Faith in infrastructure blinded colonial planners to labor and geography needs

Evidence

One reason for this state of affairs was that the very importance Dakar attached to infrastructure effectively blinded the administration to the variety of geographical conditions and cultural and demographic barriers, which would also have to be taken into account before a program of rapid mise en valeur could successfully take place. … French doctrine obscured this important reality. One result was that, in the first fifteen years of the federation, Dakar paid little attention to mobilizing or regulating the African labor necessary for its policy of colonial development, especially outside the oldest urban centers of the federation, the Four Communes of SenegaJ. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 230

Categorization

• DEFINE: ‘mise en valeur’ (development/valorization) and the ‘Four Communes of Senegal’ are terms defined contextually here as core to French colonial doctrine.