Researcher ORCID Identifier

0009-0004-6937-5609

Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

4-2026

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Government

Reader 1

Lisa Koch

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Rights Information

2026 Davis C EGLIN

Abstract

This thesis examines how France’s pursuit of national grandeur persisted after decolonization through the reconfiguration of colonial systems into postcolonial forms. Rather than marking a rupture, the collapse of the colonial empire shifted how French power operated, as influence was maintained not through formal sovereignty but through adapted structures across military and security, economic, and cultural domains. The French nuclear program, from nuclear testing in Algeria and French Polynesia to uranium extraction from former colonies, particularly Niger and Gabon, uncovers how risk, resources, and accountability were outsourced beyond mainland France. In Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, the French economic system, from the structure of trade relationships to the continued use of the CFA franc, reveals how monetary and economic decision-making remained externally shaped, limiting domestic autonomy. Senegal serves as a critical case study, strengthened by personal interviews conducted in Dakar. French influence in language, from the continued centrality of French in political and educational systems to its coordination through the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), reveals how linguistic authority remained anchored in French institutions, while in sports, systems of athlete development and recognition reinforce external perceptions of French prestige and excellence. Together, these three domains, or strategies, demonstrate that decolonization did not dismantle the structures through which French power operated, but reorganized them, allowing France to maintain its global position by extracting resources and strategic advantages from outside its borders without direct territorial control.

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