France Still Has An Empire

Unlike US's treatment of Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands and American Samoa, all of the French overseas territories that has a civilian population have full representation to the French Parliament. So French Guyana, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, etc. are to France what Hawaii is to the US. And that's one reason why half the population of these territories want to remain with France. They have representation. France subsidizes their government. The French military and science programs create jobs on their islands. And perhaps the most important thing, the French citizenship and passport. They can go to mainland France (and EU by extension) and work there and all they'll need is the plane ticket. They don't need visas nor work permits to do that. The French passport is very powerful too. They can visit most of the nations in the world visa-free.

France has 12 time-zones while Russia has 11.

From french Guiana, currently living in nyc. Thanks for the shedding some light on french Guiana. Even though we are a continent away, we identify ourselves strongly as french.

It sounds so awkard to speak on behalf of 3 million people, without knowing them, and telling they are under "the rule of France". The fact that there is no territorial continuity does not mean that people who live in these territories have no rights or no pride in being citizen from the same country. I recommend you travel in these places and meet people before you talk on their behalf. You will most likely be surprised on how much the connections between "Metropole" and these territories are strong and how long is the History in common.

I'm from Reunion Island and we actually are patriotic to France. We consider ourselves and we are French citizen. We can vote for the president and all kind of stuff so it's not like France conquered us or what not. The French discovered this Island with nobody and sure they bought slaves and plantations to here but the Creoles here hold no anger against the "Europeans". Actually this island is so mixed that we have a strong Asian (Indian and Chinese) community too! Edit: 20/12 was actually the annual Slavery Remembrance Day( Abolition of Slavery) of Reunion. It shows how we still remember our past and understand it but we don't go beat up white people or the descendants of slave traders for it. It's in the past and we continue moving forward. Being French is a nationality, and not a ethnicity. We are French. Now I cannot say the same for the other "outre-mer territoires" because there were indigenous people living there before colonization but keep in mind that there were nobody living in Reunion island before the Europeans came.

2:15 That’s not correct: Only 6 French overseas territories are part of the European Union as either fully part of the French Republic (Martinique, Guadeloupe, Guyane, Mayotte, Reunion) or under a special status (St Martin). The other overseas territories are associated and often administered directly by France but are not part of the EU. For example French Polynesia where my family lives, I can live there as a French Citizen but someone from Germany or Italy would not have an automatic right to live there as it is not part of the EU.

Ironically those territories that remain part of a European nation have enjoyed greater freedoms, far better democratic representation, and more prosperous livelihoods than those that sought independence. It turns out that being a single island does not provide much in the nation building without extensive natural resources or a developed-nation sugardaddy.

Just two things to point out: - Greenland is presented in the map as part of the EU, but it is only an associated territory due to the fact that it's part of Denmark. To represent it as part of the EU in the map is a bit questionable. - France hadn't even begun colonising six centuries ago, it certainly couldn't have started decolonising before colonisation

Those territories have voted many times against independence and all of their citizens have French citizenship and rights (as opposed to American territories like Puerto Rico or guam)

Coming from a Dutch island (Aruba), regardless of history, I must say there comes a lot of benefits to being part of these European countries. You get a European passport, meaning you can work freely in Europe, and you are also protected militarily. If there will ever be a vote on leaving The Netherlands, I would vote to stay in.

This video geographically accurate , historically not so much

I usually love your videos, but this one is sadly full of bias and misinformations... As a french person, I can tell you that most, if not all of those territories voted to stay french instead of being independant. The citizens of those places are french and feel french, nobody is forcing them.

2:20 "France should have decolonized 6 centuries ago" 6 centuries ago was 1420 and they did not even start to colonize places let alone decolonize places. I think you meant 6 decades ago. Edit: Thank you for so many likes!

I can't sleep at night peacefully anymore knowing that France has a whole army of King Penguins.

The dude is saying that France rules over "those people" wtf, they have right to vote like any other French citizen! And they voted to remain French citizens!

Decolonization isn't "leave or it's still a colony". That's a rather simplistic way to look at it and a bit patronising toward the native people of those places who made a choice for themselves. And while this is also going to be simplified, I think it's better to look at it in the sense of local population having a right to self-determination. All of those area have voted many times for their independance. In the case of New Caledonia, only a very specific group of people even has a right to vote in this referendum (I think they need to have lived in NC since the nineties so it's not like France can just send new people to skew the result), and it will be voted 3 times over. All of that to say that the tone of this video seem a bit disingenous to me, implying France still has colonies it won't let go of just like in the ninteenth century isn't true, and saying "locals living under France's rule" is downright insulting when those are french citizens living in France (some of those places have been French for longer than Nice, and yet nobody would say Niçois are "locals living under french rule"). Decolonization can take many shapes, and that include people from those places chosing more integration and gaining the same citizenship status as in the mainland (which is the case here, it's not the same as what Puerto Rico is to the USA). Mayotte is an interesting case to look at in that sense; a tiny island off the coast of Madagascar who decided to remain with France unlike its three neigbouring sister islands and has voted for even more integration within France in 2009. Just to be clear, I'm not saying France has been an angel here, I'm saying that this issue is more complex than this video implies as it seems to view decolonization in only one way.

I answered a comment, but let me put this here also : I am french, and I am Reunionese, so let me expand : Réunion island was a paradisiac island with a population of zero until europeans on the route to india found it, and used it as a water-and-food replenishment stop, for about a century. It changed hands, being owned by britain, France, and, if I'm not mistaken, the dutch at some point. Still with no continuous inhabitants, until it was used as a prison by europe. The contemporary population is a mix of descendants of various groups and cultures : the european sugar cane and coffee plantation owners, the slaves that worked in those plantations, from africa, the indian workers who kinda replaced part of the slave workforce when slavery was abolished, people from various islands of the indian ocean, mauritius and the comores archipelago, also a number of people of asian descent and finally new emigrants from metropolitan France. Nobody got colonized, because nobody was here, and nobody got brainwashed because we have a very strong local culture. But most of us aren't dumb, and know we are economically much better off with France and the EU subsidizing our crops. We get french education, french healthcare, and are very happy about it. Now, not everything is perfect, the unemployment rate is pretty high, but it is a piece of paradise on earth. We elect representatives to the french senate and parliament. We directly elect the french president (which is better than New Yorkers can say about their president - pardon my snarkiness) we have access to the french higher education system and schools with the same status as a parisian. We have french nationality, can travel and work around the EU like metropolitains. Now, I understand you don't want to do a very in-depth video. But presenting statements as undeniable facts when they are poorly researched at best and your conclusions with a righteous tone is, at best, very poor taste. Also Reunion island, which you bundled up with places with just scientists and wildlife, has a population of 860 000.

Just a reminder that most of us are not "locals who live under France's rule" but simply French citizens living in France just as Normans are French citizens living in France.

It is wrong to say french empire France respect all of its citizens. Love from India 🇮🇳

We feel a touch of bitterness in his words. France does not leave indifferent we love it or hate it. US President Thomas Jefferson said ,Every man has two countries his own and France.