Fashoda Reconsidered :Impact of Domestic Politics on French Policy in Africa 1893-1898 by Roger Glenn Brown

Fashoda Reconsidered :Impact of Domestic Politics on French Policy in Africa 1893-1898 by Roger Glenn Brown tries to demonstrate how internal factors within France influenced the Fashoda crisis with Britain. Fashoda a location on the Nile was where the French government wished to extend their sovereignty at the expense of the Egyptians. Britain was attempting to maintain Egyptian control of its territory. The Egyptians owed them and other European creditors money.

Brown believes that the history of diplomacy is frequently restricted to avoid questions of internal politics. He tries in this book to remedy this. Much of the narrative is taken up with the internal dynamics of the French government and its relations to various political pressure groups including the military and what today we would call NGOs. In this case the NGO was demanding an expansion of the French empire. In the background was always the Dreyfus affair and how it undermined the government at important times.

Obviously there was quite a bit of research involved in this. Brown is to be commended for that. There were a couple of places where quite a bit of knowledge is assumed about Third Republic politics so this wouldn't be a book for a beginner on the era.

Recommended.