Mobilizing Empire: The Citroën Central Africa Expedition and the Interwar Civilizing Mission (January 2020)
The Citroën Central Africa Expedition of 1924–25 has long attracted the attention of scholars, but most study the mediation and consumption of the journey in French mass culture. This article shifts the focus to the conceptualization, justification, and logistical planning of the Central Africa Expedition to trace the development of a close partnership between the private automobile manufacturer and various sectors of the French state. The Central Africa Expedition is indicative of the changing nature of the French civilizing mission during the interwar period, when the French transitioned to building transportation and communications infrastructure as part of the project of colonial mise en valeur (development). In their attempts to make empire profitable and governable, French businesses and administrators sought to use technology and infrastructure to enhance mobility in Africa, to the purported benefit of colonizer and colonized alike.
...MoreSimilar Citations
Book
J. P. (James Patrick) Daughton;
(2021)
In the forest of no joy : The Congo-Océan railroad and the tragedy of French colonialism
(/isis/citation/CBB103677958/)
Article
Jennifer Hart;
(2015)
Automobility, Technopolitics, and African Histories of Technology-in-Use in Twentieth Century Ghana
(/isis/citation/CBB009292177/)
Book
L'Estoile, Benoit de;
Neiburg, Federico G.;
Sigaud, Lygia;
(2005)
Empires, Nations, and Natives: Anthropology and State-Making
(/isis/citation/CBB000930046/)
Article
Jennifer Hart;
(2020)
Of Pirate Drivers and Honking Horns: Mobility, Authority, and Urban Planning in Late-Colonial Accra
(/isis/citation/CBB778627827/)
Book
Kate McDonald;
(2017)
Placing empire : Travel and the social imagination in imperial Japan
(/isis/citation/CBB023191329/)
Book
Joshua Grace;
(2021)
African Motors: Technology, Gender, and the History of Development
(/isis/citation/CBB668478842/)
Book
Mathieu Flonneau;
(2016)
L'automobile : au Temps des Trente Glorieuses: Un Rêve D’automobilisme [Automobile During the Glorious Thirties: Automobilism’s Dream]
(/isis/citation/CBB551018895/)
Book
Jennings, Eric Thomas;
(2006)
Curing the Colonizers: Hydrotherapy, Climatology, and French Colonial Spas
(/isis/citation/CBB001022606/)
Book
Anna Greenwood;
(2015)
Beyond the state: The colonial medical service in British Africa
(/isis/citation/CBB389644608/)
Book
Natasha Pairaudeau;
(2016)
Mobile citizens : French Indians in Indochina, 1858-1954
(/isis/citation/CBB063344047/)
Article
Stéphanie Ponsavady;
(December 2014)
Indigènes into Signs: Incorporating Indigenous Pedestrians on Colonial Roads in 1920s and 1930s French Indochina
(/isis/citation/CBB202874128/)
Article
Ertsen, M. W.;
(2007)
The Development of Irrigation Design Schools or How History Structures Human Action
(/isis/citation/CBB001180590/)
Article
Pritchard, Sara B.;
(2012)
From Hydroimperialism to Hydrocapitalism: “French” Hydraulics in France, North Africa, and Beyond
(/isis/citation/CBB001250763/)
Book
Karel Martens;
(2017)
Transport Justice: Designing fair transportation systems
(/isis/citation/CBB509375326/)
Article
Torsten Feys;
(August 2019)
Riding the rails of removal: The impact of railways on border controls and expulsion practices
(/isis/citation/CBB816347925/)
Book
Matthew James Crawford;
Joseph M. Gabriel;
(2019)
Drugs on the Page: Pharmacopoeias and Healing Knowledge in the Early Modern Atlantic World
(/isis/citation/CBB528992656/)
Book
Chakrabarti, Pratik;
(2014)
Medicine and Empire: 1600--1960
(/isis/citation/CBB001551020/)
Article
Tilley, Helen;
(2010)
Global Histories, Vernacular Science, and African Genealogies; or, Is the History of Science Ready for the World?
(/isis/citation/CBB000954054/)
Article
Tuffnell, Stephen;
(2015)
Engineering Inter-Imperialism: American Miners and the Transformation of Global Mining, 1871--1910
(/isis/citation/CBB001422658/)
Book
Adrian S. Wisnicki;
(2019)
Fieldwork of Empire, 1840-1900: Intercultural Dynamics in the Production of British Expeditionary Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB998942839/)
Be the first to comment!