Enfranchising rural Senegalese threatened to collapse the whole colonial order

Evidence

Diagne’s demand for the enfranchisement of the rural areas posed a direct threat to this arrangement. This was nothing less than the urban evolues’ bid for the peasants’ allegiance and an attempt to discredit the collaborating chiefs in the eyes of the rural masses. If this were to happen, the local French officials would have to create a new administration in Senegal-a frightening thought indeed, since French administrative costs were skyrocketing with postwar inflation, and French personnel remained scarce. A collapse of the system could only mean political chaos and economic disaster for Senegal and the entire federation. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 541

Categorization

• XREF: Shows republicanism arriving not as French imposition but as an indigenous bid displacing indirect rule through collaborating chiefs — central to reader’s goal.