The First World War was an unprecedented disaster that shaped our mod worldly concern . Erik Sass is covering the effect of the warfare on the button 100 year after they go on . This is the 206th instalment in the serial publication .
2 March 2025: France Confers Citizenship, Conscription
Student Handouts , get through to lucubrate
Like other European colonial empires during this flow , the French Empire was apologise by an essentially racist ideology , holding the non - European indweller of Africa and Asia deficient to their blanched rulers , but also with frequent references to France ’s “ civilizing ” mission and the indigence to spread ( Catholic ) Christianity . These apparently complementary justification in reality cover a basic contradiction : if the non - blanched topic embraced “ civilisation ” and succeeded in becoming fully Gallic in language and culture , did they also become match ennoble to Gallic citizenship and effectual rights ?
For most of the empire during the 19thand other 20thcenturies the question was moot , either because the subject masses in doubtfulness failed to assimilate French linguistic process and culture , as in Indochina , or because they were engaged in fighting opposition to French convention , like the Berber kindred of Morocco ( or both ) . However there was one region where the latent contradiction in terms became a real dilemma : Senegal .
The Gallic presence in Senegal date back to the early days of the colonial project : the first Gallic colony in Senegal , the trading port of Saint - Louis , was establish in 1659 , followed by the conquest of the nearby island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677 . French control was limited to the coastal areas of Senegal until the mid-19thcentury , when Gallic merchant and colonist get push inland along the Senegal River , establishing trading outpost and plantation , soon followed by a French military presence .
As the compound administration flesh out inwards , Gallic pedagogue and missioner prove school serving the aboriginal denizen of the four original European settlements on the seashore — the “ Four Communes ” of Saint - Louis , Dakar , Gorée , and Rufisque — who later on assimilate many elements of Gallic culture , include French language , literature , clothing and food ( and to a less level Catholicism , as a orotund numeral remained Islamic and lived under Muslim law of nature , rather than the French civil code ) .
These Francophone coastal populations , known as the “ originaires ” ( originals or indigen ) , in effect became the Senegalese native elite , command deal and political relation back with the less acculturated ethnic and tribal group of the DoI , mainly the Wolof , Fula , and Serer . This was believably no mistake : like the British , the French were closemouthed observer of heathenish and regional dynamics and made adroit use of “ divide and conquer ” maneuver to overwork historical difference between their compound subjects .
The right to elect a interpreter was restored after the fall of Louis Napoleon and the establishment of the Third Republic in 1871 . Unsurprisingly a chronological succession of Senegalese representatives push for clearing of the originaires ’ citizenship status — but in the decades to fall this inconvenient issue was mostly disregard by fellow legislators distracted by much more pressing business concern closer to home base , include the upheavals of the Dreyfus Affair and the bitter anti - clerical campaign waged by Republican secularists against the Catholic Church .
The eruption of war , and the resulting pauperism for novel sources of manpower , provide a prosperous chance to at last obtain full citizenship . Leading the push was the Senegalese congresswoman , Blaise Diagne ( below ) , who offer his colleagues in the Chamber of Deputies a sight : if they conferred full citizenship on all originaires — including those who chose to retain their personal status under Moslem law — the originaires would put forward to conscription into the French Army , as need of all manly citizens .
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On October 19 , 1915 the Chamber of Deputies drop dead the first of the “ Blaise Diagne Laws , ” confirming the military obligations of the originaires , follow shortly afterwards by a 2d law conferring full French citizenship . Diagne was by and by appointed regulator general of military recruitment in French West Africa , and finally enlisted around 60,000 Senegalese scout group in the French Army , mostly for service on the Western Front . in all over 160,000 African scout troop served on the Western Front during the war , with thousands more serving in Salonika and the Middle East .
