The Use of Education as a Control Mechanism in the Process of Colonialism and Slavery: A Study on the Views of Alexis de Tocqueville

Year 2025, Volume: 2 Issue: 1, 43 - 55, 28.08.2025

Ali Yalçın

https://doi.org/10.26650/hupej.2025.2.1.1658827

Abstract

This study examines how education was used as a control mechanism in the processes of colonialism and slavery within the framework of Alexis de Tocqueville's views. The research was conducted through document analysis and analysed on the basis of Tocqueville's works and the literature on the subject. Colonialism functioned not only as a means of economic and political domination but also as a mechanism of cultural transformation and ideological domination through education. While evaluating France's educational policies in Algeria, Tocqueville stated that education was used to assimilate colonial peoples in line with Western values and to legitimise colonial rule. However, the fact that these policies were not adopted by the local population and the discriminatory nature of the education system reveal that education was part of the strategy to ensure the continuity of the colonial order. Tocqueville also discussed the economic and social effects of the abolition of slavery but emphasised the limited ability of freed slaves to adapt to social life through education. In this context, the study shows that education in the processes of colonialism and slavery was not only a tool for the transfer of knowledge but also functioned as a mechanism of sovereignty that ensured social control and reinforced existing power relations.

Keywords

Alexis de Tocqueville , colonialism , slavery , education , control mechanism , cultural sovereignty

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