Domestic republican education ideals directly shaped French civilizing policy in West Africa.

Evidence

An equally strong desire to endow the recently enfranchised individual with the means to exercise responsibly his political rights (or her civil rights) also fueled the Republic’s continuing commitment to universal education in the Belle Epoque. Given the prevalence of these ideas and motives at home, it would have been surprising had there been no trace of them overseas, particularly when the very republican decision toeducate Africans had already been taken. In point of fact, republican values exercised a decisive influence on French civilizing ideas and actions in West Africa in a variety of areas, beginning with adapted education. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 278

Categorization

• XREF: Core to the reader’s stated purpose: connecting French republican ideology to its forcible export into West Africa.