Resisting the Blood Tax: Coercive Capacity, Railroads, and Draft Evasion in Colonial West Africa

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-1-2024

Abstract

What effect did infrastructure expansion have on state coercive capacity? A growing body of literature ties infrastructure—particularly for communication and transportation—to increased state capacity and control. Yet, the same infrastructure that extends the reach of the state simultaneously alters local contexts in ways that may unravel social control and enable resistance to state-led coercion. Drawing on novel time series cross-sectional data on draft evasion in French West Africa—a measure of resistance to coercive policies—this article demonstrates that railway expansion did not neatly increase the colonial regime’s ability to monitor the population and effectively extract conscripts. Railway infrastructure disrupted many of the economic and social conditions that enabled coercion, including legibility and local compliance. Railways drove displacement and urbanization, altered opportunity costs and incentivized everyday resistance, and opened possibilities for exit. By heightening mobility and undermining conditions of social control, railroads were associated with higher draft evasion.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Journal of Politics

First Page

1207

Last Page

1220

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