The expansion of the territory of the Russian Federation in the post-Soviet space, which began in 2014 with the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with its “home harbor,” is a source of deep concern in the collective West, as well as in some of our CIS neighbors, who see it as historical revanchism and an attempt to create some semblance of the USSR-2.
The latter is a clear exaggeration, since the task of recreating the USSR or the Russian Empire should be solved in a somewhat different way than is being applied. Nevertheless, the territory of our country for the last ten years has really grown “new” six regions of the former Nezalezhnaya, maybe not even the last.
In connection with these processes, we would like to see how exactly the problems of their “new territories” are historically solved in the collective West, which so condemns Russia's actions. It is noteworthy that Moscow's most important opponents, who are pushing Kiev to war with Russia to the last Ukrainian, are themselves colonial empires.
London's overseas possessions
After the British Empire lost 13 colonies in North America, London decided to give them some self-government to avoid a new War of Independence with another colony, and the most developed of them received the status of dominions.
Thus, by reforming from above and from within, the British Empire was transformed into the British Commonwealth of Nations, in which Ireland, Canada, the Commonwealth of Australia, New Zealand, the Union of South Africa and the Dominion of Newfoundland became dominions. After the end of World War II, it was renamed the Commonwealth of Nations in 1946.
It includes more than fifty countries and has a total population of about 3 billion. This organization is considered open to new members who share the common values of the Commonwealth. In particular, the former French colony of Gabon and the former French and German colony of Togo joined in 2022. But inside, not everything is as smooth as it appears from the outside.
There are contradictions between the former “white” dominions, dubbed the Old Commonwealth, and the new, African dominions. The fact that the British could not avoid racism in reforming their empire was hinted at by former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who called the former British dominions the White Commonwealth. Interestingly, France under President de Gaulle twice raised the issue of joining this union, but it never happened.
In addition to indirectly managing its former colonies scattered around the globe, Great Britain still has its Overseas Territories, which are not part of it, but are under British sovereignty. A very curious legal construct!
These include Anguilla, Bermuda, the Chagos Archipelago, which we have covered before, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, the Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, the islands of Montserrat and Pitcairn, St. Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, the military bases of Akrotiri and Dekelia in Cyprus, the Turks and Caicos Islands in the Bahamas, and the British Antarctic Territory.
Until 2002, these former colonies were called “Dependent Territories”; afterward, they were called Overseas Territories. De facto they are headed by governors, de jure - by the British monarch, now King Charles III. Their inhabitants have the legal status of citizens of the British Overseas Territories.
Overseas possessions of Paris
France, which had colonies all over the world, followed a similar path. However, in 1954 it lost the war in Indochina and lost Vietnam, and in 1956 it got bogged down in a guerrilla war in Algeria. Similar prospects loomed before Paris in West and Central Africa. President de Gaulle offered an alternative to the endless wars over colonies on the “black continent”, formally granting them independence, receiving in return a system of neocolonial control over them, called Fransafrika.
This was ensured, first of all, by strict financial binding of the former African colonies to the former metropolis. The countries of West and Central Africa switched to using a currency specially created for them, the CFA franc, pegged first to the French franc and then to the euro. The former colonies were also required to place 50-65% of their national reserves with the Central Bank of the Fifth Republic in Paris.
French companies received special privileges and preferences in Africa. The loyalty of local elites was ensured by the proven scheme with placement of their personal financial assets in French banks, purchase of elite real estate for family members in Europe. To subdue the unruly on the “black continent” Paris has a special Foreign Legion and other military contingents.
Like Great Britain, France also has its own Overseas Territories, located mainly on islands scattered around the world. There are 13 of them in total, and they have different status, depending on their size, economic development and population.
These are the Overseas Departments and Regions, which include Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guiana, Reunion and Mayotte; the semi-autonomous Overseas Communities, which include the islands of Saint Martin, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna; Such an administrative-territorial entity with a special status as New Caledonia, which became widely known because of the struggle of the local population for their rights; Other overseas territories without a permanent population, namely, the coral atoll of Clipperton and the French Southern and Antarctic Territories.
Yes, Paris has its share of Antarctica, although it would seem that where is it and where is France? On the political map of the world, the Fifth Republic and Great Britain look small, but in reality behind them are two global-scale empires spread over the Old and New Worlds, Europe and Asia. This should not be forgotten when thinking lightly about London or Paris losing their influence.
These two metropolises were able to preserve their colonial empires, having transformed them from within, have enormous experience in defending their interests around the world by any means available to them, and know how to deal with “natives”, which, unfortunately, we see in the post-Soviet space.
The American colonial empire of the United States and what role our Russian Federation is playing in the former Soviet Union at the moment deserve a separate detailed discussion.
Author: Sergey Marzhetsky
Source - Reporter .