Colonial Port of Marseille

Historical context

Beginning in the 1820s, the maritime commerce of the cité phocéenne was able to progressively restore itself in accordance with its traditional orientation after a disruptive era of revolutionary and imperial wars. Thus, in the image of the Pastré brothers who established themselves in Alexandria (1825), Marseillais merchants forged close relationships with the Khedive Mehmet-Ali and founded successful establishments in the Middle East.

The businessmen also encouraged the creation of economic relationships with North Africa, which would then be used to support and participate in the conquest of Algeria. Notably done through the acquisition of vast agricultural domains in the Mitidja. In 1840, three quarters of French exports to Algeria went through Marseille. They also hoped to develop their trade towards India and China after the digging of the Suez Canal was completed in 1869.

Outside of the mediterraneenean area, merchants from Marseille were present in the Indian Ocean. In Mozambique, the Fabre created factories. In the sultanate of Zanzibar Alfred Rabeaud established commercial trading posts. In Madagascar, the Roux de Fraissinet house became a major actor in the island’s economy. In West Africa, trading posts were created between Senegal and Angola by Victor Regis, who prioritized the palm oil trade for the needs of oil mills, soap factories, and wax mills of Marseille. Merchants also financed exploration missions. The company of Charles-Auguste Verminck entrusted two of its agents with the task of discovering the sources of Niger from Sierra Leone. Following that the company created the Compagnie du Sénégal et de la côte occidentale d’Afrique (Senegal and West Coast of Africa Company), that became the Compagnie française d’Afrique occidentale (French West African Company) in 1887.

However, because they needed to face the competition of other European merchants, the Marseillais adopted a new attitude around the end of the 19^th century. Although they had always wanted to develop their affairs independent from the State, they now claimed the need for State protection in order to defend their colonial commercial interests. Therefore, they became supporters of the colonial project. It is in the Chamber of Commerce that they elaborated their strategy and it is thanks to the Chamber that they were able to disseminate their arguments to politicians. Through the intermediary of Cyprien Fabre, the Mante brothers, Georges Borelli, or of Jules-Charles Roux, they campaigned for a military intervention to protect French presence from German and English ambitions. They obtained the definitive conquest of Dahomey in 1894.

These business circles were very closely linked to the Société de géographie de Marseille (the Geography Society of Marseille). Founded in 1877 by Alfred Rabaud, the society aimed to promote the instruction of geography and to relay to the public the results of exploration missions. To support these goals the founders of the society published a quarterly bulletin, organized free public classes, and hosted conferences about the “discovered” regions. They also organized large gatherings to welcome explorers who were returning to France through Marseille’s port.

Recruited from the scientific, economic, and business elite of the city, the Society’s members had shared ambitions. From their perspective, the exploration missions were a necessary prerequisite to the development of Marseille’s commerce. However, within a context of economic rivalries and diplomatic tensions with European powers, France had to lead military expeditions without hesitation in order to safeguard its areas of influence. This is how they apprehend the colonial phenomenon.

Critical approach

In the span of two hundred years, the port of Marseille experienced a series of radical and relatively fast mutations of its infrastructures, its economic functions, and its manners of administration. These changes accompanied the acceleration of globalization of exchange, as well as the evolution of national maritime policies. Each transformation has uniquely shaped the port’s landscapes, with their share of techniques, practices, strategies, and negotiation between the original actors. The port has expanded outside of the the l’anse du Lacydon (the present day Old Port), towards the towns of Lavéra and Fos-sur-Mer, passing through the intramuros facilities aligned between La Joliette and L’Estaque. The arrival of agricultural or mineral raw materials from the colonies changed to supertankers loaded with crude oil. Pallets of goods once handled by the force of arms were replaced by hyper-mechanized container terminals. The prerogatives of local business circles, grouped within the Chamber of Commerce, saw the growing role of the State in the development and management of docks.

The industrial functions of the port of Marseille were not born at the end of the 19^th century from the arrival of sugar and oleaginous materials. The development of these functions happened well before the 1870s, and served other products. In the 1690s the working of cotton (Indian, quilted canvases, cotton), the manufacturing of sheets and bonnets in wool, and the production of silks were particularly dynamic in the city. The industries were fed textile and raw dyeing materials through the port and after production the finished products left as maritime exports. Through the acquisition of supplies and diffusion towards markets, the “four corners of the world” became connected to the cité phocéenne, proof that Marseille was already a global port at the beginning of the 18^th century.

Far from being confined to the Mediterranean, Marseille increasingly opened up to Atlantic trade – particularly with the French Antilles – starting in the 1720s. This involvement with the Atlantic ensured a strong economic growth, contrary to the image of the port of Marseille as dependent on Levantine trade that is often associated with Marseille, even in historical works. Nevertheless, this Mediterranean context appears as a refuge during crises and is an indispensable condition to the conquest of new oceanic territories that will become the future colonies.

The representations associated with the “first port of France” have also profoundly changed. In part due to the impact of imaginaries that are heavy within the maritime world, but also due to mediatised perceptions disseminated to a large public.

The “flowering place” of the 19^th century, fueled by overseas traffic and energized by a transformation of industry in full swing, conceded to a negative image of a port in crisis. A port that had experienced, during its peak, the full force of the consequences of decolonization and deindustrialization in the second half of the 20^th century and would be unable to adapt to a new highly competitive international environment.

Among the cliches regarding the position of Marseille, the topos of the “colonial port” is as famous as that of the “Porte de l’Orient”, immoralized by the famous painting by Puvis de Chavannes.

More than these words and images, the perception of the economic realities has for a long time been biased by the nationalist paradigm of the colonial pact. This led to the examination of maritime relations between the cité phocéenne and the French empire that negated the role of foreign colonies. The advances of imperial historiography goes against this tradition.

Certain industrial sectors were closely connected with the overseas markets, notably for the importation of raw materials destined to be transformed. The opening of the Suez Canal allowed for Marseille to construct an imperial economic system in which interaction and interdependency between colonies, who previously had not maintained ongoing relationships, became intertwined. But despite these realities, colonial exchanges rarely represented more than 25% of the entirety of the port’s traffic between 1913 and the Independence. Throughout this period, Marseille remained a very diversified global port, open to all markets. However, after the independences, there was an intensification of exchanges between Marseille and the former French colonies, notably in Africa.