French policy makers hoped to reenact 1789’s revolutions in Africa

Evidence

This speech, at once impassioned, universalistic, and patronizing, confirms that an entire generation of policy makers, in Paris as well as Dakar, shared Roume’s and Ponty’s vision of France’s mission in West Africa. Much of this mission, Viollette’s language reminds us yet again, was inherited from 1789. The victories of the First, Second, and Third Republics—or as many republicans imagined-could be reenacted in “feudal” Africa, producing a new democratic polity, culture, and society in the image of France. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 486

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s goal: the republican idea being imposed on West Africa.