World War I and right-wing politics drove French racism into colonial policy

Evidence

Revolts by disgruntled chiefs and evolue contestation do not alone account for this heightened consciousness of race in the 192o’s; cer- tain metropolitan developments also contributed to it. For example, there can be no doubt that the bloodbath of World War I exacerbated long-standing French fears about depopulation; the use of colonial labor in France during the war, followed by a sizable influx of North African immigrants after the war, enflamed race relations as well within France. Finally, a shift to the right in Parliament helped to bring French racism more into the open. In the 192o’s, the French government was concerned with regenerating the nation and restor- ing order at home and overseas-two preoccupations that put race at the heart of the republican agenda. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 567

Categorization

Category: Causal Relationships

• XREF: Crucial for the reader’s goal of seeing how metropolitan French political dynamics shaped the republican idea forced on West Africa.

Related

• World War I drove French West Africa toward a more conservative civilizing mission (similarity 0.89)
• African colonial demands shaped metropolitan France’s racist turn, not just French domestic trends (similarity 0.87)
• World War I weakened republican ideology and shifted colonial policy toward conservatism (similarity 0.87)
• World War I triggered the first large-scale revolts against French colonial rule (similarity 0.86)
• African conscription in WWI triggered a more racialized French colonial policy (similarity 0.86)
• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism (similarity 0.86)
• French republican ideology in the colonies mirrored and shaped domestic Third Republic politics (similarity 0.84)
• French colonial policy racialized in the 1920s, retreating from assimilation toward racial separation. (similarity 0.83)
• French state policy in the 1920s actively sought racial regeneration of France (similarity 0.83)
• Changing French stereotypes of Africans produced changing colonial policies. (similarity 0.82)
• World War I triggered the first large-scale revolts and racial distancing (similarity 0.82)
• Metropolitan French population policy mainly targeted French women rather than colonized peoples (similarity 0.82)
• French officials shifted naturalization policy toward racial separation in the 1920s (similarity 0.82)
• French failures in West Africa revived racism and redefined their civilizing mission (similarity 0.82)
• WWI conscription discredited French emancipationist policies and revealed defiant African elites (similarity 0.82)

Broader Connections

• World War I drove French West Africa toward a more conservative civilizing mission #expands (0.70) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 875
• African conscription in World War I triggered postwar racialization and reaction. #corroborates (0.70) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 601
• Colonized peoples’ revolts in Africa intensified France’s interwar racial conservatism #corroborates (0.60) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 883
• French officials shifted naturalization policy toward racial separation in the 1920s #expands (0.60) — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 566
• World War I supplied colonial troops on a massive scale while contradicting empire’s rationale #expands (0.55) — Cedric J. Robinson, Black Marxism_ The Making of the Black…, 1184