Postwar price shocks redirected French industry toward colonial sourcing

Evidence

Dramatic postwar increases in U.S. and Indian cotton prices encouraged a new interest in the empire by French textile manufactures, while the war had convinced the soap and oil industries that West Africa could and should become France’s exclusive supplier of peanuts. … Numerous new organizations promoting a more scientific approach to colonial agriculture also appeared after the war. … These groups believed that modern applied science and agricultural experts held the key to successful overseas development. Thanks to their efforts, greater resources were devoted to research on colonial agriculture in Paris and Dakar during the interwar years. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1366

Categorization

• CANDY: The soap and oil industry’s wartime ‘conviction’ that West Africa should become France’s exclusive peanut supplier is a striking instance of metropolitan economic need shaping colonial doctrine.