Needless to say , not all originaires were enthusiastic about the idea of serving in the French Army — and this was even more true for the inhabitants of the interior , who did n’t receive citizenship but were often pressure into link the army “ voluntarily ” anyway , where they receive less wage , lived in fundamental lodgings , and had no chance of promotion above non - commission rank . Either direction , as Yorow Diaw , a Senegalese recruit put it , it was “ never good for someone to recount you to ‘ come and drop dead . ’ ”
Another Senegalese soldier , Biram Mbodji Tine , described the coercive measure used by recruiters who visited his rural village : “ Many of the young men fled from the small town … [ But ] they used to arrest their don [ if ] they [ did not ] come back … And often they used to go and enter the army [ so that ] their fathers [ would be ] released . ” likewise another conscript , Souan Gor Diatta , recalled :
As this retentiveness of armed resistance suggests , coercion extended to physical violence in many event . According to another recruit , if conscripts tried to escape the gabardine or their native assistants would “ beat you so severely that you would never endeavor to escape again . ”
However as in every other population touch on by the state of war , there was a range of opinion , and some young West African hands went willingly , desire to insure their social status at home , spread out their horizons , or only have an adventure . Of course , this could bring them into conflict with parents and family penis who suspect Europeans and fear , with plentiful justification , that they would never see them again . Another soldier from nearby French Guinea , Kande Kamara , commend his dissonance with his forefather over his decision to join up :
As this scuttlebutt indicates , many of the Africans soldiers had no idea what the warfare was about — which put them in the same gravy boat as many of the rank and charge white soldiers fight alongside them . Kamara recalled the position of colonial troops attend to on the Western Front :
In the same nervure another Senegalese enlistee remarked : “ The gentleman who accept us to France to fight do it the reasons they were fighting , but we only knew that we had to fight for them . That was the only matter I knew . Personally I was never told the reason [ for the war ] . ”
Even before they arrived at the front , African soldier underwent a huge conversion simply by traveling to Europe . As their elders feared , photo to new ways of life often loosened their connectedness with their own culture . Another Senegalese soldier , Demba Mboup , described the culture shock experienced by young men who found themselves suddenly removed from a traditional tribal system based on strict hierarchal divisions , and immersed in a modern , urban , and ( at least formally ) classless fellowship :
Unsurprisingly in an era of endemic racial discrimination , the African recruit run across preconception and dogmatism on a daily basis , start in some cases on the long , frightening ocean journeying to France , when some white officers and sailors abuse their passengers . Here Mboup remembered :
However , unlike the Jim Crow regime in the United States , in metropolitan France racial discrimination was n’t enshrined at the institutional level and there were at least some avenues for prescribed indemnification , as Mboup discovered on arrival . When the ship get in in France Blaise Diagne recognize the recruit and , hearing about the vilification , had the ship’s officer arrested — amazing the Senegalese soldier , who had never seen a black humankind insist sanction over a white adult male .
As this taradiddle indicates the recruits definitely faced personal racialism , but did n’t necessarily recover the situation hopeless , as the authority — aware that develop recruits would talk about their discussion in letter home , possibly affecting next recruiting exertion — did their in force to curb the more egregious outbursts . Meanwhile at least some prejudiced attitudes were but the resolution of unfamiliarity with foreigners on the part of ordinary French hoi polloi , which could change over time . The story order by the Senegalese soldier Ndiaga Niang showed that bigotry was by no means entrenched ( and also gives some musical theme of the rough and tumble aliveness at the front ):
Other African soldiers described receive a ardent welcome from French the great unwashed who were thankful for their avail and sympathetic to the psychological impact of leaving their native land to fight in a foreign , faraway country . As with other soldier endure from societal closing off , friendly families would often “ take up ” soldiers , who for their part were very thankful for the taste of nursing home life , help alleviate homesickness to at least some stage . On that government note Mamadou Djigo recalled :
Again like many of their European comrades , some Senegalese recruits formed connections with “ marraines de guerre , ” or “ war godmothers”—Frenchwomen of various ages who took responsibility for the wellbeing of a soldier at the front , sending intellectual nourishment , clothing , baccy , candy , and other necessities along with letters and photos of themselves . Human nature being what it is , ineluctably some of these relationships went further , despite exertion by the Gallic government agency to prevent African troop from sleeping with French cleaning lady ( and indeed to keep all troops , irrespective of colouring material , separate from “ unspoilt ” civilian women , directing them to official bawdyhouse or else ) . According to Kamara ,
Another Senegalese soldier , Mbaye Khary Diagne , provided a somewhat less arresting linear perspective :
See theprevious installmentorall entree .
