Colonial fears about mixed-race revolt drove legal barriers separating French and Africans.

Evidence

Confronted with this “Mendelian law,” colonial officials in the 192o’s could imagine only one possible outcome of continued metis- sage. Spurned by the country he or she most identified with, the metis was likely to revolt against it. The long-term solution to this problem, as we have seen, was for a variety of experts to recommend an end to metissage altogether, through French endogamy. The short-term solution was to regulate the legal status of existing metis. Dakar was no stranger to the debates. In 1930, the Government Gen- eral issued its first decree ever specifying when mixed-bloods of un- known parentage could become citizens. While this legislation was no more liberal than that affecting other African subjects, the mere fact that metis were considered worthy of a decree of their own sim- ply because they had one white parent confirms that new barriers were being established between Africans and French, particularly as the latter began contesting French rule in a dramatically changed colonial, national, and international context. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 600

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Ties to the civilizing mission’s promise of assimilation being contradicted by racial exclusion.

Related

• France created separate legal categories for mixed-race Africans to reinforce colonial hierarchy (similarity 0.90)
• A 1930 decree singled out mixed-bloods, entrenching racial barriers (similarity 0.87)
• Postwar French colonial policy shifted toward racial separation and away from assimilation (similarity 0.81)
• Interracial unions threatened French rule by blurring colonizer-colonized lines (similarity 0.81)
• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism (similarity 0.81)
• French colonial policy racialized in the 1920s, retreating from assimilation toward racial separation. (similarity 0.81)
• West African revolts forced Dakar to reverse its assimilationist policies (similarity 0.81)
• African colonial demands shaped metropolitan France’s racist turn, not just French domestic trends (similarity 0.80)
• African inclusion demands triggered stricter racial boundary-drawing by French officials (similarity 0.80)
• Fear of half-caste revolt drove policy toward French endogamy (similarity 0.80)
• Colonial administrators saw citizenship-by-birthright as an arbitrary and dangerous precedent dividing Africa. (similarity 0.79)
• World War I and right-wing politics drove French racism into colonial policy (similarity 0.79)
• World War I drove French West Africa toward a more conservative civilizing mission (similarity 0.79)
• Republicans saw no contradiction between democracy and colonialism because they deemed Africans barbarians. (similarity 0.79)
• Postwar colonial officials met African demands for inclusion with surveillance and more restrictive boundaries (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism #corroborates (0.70) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 883
• World War I and right-wing politics drove French racism into colonial policy #expands (0.50) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 567