African soldiers overseas saw French society was more stratified than the colonies.

Evidence

Another legacy of the war years was the growth of similar ambitions among other groups of West Africans, albeit for different reasons. Africans serving as tirailleurs overseas often found themselves treated as equals in the trenches by French soldiers. During their stay overseas, they observed a much more stratified white society than that which existed in the colonies. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 549

Categorization

• QUESTION: The ‘stratified white society’ claim is counterintuitive — supposedly the metropole had more hierarchy, but the point seems to be that French class divides made equality feel more real among soldiers. Worth chasing what exactly they observed.