Civilizing mission

The civilizing mission (French: mission civilisatrice) is a political rationale for military intervention and for colonization purporting to facilitate the cultural assimilation of indigenous peoples, especially in the period from the 15th to the 20th centuries.

The civilizing mission was primarily the cultural justification for the colonization and genocides in French North Africa, French West Africa, French Southeast Asia, French North America, French South America, French Caribbean, French Polynesia and French Melanesia. In the Russian Empire, it was also associated with the Russian conquest of Central Asia, russification and the genocide in that region. The civilizing mission was also a popular justification for the British and German colonialism. The Western colonial powers claimed that, as Christian nations, they were duty bound to disseminate Western civilization to what they perceived as heathen, primitive cultures. It was also applied by the Empire of Japan, which colonized Korea.

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