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Colonat partiaire et petits-blancs a l'île de la Reunion au XIXe siècle

Alexandre Bourquin

Abstracts

Under the pressure of different outcasts of plantation society, some marginal lands were cultivated inside the island. Before 1848, the colonization of uncultivated lands had mainly been undertaken by the proletarianized "petits-blancs". They settled in the "Hauts regions" as early as the 18th century and started the exploitation of different agricultural produces on barren lands which didn't belong to them. In return they would pay in kind. Over the years, this kind of payment has become a real institution. These methods of payment were defined by contracts which were verbal. At the end of the 19th century, this was at its peak. The land-owning aristocracy took advantage of this new way of servitude. But at the beginning of the 20th century, the economic climate showed up the limits of such a system. Some trials denounced what one could call a new kind of slavery. As for the "petits-blancs" wo had been reluctantly pionneers of an anachronistic system where they provided most of the "colonage partiaire", they are more dispossessed. However some "petits-blancs" accepted orders from coloured men, whatever the work and whoever the employer and this gave them more opportunity to work.
 

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Index terms

Mots-clés :

Colonies

Chronologique:

XIXe siècle
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References

Electronic reference

Alexandre Bourquin, “Colonat partiaire et petits-blancs a l'île de la Reunion au XIXe siècle”Cahiers d'histoire [Online], 43-1 | 1998, Online since , connection on 28 March 2024. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ch/27; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/ch.27

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The text and other elements (illustrations, imported files) are “All rights reserved”, unless otherwise stated.

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