French state policy in the 1920s actively sought racial regeneration of France

Evidence

What was true of the empire’s impact on the culture of the metropole in the 192o’s must be true in other decades as well. Republican France has had a long history of partially and sometimes fully excluding certain groups from the larger democratic polity in the twentieth century-immigrants, Jews, and women, as well as colonial subjects, come to mind. The fact that until 1962 France had an empire in which such exclusion was the norm suggests that the practice of colonialism may well have reinforced and enabled these other forms of discrimination in the metropole in ways that have not yet been recognized. Another major conclusion of my study is that this cross-fertilization of ideas, habits, and trends between the Republic and the empire existed, and that it deserves more serious attention than it has received. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 886 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: French officials shifted naturalization policy toward racial separation in the 1920s; Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism; France’s racial reversal is embodied in the fates of the 1794 deputies (+5 more)

Related

• French officials shifted naturalization policy toward racial separation in the 1920s (similarity 0.92)
• French colonial policy racialized in the 1920s, retreating from assimilation toward racial separation. (similarity 0.88)
• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism (similarity 0.88)
• Colonial exclusion practices reinforced discrimination against immigrants, Jews, and women in France (similarity 0.88)
• French racism endured because it cooperated with progressive, liberal values (similarity 0.85)
• Postwar French colonial policy shifted toward racial separation and away from assimilation (similarity 0.83)
• Colonial exclusion practices enabled broader French domestic discrimination until 1962 (similarity 0.83)
• Interwar French racial regeneration emphasis grew from colonial challenges (similarity 0.83)
• French republican civilizing policies were fundamentally racist in practice (similarity 0.83)
• Interracial unions threatened French rule by blurring colonizer-colonized lines (similarity 0.83)
• Metropolitan French population policy mainly targeted French women rather than colonized peoples (similarity 0.82)
• World War I and right-wing politics drove French racism into colonial policy (similarity 0.82)
• French civilizing mission rhetoric and policy were racist throughout the Third Republic. (similarity 0.82)
• French failures in West Africa revived racism and redefined their civilizing mission (similarity 0.82)
• African colonial demands shaped metropolitan France’s racist turn, not just French domestic trends (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• Colonial exclusion practices reinforced discrimination against immigrants, Jews, and women in France #expands (0.60) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 886
• French racism endured because it cooperated with progressive, liberal values #expands (0.60)
• France tolerated concubinage before 1914 but condemned it in the 1920s #exemplifies (0.60)
• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism #corroborates (0.50)
• France targeted the veil deliberately in the 1930s after ethnological studies #exemplifies (0.50) — Frantz Fanon, A Dying Colonialism, 131
• France’s racial reversal is embodied in the fates of the 1794 deputies #complicates (0.40)
• Interracial unions threatened French rule by blurring colonizer-colonized lines #complicates (0.40)