French steel recession drove lobbying for colonial railroads in West Africa.

Evidence

If the belief that opening up Africa to trade was an act of civilization was widespread in nineteenth-century France, the particular means that Roume stressed to effect this end-railroads and hygiene-can nevertheless be traced to a specific combination of industrial, scientific, and social developments in France after r8so. As the Union Coloniale’s man in West Africa, Roume certainly had the ear of those members with interests in the iron and steel industry. Railroad suppliers had become increasingly prominent in the Union’s ranks around 1900. Their presence was directly tied to an ongoing recession in the production of rails that had started in the 188o’s. These men lobbied hard for colonial railroad construction as a way out of the industry’s slump, with considerable success. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 198

Categorization

• XREF: Industrial recession driving imperial infrastructure directly parallels the book’s core theme of metropolitan interests shaping West African policy.