French indirect rule had actually weakened the chiefs it depended upon

Evidence

Although Merlin and Carde either were genuinely oblivious to, or else chose to ignore, the abuses by chiefs and their declining status and popularity, Carde’s successor, Jules Brevie, understood the situation all too well. Upon taking office, he immediately declared that a “crisis” of the chiefs’ authority existed in the countryside. This crisis was particularly upsetting not only to Brevie but also to Paris, because it forced them to confront the fact that chiefs, far from regaining their former ascendency over the population and helping civilization penetrate the masses, had become weaker under ten years of association. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 730

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the general irony that colonial ‘preservation’ of native authority structurally undermines it - echoes themes in Things Fall Apart about indirect rule’s corrosive effects.
• CANDY: The occupying power discovers its own policy has weakened the very local authorities it relies on - a neat irony usable in conversation.