Labor coercion concentrated in Ivory Coast, Western Sudan, and Upper Volta.

Evidence

Three colonies in particular fit one or more of these descriptions, and they appear to have been the ones where coercion was most prevalent: Ivory Coast, the Western Sudan, and the recently created colony of Upper Volta. The administration resorted to force in Ivory Coast because of a chronic labor shortage, a perceived enormous cash-crop potential, and rich forest reserves. The Western Sudan and Upper Volta were susceptible to heavy coercion because of their suitability for cotton production and supposed manpower excess, respectively. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 784

Categorization

• XREF: Directly serves the reader’s goal: which colonies bore the coercive weight of the French republican labor system in West Africa, and why.