French colonial assumptions about white survival in Africa reversed between 1900 and 1920.

Evidence

At the turn of the century, the assumption was that women and children were too weak to survive in West Africa. “We do not believe it will be possible for a long time yet for white children to be born and brought up in the equatorial or tropical climates of Africa” (Barot, Guide pratique, p. 329). That opinion had changed by the 192o’s, as is evident in such books as Chivas-Baron, La femme fran(:aise aux colonies; Faure, ed., La vie aux colonies. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1272