“In 1900, in preparation for the Exposition Universelle in Paris, the French Ministry of Colonies asked Camille Guy, the head of its geographical service, to produce a book entitled Les colonies françaises: la mise en valeur de notre domaine coloniale. A literal translation of mise en valeur is ‘making into value.’ The dictionary, however, translates ‘mise en valeur’ as ‘development.’ At the time, this expression was preferred, when talking about economic phenomena in the colonies, to…”
