Paying the Blood Tax: Military Conscription in French West Africa, 1914-1929

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Periodical article

Title:	Paying the Blood Tax: Military Conscription in French West Africa, 1914-1929
Author:	Echenberg, Myron J.
Year:	1975
Periodical:	Canadian Journal of African Studies
Volume:	9
Issue:	2
Pages:	171-192
Language:	English
Geographic term:	French West Africa
Subjects:	colonialism military service History and Exploration Military, Defense and Arms
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/484079
Abstract:	The study of the impact of military service on French West Africa calls for no less than a social history not only of the Francophone African soldier but also of the returning veteran. This paper represents the beginning of a projected social history of the Franco- phone West African soldier and veteran from 1857 to 1958. The present text focuses on only one aspect of this social history, the immediate consequences for French West Africa of the introduction of universal peacetime conscription in 1919. The indirect and often hidden social and economic cost of peacetime conscription was an important contributing factor to the stagnation of French West Africa from 1919 forward. Ref., tables, appendix, French summary.