Onésime Reclus

Onésime Reclus (22 September 1837[1] – 30 June 1916) was a French geographer who specialized in the relations between France and its colonies.

By this time, France's colonies in Africa were more important than those in the Caribbean, and it had lost or given up those in North America by the early 19th century.

But its history of deep involvement in colonial development in North America continued to influence its politics.

[4] In 1880 Reclus coined the term "Francophonie" as a means of classification of peoples of the world who spoke the French language.

While this term did not appear in dictionaries until 1930, it has become more important since the late 20th century as part of conceptual rethinking by historians, geographers, anthropologists and others of cultures and geography.