France ended protectorate tolerance of slavery under international and metropolitan pressure

Evidence

The advent of new civilian authorities in Dakar also marked the Third Republic’s desire to bring its overseas administration more in line with metropolitan values. As the I903 administration of justice already revealed, the new Government General was no longer willing to ignore customs repugnant to liberal principles, just because of local treaties signed with African chiefs. International pressure condemning all forms of slavery in Africa was now building as well. In I 890, France signed, along with other European powers, the General Act of the Brussels International Conference, which committed all signatories to combat slavery in their territories, “in order to bring to this vast continent the benefits of peace and civilization.” Parliament ratified the treaty in December I892. Finally, an important precedent was set in I895 in Madagascar, when Parliament decided to abolish slavery there as part of changing the island’s status from protectorate to full-fledged colony. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 333

Categorization

• XREF: Links to the republican mission civilisatrice theme running through the reader’s whole book — the shift from pragmatic tolerance to liberal-principle enforcement over African customs.