?Liberty, equality, fraternity?: what does this revolutionary motto mean from a colonial perspective? France, often characterized as ?the country of human rights,? also has a long imperial history that sheds light on key contradictions of modernity: democracy and populism, citizenship and inequality, colorblindness and racism. Countries as different as Canada, Haiti, Algeria, Vietnam, Senegal, India and even the United States share a common French colonial past: how did these French roots of globalization define the world as we know it?