Clozel’s traditionalist reforms failed by ignoring irreversible social change

Evidence

Clozel’s reorganization would not be implemented. Territorial ex- changes between France and England had been periodically advo- cated before, to no avail. The plan also ignored the vested interests of the Senegalese originaires of the Four Communes. In this last in- stance, ironically, Clozel’s suggestions met constraints not dissimi- lar to those that had plagued Panty’s vision of African society, al- though Clozel’s myopia lay in the opposite direction. Whereas Panty had tended to view all precolonial African elites as “feudal” and sought to decrease their influence, Clozel idealized the past and failed to take into account the irreversible social and economic changes that had taken place since the French conquest. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 621

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Offers a direct structural parallel to Ponty’s ‘feudal’ view from earlier chapters: both governors misread African society, in opposite directions, and both visions failed.

Related

• Proposals to restore precolonial African institutions ignored irreversible social change since conquest. (similarity 0.90)
• La politique indigène administrators failed by ignoring accelerating urbanization and migration (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Social stability must never come at the cost of necessary change or social justice #corroborates (0.60) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1253
• Real change requires discarding rather than reforming the old religion #complicates (0.55) — Ambedkar, B R, Annihilation of Caste_ The Annotated…, 1010