Synopses & Reviews
This book addresses a central but often ignored question in the history of modern France and modern colonialism: how did the Third Republic, highly regarded for its professed democratic values, allow itself to be seduced by the insidious and persistent appeal of a 'civilizing' ideology with distinct racist overtones? By focusing on a particular group of colonial officials in a specific setting - the governors general of French West Africa from 1895 to 1930 - the author argues that the ideal of a special civilizing mission had a decisive impact on colonial policymaking and on the evolution of modern French republicanism generally. By constantly invoking the ideas of 'civilization', colonial policy makers in Dakar and Paris managed to obscure the fundamental contradictions between 'the rights of man' guaranteed in a republican democracy and the forcible acquisition of an empire that violates those rights.
Synopsis
How the Third Republic was seduced by the persistent appeal of a 'civilizing' ideology.
Synopsis
This book addresses a central but often ignored question in the history of modern France and modern colonialism: how did the Third Republic, highly regarded for its professed democratic values, allow itself to be seduced by the insidious and persistent appeal of a 'civilizing' ideology with distinct racist overtones? By focusing on a particular group of colonial officials in a specific setting - the governors general of French West Africa from 1895 to 1930 - the author argues that the ideal of a special civilizing mission had a decisive impact on colonial policymaking and on the evolution of modern French republicanism generally. By constantly invoking the ideas of 'civilization', colonial policy makers in Dakar and Paris managed to obscure the fundamental contradictions between 'the rights of man' guaranteed in a republican democracy and the forcible acquisition of an empire that violates those rights.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. [327]-353) and index.