Postwar French officials banned concubinage out of fear for colonial authority

Evidence

To some extent, these recommendations followed inevitably from the fact that more white women were living in the colonies in the 192o’s than ever before. French colonial rule had become entrenched enough to include spouses, and the medical establishment now considered West Africa safe for women as well as men. Nevertheless, larger fears about the future of French authority also determined the postwar ban on petites epouses (as concubines were called) and enthusiasm for white endogamy. Like the growing doubts about assimilation, both represented a distancing from the colonized in the wake of African resistance to the French. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 587

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the term ‘petites epouses’ — colonial concubines — that the French banned in the 1920s.
• ADDENDUM: Relevant to the reader’s focus on republicanism imposed on West Africa: racial endogamy and distance from colonized subjects mark the retreat of assimilationist republicanism in the face of resistance.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 587
• XREF: connects to: France tolerated concubinage before 1914 but condemned it in the 1920s; Interracial unions threatened French rule by blurring colonizer-colonized lines; Racist marriage laws drove free women of color into concubinage — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 247

Broader Connections

• France tolerated concubinage before 1914 but condemned it in the 1920s #corroborates (0.80)
• Interracial unions threatened French rule by blurring colonizer-colonized lines #expands (0.60)
• Racist marriage laws drove free women of color into concubinage #corroborates (0.50) — Dubois, Laurent, Avengers of the New World_ The Story of…, 247