The Tragic Career of Marius Moutet

Abstract

Marius Moutet is well known in the historiography of twentieth-century French colonialism for his tenure as the Popular Front Government’s colonial minister in 1936–8. His second term at that ministry on the rue Oudinot in Paris in 1946–7, however, is usually mentioned in studies of France’s post-Second World War colonial crises only as a footnote. This essay focuses on his influence over French decolonization by examining his second ministry when Moutet was colonial minister in the governments of Felix Gouin (26 January–24 June 1946), Georges Bidault (24 June–16 December 1946), Leon Blum (16 December 1946–22 January 1947), and Paul Ramadier (22 January–22 October 1947), that is, during the formative stages of France’s post-war regime, the Fourth Republic. First, it analyzes Moutet’s influence on the formation and application of Title VIII of the post-war French constitution that defined the colonies’ status and institutions. Second, it examines his part in French intra-governmental struggles in 1946–7 over how to deal with the Vietnamese national movement dominated by the Viet Minh. These two issues reveal Moutet’s fundamental thinking and tactics in colonial policy, their limitations and his problems in applying them within divided governments.