why do other countries speak french?

Question

other than france, like the african countries, was there a french empire that caused all these people to speak french?

Answer 1

Hi there,

There was never a French Empire per say. Even though we have had two Emperors: Napoleon I and Napoleon III.
However, France colonised quite a few contries around the world. Mainly in America (The New World) and in Africa.
My father is white and is born in Congo. He is french. They still speak French other there.
All contries speaking french are in alliance under the name of "Francophonie".
Francophonie refers to an international organisation of French-speaking countries and governments, and also to the community of French speaking people. Formally known as the "Organisation internationale de la Francophonie" (in English, "International Organisation of French-speaking Communities"), fifty-five states and governments are members of the organisation and thirteen are observers. The prerequisite for admission is not the degree of French usage in the member countries, but a prevalent presence of French culture and French language in the member country's identity stemming from France's interaction with other nations in its history. Few of the member states are majority French-speaking aside from France, its overseas possessions and sub-national members. French functions in several other member states as a common language while having little current presence in the other members, being that the links are mainly historical and cultural .

French geographer Onésime Reclus, brother of Élisée Reclus, coined the French portmanteau "Francophonie" in 1880 to refer to the community of people and countries using the French language. In addition to referring to the international organisation, Francophonie may also be used to reference the worldwide community of those people whose native language or second language is French (i.e., the French Sprachraum). Francophonie was then coined a second time by Léopold Sédar Senghor, founder of the Négritude movement, in the review Esprit in 1962, who assimilated it to Humanism.

The modern Francophonie was created in 1970. Its motto is égalité, complémentarité, solidarité (equality, complementarity, and solidarity), alluding to France's motto. Started as a small club of Northern French-speaking countries, it has since evolved into an important international organisation whose numerous branches cooperate with the organisation's member states in the fields of culture, science, economy, justice, and peace.

Here is a list of all countries (in french):
L’Algérie
Le Mali
La Belgique
Le Maroc
Le Bénin
La Martinique
Le Burkina Faso
La Mauritanie
Le Burundi
La Mayotte
Le Cambodge
Le Monaco
Le Cameroun
Le Niger
Le Canada
La Nouvelle-Calédonie
Les Comores
La Polynesie Française
Le Congo
La Réunion
La Côte d’Ivoire
Le Ruanda
La France
Le Sénégal
Le Gabon
Les Seychelles
La Guadeloupe
La Suisse
La Guinée
Le Tahiti
La Guyane Française
Le Tchad
Le Haïti
Le Togo
Le Laos
Le Viêtnam
Le Luxembourg
Le Madagascar
Le Zaïre

Answer 2

More or less. French colonies were all over the planet, from the Americas to Africa (particularly north-west Africa) to the Pacific. If a country speaks French, it's a good sign that it was once a French colony.

Answer 3

Yes, the French empire and the colonization of Africa by France sort of "forced" all of the colonies (former colonies now) to speak French.

Answer 4

France had a lot of colonies, in Canada, New Caledonia, Africa....But, under the king Louis XVI ( who died in 1793), we lost a lot of these colonies.....
But, the language is still here and the inhabitants keep on speaking French today.....You know, Creole (The Antilles language ) is a form of French....

Answer 5

Because liek the first person said they had a lot of power, meaning they had more territorites, and passed on thier language. they also colonized a lot of northwest and southwest afric, once again passing on thier language. Napolean had a lot to do with it since he was so set on controlling the world. all the territories gave him power, but we all know that didn't work, but the territories and colonies still kept the culture.

Answer 6

believe it or not, yes there was. As much as it pains me to type it, France was a world power before about 1870 or so.