Writings on Empire and Slavery

Rating:
Summary: Perhaps more relevent now than in its own time.
Review: This collection of Tocqueville's essays concerning the colonization of Algeria and slavery are useful in forming a historical analysis of North Africa and for civil rights analysis, but I found it to be very insightful in regards to modern policy analysis, too.

Tocqueville very articulate about his desires for France's occupation of Algeria. Although he begins steadfastly in favor of colonization and never totally abandons that position, the nature of France's method of occupation heavily criticized. At one point, Tocqueville paints a strangely accurate picture of the state of the region after colonization. The description ends with "we have made Muslim society much more miserable, more disordered, more ignorant, and more barbarous than it had been before knowing us."

By describing colonial Algeria in terms of its utility to France, Tocqueville reminds us that misuing other nations still impacts our own welfare. By pointing out French abuses of themselves, he reminds us that our own welfare is not the only important goal. In the end, the lesson he teaches is that we are interconnected. No one empire can pay attention only to local issues.

It is true that Tocqueville was not for granting equal rights, or even citizenship, to natives...nor was he in favor of ending colonialism in any way. Rather, his comments worked within the system to encourage a more tolerant, more effective, means of working with natives. His plan did not succeed. Frances heavy-handed ways ultimately ended in a violent overthrow of the French regime. Algeria, like many Muslim colonies, is more barbaric and less educated now than before European rule.

With the US attacks on Afghanistan and continued military presence in Saudi Arabia, one hopes that we may learn the lessons offered by Tocqueville more readily than did the French.