... and the colonized. Under this policy, the Africans were allowed to preserve their own customs insofar as they were compatible with French interests. An indigenous elite trained in French administrative practice formed an intermediary group between the French and the Africans. However, assimilation or association was not France's main focus and it became apparent that the ideologies of assimilation and association were ways developed to serve French economic and political interest. Raymond F. Betts, argues that the French did not have a real interest in colonization, but they became one of the largest imperial powers of the world. The French adopted the philosophy of assimilation as their policy for colonization. Though the colony was to be made over in the French image, to the French, it could never be as perfect. The policy of assimilation became inadequate and the new policy of association was brought about. Association meant ...

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