The French word civilization replaced the term police in the 1770s
Evidence
Febvre, “Civilisation,” makes it clear that before the French coined the term “civilization,” they had used the term “police” (un peuple police) to describe the contrast between European societies and barbaric ones. But by the 1770’s this word no longer adequately expressed the image the French had of themselves, for “police” failed to reflect French achievements in the moral and scientific realms. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 918
Categorization
Category: Definitional Content
- DEFINE: Etymology of ‘civilization’ — shows the term emerged as a self-image upgrade from ‘police,’ a crucial genealogy for the mission civilisatrice.
- SEED: An angle: the naming of a concept as self-flattery — how words like ‘civilization’ or ‘development’ are retrofitted to legitimate power. Connects to modern neocolonial language.
Related
- The French term civilization replaced police because police only captured order, not moral progress (similarity 0.95)
- Only republican France elevated the civilizing mission to official imperial doctrine. (similarity 0.82)
- French colonial officials defined civilization as multi-pronged material and moral uplift, not just education. (similarity 0.82)
- France’s mission civilisatrice originated conceptually with the Egyptian expedition of the Republic. (similarity 0.78)