French colonial labor coercion operated without any legal basis until the 1920s

Evidence

Here is a native who has paid his taxes, carried out his prestations, completed his military requirement and all other legal obligations. We impose upon him an additional obligation, which will undoubtedly procure him appreciable advantages, but whose utility he does not recognize immediately. If morally the right to act this way can be extracted from the definition of colonialism, the text that would render it legal does not exist. This text must be instituted, and in the present state of the political evolution of West Africa, its most rational materialization consists of an annual program of agricultural production to be approved in this Council. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 854

Categorization

• QUESTION: Carde admits forced obligations were legally baseless — worth tracing how colonial law legitimized coercion after the fact.