Between Gradualism and Revolution: How Merchant Elites Shaped Colonial Collaboration and Anticolonialism

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Abstract

Traditional research often views the relationship between gradualists and revolutionaries as antagonistic, with elites typically occupying the moderate end of the political spectrum. This study challenges that dyadic view by asking why elites radicalize and turn against the very colonial states that granted them authority and opportunity. Using a paired comparison of how precolonial structures shaped anticolonialism in post-WWI French Indochina (Vietnam) and French West Africa (Senegal), this paper argues that the turn toward radical rupture versus reformist was conditioned by a “third” actor: local intermediaries that dominated the local economy. By analyzing sources from four colonial archives in Vietnam, Senegal, and France, I find that these intermediaries—Chinese merchants in Vietnam and Mouride Marabouts in Senegal—held central nodes in colonial trade networks, shaping intra-elite alliances and cleavages that ultimately determined the dominant political strategy in each context.

Author

• Austin Hoang-Nam Vo, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill