Abstract EN:

Jules Silvestre was born in 1841 in Rochefort, a western coastal naval town of the French royal navy. After joining the marines as an infantry man, he made a career for himself in Indochina where he served as an administrator of local affairs. From 1862 to 1883, he went on serving in Cochin-China. Then he was appointed to be the head of civilian and political affairs in Tonkin. Though he wasn't much attracted by colonial life at the very beginning of his career, he became more and more involved in the issues of colonization which he discovered by virtue of his various and numerous offices in the state service. His written works attest to the involvement in his duties. Back to France in 1886, he has then in charge of the local society of geography of Rochefort, the avowed object of this society being the circulation of the colonial ideology in Lower-Charente department. In Paris, he was offered a chair by the Political sciences college, of Annamese customory and statute law. He held this charge until 1913. Going into j. Silvestre's case shows how the French had to meet with difficulties before he could settle new administration structures. Moreover, from the study of this case we may understand how J. Silvestre came on a long way in his ideas of colonization. Initially unconcerned, he later became fascinated by the importance of the mission and acted as an eager propagandist of the colonial idea. For 24 years he lived and worked in those far-off countries, then for 27 years he taught in France; J. Silvestre devoted his whole life to his mission in Indochina, part of the French colonial empire.