples classified as French ‘native’ subjects in colonies as diverse as Algeria, West Africa, Madagascar, Indochina and New Caledonia. In New Caledonia it was introduced by decree in 1887 and remained in force until Kanak — New Caledonia’s indigenous people — obtained citizenship in 1946. Among the colonial tools and legal mechanisms associated with France’s colonial empire it is the one that has had the greatest impact on the memory of the colonized. Focussing on New Caledonia, the last remaining part of overseas France to have experienced the full force of the indigénat, this book illustrates the way that certain measures were translated into colonial practices, and sheds light on the tensions involved in the making of France as both a nation and a colonial empire. The first book to provide a comprehensive history of the indigénat regime, explaining how it first came into being and survived up until 1946 despite its constant denunciation, this is an important contribution to French Imperial History and Pacific History.