France’s railway-building ‘civilizing’ of peasants supplied the colonial template

Evidence

The French, naturally, did not see their conquest in such base terms as control and domination. Rather, as the quote from Napoleon’s manifesto suggests, their goal was to restore Egypt to its glorious past of “great cities” and “wide canals.” France would, they thought, save a once-great country from ruin and show the natives what they once were and could become again under French tutelage. This paternalistic logic became more developed as the European colonial mission grew; Rudyard Kipling immortalized it in his 1899 poem “The White Man’s Burden.” Its French variant, mission civilisatrice, was used to great success to win domestic consent for colonial conquests in a nation founded on the ideas of liberté, égalité, fraternité (liberty, equality, and fraternity). — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 115 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: The concept of a French mission to civilize was born with the Republic.; The civilizing mission won domestic French consent for colonial conquest — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 115; French colonial peace eroded village cohesion and elder authority

Related

• The civilizing mission won domestic French consent for colonial conquest (similarity 0.92)
• The concept of a French mission to civilize was born with the Republic. (similarity 0.90)
• Even critics of French colonial methods accepted the civilizing mission premise. (similarity 0.90)
• France framed its civilizing mission as a duty to defend individual rights (similarity 0.89)
• Civilizing-mission ideology won home consent among nations professing equality (similarity 0.87)
• Colonial powers devised civilizing-mission ideology to win domestic consent for conquest. (similarity 0.86)
• French colonial peace eroded village cohesion and elder authority (similarity 0.80)
• French authorities treated violent conquest as a precondition for civilizing progress (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The civilizing mission won domestic French consent for colonial conquest #expands (0.55) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 115
• French colonial peace eroded village cohesion and elder authority #exemplifies (0.45)