Postwar French reform acknowledged African elite aspirations to forestall challenges to rule

Evidence

These various reforms, although similar to Dakar’s earlier decisions to return chiefs to office, went beyond them in two respects. They introduced the principle of consultation, and they acknowledged for the first time the aspirations of the evolues. … Implicit in this argument was the assumption that only by becoming more forward-looking could chiefs hope to retain their prestige before the impatient and uprooted evolues, and thus prevent the latter from challenging the French. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 675

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s goal about republicanism being forced into West Africa — this shows the strategic, co-optive motive behind ‘consultation.’
• SEED: The co-optation logic — granting nominal inclusion to keep the educated elite loyal — is a pattern that could anchor an essay on how ‘reformist empire’ functions.