French colonial slogans were invoked without any real implementation.

Evidence

The first step for those advocating assimilation should have been the creation of schools. Yet there exists a ridiculously small number of them … What can we offer those who attend? A few jobs as interpreters barely remunerated, without future, in which the unfortunate employees drag out a disappointing existence, rejected by both black and European society … Association? … Before we came there existed political institutions perfectly adapted to the country and to the level of civilization of its inhabitants … all that we have ignored … It would, however, have been easy and logical to associate these institutions in our undertakings. On the contrary we have held them at arm’s length. The chiefs we have chosen have been treated like servants … Apprivoisement? … The objective was to draw the hesitant toward us, to end the privations, to penetrate the population with the idea that our intervention was synonymous with progress, moral and material improvement, justice, security … — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 635

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates the three competing French doctrines — assimilation, association, apprivoisement — and shows each was invoked rhetorically while ignored in practice.