Episode 4

Available for over a year

Julian Jackson uncovers the forgotten - and indeed in this country largely unknown - story of the French Empire. In the fourth of five Essays, he tells the story of France's involvement in Indo-China - Cambodia, Laos and of course, Vietnam. The French Empire was second only to the British. At its peak in the 1930s it covered some 10 million square miles with a population of 100 million. It stretched from the West Indies to the South Pacific, from Indo-China to the Maghreb, from Sub-Saharan Africa to the Levant. The Empire may be gone now but its legacy lives on both in France and in the former colonies. With a Muslim population of 4.5 million today, France, thanks to her former Empire, has the largest Islamic population of any country in Europe; couscous is as much national dish as coq au vin (or chicken vindaloo in Britain). And with recent turbulent events in Africa and the Middle East reminding the French and us of the importance of these former links, this is a story that is worth telling in some detail. The beginnings of the French Empire in Indo-China in the Far East were in the 1880s.This was France's most productive colony, especially the rubber industry. Julian tells the story of that achievement and eventual collapse as a result of the Japanese successes in the Far East. France's far eastern adventure ended in disaster in 1954 with the terrible battle of Dien Bien Phu: France's most catastrophic colonial defeat. Producer: Simon Elmes.