French colonial officials opposed blanket coercion while endorsing selective force

Evidence

Carde’s reasons for rejecting a regulated use of coercion to help Africans “better respect the law of labor” are revealing. Although he mentions that coercion would be an affront to “our ideas of personal liberty,” his main objection was that force would be counterproductive. His words suggest that excessive reliance on coercion was characteristic of the past, and that one of his principal aims was to discourage such practices in the future. However, if systematic violence were to be avoided, there were times when coercion was both legitimate and recommended: Sometimes the native, victim of his own carelessness, restricts his plantings to the point where they no longer suffice to feed him … — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 801