French conquest destroyed Islamic empires that had already erased alternative local polities

Evidence

Because of the formidable threat that these men posed to the French, there was no question of maintaining either of their empires after their defeat. Ideology reinforced what necessity counseled. Confronted with such powerful adversaries, most colonial commanders began to see their fight as a republican crusade against “feudal” oppressors and religious tyrants with whom no compromise could be brooked—once again ignoring that their own incursions into West Africa were keeping “oppression” alive. 11 Yet in building up their own power, Samori and Umar and his son Amadu had effectively destroyed many preexisting political entities in the Western Sudan which might have offered the French an alternative political structure through which to rule. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 382

Categorization

• XREF: Central causal chain for the reader’s question: Islamization destroyed precolonial polities, then French republicanism dismantled Islamic empires, doubly erasing indigenous structures.