Warfare and famine renewed slave-raiding that French conquest worsened.

Evidence

Finally, extensive warfare and war-induced famines in the Western Sudan in the 188o’s and 189o’s brought renewed slave-raiding in that region, with all its attendant miseries. Warring chiefs by tradition either enslaved those they had conquered, distributed their enemies as booty to their own soldiers, or sold them into slavery. Food shortages also led to an in- crease in slaves, as individuals searching for food became easy tar- gets for raiders, and owners sold off slaves they could no longer feed. The French conquest of the Western Sudan contributed to these trends by further destabilizing the region; indeed, the French mili- tary openly tolerated the continuing trade in slaves in many of their posts for reasons of political expediency. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 111

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• QUESTION: Direct evidence that French republican ‘civilizing mission’ officials tolerated slave trading for political expediency—worth investigating how this squared with official abolitionist rhetoric.
• XREF: Ties directly to the reader’s goal: French republicanism in West Africa operated pragmatically atop a slaveholding order.

Related

• French conquest worsened regional slave-raiding by tolerating the trade (similarity 0.91)
• The slave trade destabilized African kingdoms as early as 1526 (similarity 0.88)
• Labor shortages and Atlantic commerce drove West African slavery’s expansion. (similarity 0.87)
• African slaves replaced decimated Indians and colonial policy shifted to importing bozales only (similarity 0.86)
• Military necessity led French conquerors to perpetuate slavery in the Western Sudan. (similarity 0.86)
• Africa’s low population-to-land ratio helped drive its internal slave systems (similarity 0.85)
• Supply shifts emptied the slave trade of light-skinned captives, forcing reliance on black Africans (similarity 0.84)
• Africa was selected for slave labor because it sat outside Europe’s world-economy. (similarity 0.84)
• French conquest itself drove Africans into slavery while France posed as liberator. (similarity 0.84)
• French conquest itself drove displaced Africans into slavery while condemning it (similarity 0.84)
• French conquest itself drove displaced Africans into new slavery that abolition rhetoric masked. (similarity 0.84)
• The antislavery campaign justified French intervention as deliberately directing Africa’s evolution. (similarity 0.80)
• Slavery abolition rhetoric justified renewed French colonial expansion in Africa (similarity 0.80)
• French suppression of African institutions followed prolonged struggles with local leaders (similarity 0.80)
• Centuries of colonial recruitment as a human reservoir pushed West Africans to revolt (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• French conquest itself drove displaced Africans into slavery while condemning it #expands (0.80) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 350