Question

why did the French take up the civilising mission during the 19th century​

Answer 1

The intellectual origins of the mission civilisatrice can be traced back the Christian tradition dating from the Middle Ages. European thinkers had naturalized social change by using the development metaphor. In the eighteenth century, history became to be seen as an unilinear unending inevitable process of social evolutionism with the European nations running ahead.Colonialists saw the "backward" nations as intrinsically incapable. "Progressive" thinkers like the Marquis de Condorcet postulated a holy duty to help those peoples "which, to civilize themselves, wait only to receive the means from us, to find brothers among Europeans and to become their friends and disciples".

Evolutionist views survived colonialism. Modernization theorists declared that traditional customs had to be destroyed, traditional societies had to adapt or to disappear.

Development criticism sees development therefore as continuation of the colonial civilizing mission. To become civilized has always meant to become "like us", therefore "Civilizing" now meant that in the long run all societies had to become consumer societies and renounce their native traditions and habits.

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