Brazzaville Conference

The Brazzaville Conference (French: Conférence de Brazzaville) was a meeting of prominent Free French leaders held from 30 January to 8 February 1944 in Brazzaville, the capital of French Equatorial Africa, during World War II.

After the Fall of France to Nazi Germany, the collaborationist Vichy France regime controlled the colonies. One by one, however, they peeled off and switched their allegiance to the exiled Free France government led by Charles de Gaulle. In January 1944, Free French politicians and high-ranking colonial officials from the French African colonies met in Brazzaville, now in the Republic of the Congo. The conference recommended political, social and economic reforms and led to an agreement called the Brazzaville Declaration.

De Gaulle believed that the survival of France depended on support from the colonies, and he made numerous concessions. They included the end of forced labour, the end of special legal restrictions that applied to indigenous peoples but not to whites, the establishment of elected territorial assemblies, representation in Paris in a new "French Federation" and the eventual entry of black Africans in the French National Assembly. However, independence and even limited "self-government" were explicitly rejected as a future possibility, and the model of assimilation was reinforced.

During World War II, the French colonial empire played an essential role in the Liberation of France by gradually aligning with Free France. After the end of the Tunisia campaign, the entire colonial empire reunited toward the Allies with the exception of French Indochina, which remained loyal to the Vichy government.

That made the French Committee of National Liberation begin questioning the future of the colonies. The war created many difficulties for local people and saw the growth of nationalist aspirations and tensions between communities in French North Africa, particularly in Algeria and Tunisia. In addition, the French were being aided by the United States which opposed colonialism. In Madagascar, the month of occupation by the United Kingdom after the invasion of the island had weakened French authority.

René Pleven, Commissioner for the Colonies in the French Committee of National Liberation, wanted to avoid international arbitration of the future of the French Empire and in that regard organized the Brazzaville Conference in French Equatorial Africa.

The Brazzaville Conference was held in early February 1944 in Brazzaville, the capital of French Equatorial Africa, during World War II.

Initially, the French Committee of National Liberation wanted to include all the governors from all free territories, but difficulties from the war made the Committee include administrative représentants from French territories in Africa, which had already joined de Gaulle and René Pleven. Invitations were sent to 21 governors; nine members of the Provisional Consultative Assembly and six observers from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco.