Roume’s 1902-1904 reforms centralized and financially empowered French West Africa

Evidence

It would be Ernest Roume’s particular contribution to the history of French colonial rule in West Africa to oversee this reorganization from I 902 to I904-the last reorganization until the 192o’s. During those years he submitted a series of reforms to Paris that transformed the fledgling organization from a loose federation, with little authority, to one more like its recently reformed counterpart in Indochina-that is to say, a highly centralized and financially independent organ, capable of undertaking the public works program in which he so believed. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 152

Categorization

• XREF: Shows the template for centralization was imported from Indochina, evidencing a generic French colonial administrative model applied across empires.