De la collaboration coloniale : fortune des missions catholiques françaises en Birmanie, 1856-1918

Abstract

In 1856 despite Anglo-French rivalry, priests from the Missions étrangères de Paris settled in Burma, the South of which had been conquered by the British. At first, the two local administrations complemented one another : the British stayed in the towns, allowing the missionaries to do as they wished in the country. The Missions benefitted from the Government 's religious neutrality, from improved security and better infrastructure thanks to the Pax Britannica which extented to the North, after Burma was annexed to India in 1886. The customary cooperation between colonizers and missionaries was not based on nationality but on a shared conception of civilization : teaching became the missionaries' essential activity. However, in 1904-1907, a growing lack of available land combined with the first nationalist movements urged the missionaries to seule in the towns. At that time, the British reformed their educational policy. The missionaries had to adapt their methods to Victorian standards in order to serve the imperial ideology. WWI enhanced this trend and justified the alliance between the British and the missionaries while economic and social problems increased.