Question: who maintained power in the governments of the colonies

title: Indirect rule
text: From the early 20th century , French and British writers helped establish a dichotomy between British Indirect rule , exemplified by the Indian princely states and by Lord Lugard 's writings on the administration of northern Nigeria , and French colonial direct rule . As with British theorists , French colonial officials like Félix Eboué or Robert Delavignette wrote and argued throughout the first half of the 20th century for a distinct French style of rule that was centralized , uniform , and aimed at assimilating colonial subjects into the French polity . French rule , sometimes labeled Jacobin , was said in these writings to be based on the twin ideologies of the centralized unitary French government of the Metropole , with the French colonial ideology of Assimilation . Colonial Assimilation argued that French law and citizenship was based on universal values that came from the French Revolution . Mirroring French domestic citizenship law , French colonial law allowed for anyone who could prove themselves culturally French ( the `` Évolués '' ) to become equal French citizens . In French West Africa , only parts of the Senegalese `` Four Communes '' ever extended French citizenship outside a few educated African elite . This was contrasted with British Indirect Rule , which never foresaw subject Protectorates becoming legally assimilated into `` the home nations '' .