Colonialists, Fascists, and Gender in Interwar France

Abstract This article argues that the Union Nationale des Anciens Combattants Coloniaux (UNACC) was the premier organization in a broader colonialist movement. Colonialists sought to transpose the racialized and patriarchal hierarchies that drove colonial conquest to the metropole for authoritarian and fascist purposes. The first case study of the UNACC, this article traces its creation, ideology, and activities in order to show that the group appropriated the Republican label for its own anti-democratic agenda. UNACC newspapers reveal that colonialists believed that they had a mission to civilize the metropolitan Republic by destroying anti-French forces of disorder, which included leftists, pacifists, immigrants, and feminists. To do so, the UNACC crafted a colonialist identity and organized white colonial veterans into a political force.