Le conflit sur le colonialisme dans les Assemblées constituantes françaises de 1945 et 1946

The redefinition of the colonial order was one of the most debated issues in the French constituent process of the years 1945-1946. Thanks to the presence of about thirty members elected by the colonized peoples - including the future presidents of Senegal and of the Ivory Coast Léopold Sédar Senghor and Félix Houphouët-Boigny - the Constituent Assembly elected on 21 October 1945 approved some important laws, such as the one that eliminated forced labor, and established, on the constitutional level, the principle of a 'freely agreed Union'. However, this principle was abandoned by the second Constituent Assembly, elected on 2 June 1946 after the constitutional project approved by the first assembly had been rejected by referendum. In the second Assembly, the advocates of greater determination in ensuring the full maintenance of French sovereignty raised their voices and the debate with the representatives of the colonized peoples took on much more heated tones, both within the Commission in charge of drafting the constitutional project and in the plenary assembly. The paper examines the confrontation that developed in the two Constituent Assemblies on the structure and perspectives of colonialism and analyses the main weaknesses of the new French Union.