The second French colonial empire lasted from late 1800s until the 1960s and included Northern Africa, a large part of Western and Central Africa, Indochina and a number of islands all over the world. The existence of its colonial empire was an immense help to France in World War II when her colonies provided Mother France with territory, an army and a fleet thanks to which she was able to re-enter the war in its final phase. In fact, Leuthy argues that it was thanks to her colonial empire that France could maintain its independence (Leuthy: 204). Nevertheless, he continues, after the end of World War II there was a great amount of ink dedicated to the heroic deeds of the French resistance which despite its heavy moral value, was "terribly light in a material sense". Leuthy's main assertion regarding the existence of the French colonial empire is that the history of the French Republic and that of the French colonial empire were propelled by different forces which could account for the fact that the French colonies were rarely taken into consideration when discussing French history, and were largely ignored.
             Leuthy claims that the French colonial empire was the result of "unquestionably the oldest and greatest colonial tradition of all European nations" (Leuthy: 209) whose traces can be felt all over the world. He identifies the main factor in France's "world-embracing empire" (Leuthy: 209) as being the policy to assimilate introduced as a colonial policy in 1865. It was precisely this policy, understood as superiority coupled with great self-confidence that allowed the French to go overseas and manage to integrate among the conquered populations without fearing they would lose their French identity. French self-confidence and self-proclaimed superiority determined them to expect the colonized populations to willingly think and act like French citizens, and furthermore, to become French in t...