French officials justified applying coercive pressure to Africans as a legitimate civilizing right.

Evidence

The moral right to use coercion [is] the automatic corollary to the idea of colonization … Colonial rule rests upon an act of violence. Its only justification lies in the intention to substitute a more enlightened authority for the one in place, one capable of conducting the conquered peoples to a better existence … We have committed ourselves to this task … However, reliance upon the African’s self-interest alone does not suffice [to achieve the stated objective]. New needs have not appeared, because the values of our two civilizations are not the same and we wish to substitute our own for theirs. This result can only be achieved by exerting pressure upon individual actions. Such pressure is legitimate, on the sole condition that it is in the best general interest as well as that of the natives. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 813

Categorization

• XREF: Connects directly to the stated reading purpose: the republican ‘civilizing mission’ justifying coercion — and to broader literatures on the ‘civilizing mission’ ideology and colonial violence-as-redemption.
• DEFINE: Articulates the core doctrine of the French colonial civilizing mission — coercion as corollary of the duty to substitute ‘more enlightened’ authority.