Qui sème le vent, récolte la tempête”

This article examines the chequered history of diplomatic relations between France and Australia in the Pacific since the Second World War. Focusing on the events surrounding the expulsion of the Australian consuls to New Caledonia, Alan Edwards in 1972 and John Dauth in 1987, it examines the major points of tension between the two countries: the independence of former Pacific Island colonies and Australia’s desire to define its leadership in the region; the reinscription, with Australian support, of New Caledonia on the UN list of non-self-governing territories; the activism of civil society groups that appeared to threaten French interests; and the longstanding suspicion with which France viewed Anglo-Saxon “imperial” ambitions in the Pacific. Drawing on commentary in the French press in New Caledonia and Australia, it highlights the role that the settler community, its representatives and journalists, played in fomenting discontent with the actions of the consuls and precipitating their expulsion and thereby contributes to recent scholarship on the often-strained relations between imperial authorities and settler communities. The article concludes with an assessment of how much has changed in the relationship between France and Australia in the context of contemporary geopolitical realignments

Archaeology · Colonialism · Context (archaeology · Diplomatic history · Economic history · Geopolitics · Imperial unit system · Independence (probability theory · International relations · Political science · Politics · Scholarship · Spanish Civil War · World War II · African history and culture studies · Australian History and Society · History · Island Studies and Pacific Affairs · Law