French colonial officials fought tropical disease mainly to protect trade

Evidence

Realizing that loans by themselves would hardly suffice, Roume also took a number of legislative steps designed to improve health conditions in the federation. At the time of his arrival, West Africa still had a reputation for insalubrity, which a murderous outbreak of yellow fever in Saint-Louis in 1900 had helped dramatize. Roume was interested in stemming the spread of malaria and yellow fever in port cities, where trade stood to suffer the most from outbreaks of those diseases. Only when all member colonies were rid of these epidemics, he felt, would it be possible for West Africa to prosper. The recent discovery that these diseases were mosquito-borne led Roume to try and eliminate all possible breeding grounds for the insects. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 166

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to ‘A Mission to Civilize’ chapter themes of republican imperialism using science and hygiene as a civilizing rationale, and to the reader’s interest in how French republicanism was imposed on West Africa.