French republican ideology legitimated colonization as the propagation of the most civilized, talented race

Evidence

The most important result of colonization is to increase world productivity. It is at the same time a great social force for progress. The earth belongs to humanity. It belongs to those who know best how to develop it [jeconder], increase its wealth, and in the process augment it, beautify it and elevate humanity. Colonization is the propagation of the highest form of civilization yet conceived and realized, the perpetuation of the most talented race, the progressive organization of humanity, the scientific mise en valeur of the planet. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 192

Categorization

• DEFINE: Sets out the core republican civilizing-mission doctrine: mise en valeur, racial hierarchy, world progress.
• XREF: connects to: the MOC “The Republic’s Impossible Embrace: How Universalism Turned Algeria from the Future of France into Its Undoing”