British and French Colonial Statistics: Development by Hybridization from the Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries

Béatrice Touchelay (1)

1 IRHiS - Institut de Recherches Historiques du Septentrion (IRHiS) - UMR 8529

This chapter examines the construction, perception, and representation of the colonial space by official statistics and what, because of their imperfections, these statistics do not represent. It also considers the beginning of an international statistical apparatus. After considering the development of statistics in the French colonial empire, perceived as a reflection of the British “model,” it explores the processes of capillary action and hybridization that led to the adoption of common practices in the two colonials’ spaces between the nineteenth century and Second World War. Taking note of the constant reference to a British “model” in the history of French official statistics, it analyzes those statistics’ scope and limitations. In exploring their universal dimension, this chapter questions the very meaning of statistics that sought—and sometimes failed—to shed light on decision-making in the colonial territories.

Domaines: Sciences de l'Homme et Société; Histoire

Béatrice Touchelay. British and French Colonial Statistics: Development by Hybridization from the Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries. James Fichter. British and French Colonialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East Connected Empires across the Eighteenth to the Twentieth Centuries, Palgrave Macmillan, p.249-274, inPress, ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-97964-9_11⟩. ⟨hal-01723039⟩