How far did the colonial powers of Britain and France penetrate the culture of the occupied peoples?

Abstract

The parts of the British Empire on which the sun never set were nonetheless surrounded by the colonial territories of other European states, which were as extensive as the British colonial possessions. Francophonic culture now prevails in large swathes of northern and southern Africa and elsewhere, legacy on one level to the simple fact of French (and in some cases Belgian) colonial expansion, but in terms of the uptake of language, perhaps also testifying to the provision of education and the penetration of a colonizing culture on the colonized.