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Julien-Désiré Schmaltz
Colonel Julien-Désiré Schmaltz or Julien Schmaltz (5 February 1771 – 26 June 1826) was a French colonial administrator and governor of Senegal from 1816 to 1820. Early life and career Julien-Désiré Schmaltz was born in 1771 in Lorient; the son of Jean-Boniface Schmaltz and Louise Declos. He enlisted in the Dutch colonial army in 1799, serving as an officer of military engineers in Batavia. By 1814 he had reached the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the French army, based in Guadeloupe. Governor of Senegal On 17 June 1816, Schmaltz departed for Saint-Louis, Senegal aboard the frigate Méduse to take up his position as Governor of Senegal, which was by treaty to be returned to French rule by an occupying British force. The ship ran aground on sand banks 50 kilometres from the Senegalese shore, partly because of Schmaltz's impatience to reach Saint-Louis and partly because of the incompetence of the captain and navigator. The tragedy that ensued, after it was decided to set 146 o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
French Colonialism
The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French colonial empire", that existed until 1814, by which time most of it had been lost or sold, and the "Second French colonial empire", which began with the conquest of Algiers in 1830. On the eve of World War I, France's colonial empire was the second-largest in the world after the British Empire. France began to establish colonies in the Americas, the Caribbean, and India in the 16th century but lost most of its possessions after its defeat in the Seven Years' War. The North American possessions were lost to Britain and Spain, but Spain later returned Louisiana to France in 1800. The territory was then sold to the United States in 1803. France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa as well as Indochina and the South Pacific. As ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
