Jules Ferry Imperialism

In 1884, Jules Ferry who was then the Prime Minister of France defended the position of France towards imperial expansion. The world trade was rapidly changing a situation which led the French government to expand their colonies. His defense of the same was during a debate with a member of parliament. Germany who are their next door neighbors were setting up trade barriers that would hinder trade with France. Growing industrialization in France led to a higher produce of goods and was in surplus in their country. There was therefore a need to export their goods out of France. They needed more outlets as the trade barriers being set by Germany were hindering their trade of goods. He saw this as serious need to expand their colonies due to their growing industrial population. The textile industry was one of their major industries and lacked outlets. He argued that the hardworking population of France deserved to have a proper market for the trading of their goods.
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As earlier mentioned, Ferry argued that as a superior race they had a duty to civilize the lower races and that it was a generous thing to do. He also argues that France needs safe harbors with supply centre in the high seas that can be provided by their colonies such as Tunisia. A warship naval despite being powerful cannot have storage for a two weeks supply of coal and without coal a vessel in the high seas will be a wreck and therefore require storage and shelters for provisioning of the same. As patriots therefore, they ought to ensure that these requirements are provided for. He voices out the fact that they shall never leave the colonies that provide that. Expansion of colonies was also a show of their greatness as a nation as he argued that the greatness of a nation is by acting and taking part in the affairs going on in the world and therefore evident by the activities they