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In Western Africa, practices of clientage were applied to incorporate merchants for as long as they accepted the terms of trade and residence. The establishment of imperial enclaves modified this dependency. Governors and consuls worked for a wider sphere of influence through African allies, treaty states, and stipending chiefs. Reversal of status from the 1870s followed from greater reliance on treaty jurisdiction and use of force against the Asante, some Yoruba states and the Hausa–Fulani emirates. But officials had to come to terms with the chiefdoms and hierarchies they found to meet the obligations of protectorate administration. Chiefs were utilized for judicial and financial purposes as official clients. In each of the colonial states the pattern of over-rule was conditioned by local political structures. Administrative histories provide contrasting examples of the decline of chieftaincy or its empowerment, in the face of elite competition in local government and in state politics during decolonization.

This chapter investigates the changes in the regional social structure that made it impossible for government officials to mobilize the workforce they needed to carry out modernization projects. Key in this regard was the breakdown of the castas. When the Pizarro-Rubio fell from power in 1930, there were no remaining elite coalitions that could take their place. Instead, the castas fragmented into a series of separate families, each having to fend for itself. This resulted in an unprecedented degree of infighting within the apparatus of government. For positions in government were the only way that elite families could maintain an elite station in life. From this point onward the apparatus of government became a terrain of conflict. This in turn undermined any and all efforts to modernize the Chachapoyas region. Those responsible for mobilizing the workforce became involved in bitter struggles with one another.

This chapter analyzes the increasingly futile efforts of government officials to conscript the regional population into the armed forces—a mundane activity they had undertaken with ease during the reign of the castas. The chapter shows the delusional nature of government plans, and how delusion was (mis)-represented as rationality and routine. The chapter also explores the authorities’ growing confusion about their inability to conscript, and their sense that what had formerly seemed ordinary was anything but that. Chapter Seven also examines the explanations that government officials generated to explain their inability to carry out activities that had formerly been routine—in which their attribute their difficulties to a series of phantom figures that are said to haunt government efforts to rule.

This chapter analyzes the authorities’ mounting difficulties in conscripting the population for public works—a second “routine” activity they had previously undertaken with great success. The chapter shows the delusional nature of government plans, and how delusion was represented as rationality and routine. The chapter also explores officials’ confusion about their inability to carry out the ordinary, everyday task of conscription, and their sense that what had formerly seemed ordinary was anything but that. Chapter Eight also examines the explanations that government officials generated to explain their inability to carry out activities that had formerly been routine—in which their attribute their difficulties to a series of phantom figures that are said to haunt government efforts to rule.

The conclusion considers the legacy and lessons of the Populist moment, with an eye toward contemporary movements on both the left and right. While the Populist movement collapsed in 1896, the experience had a clear impact on economic and political institutions in the United States. In particular, the potential for third-party mobilization has been limited by the introduction anti-fusion laws designed to combat the People’s Party, restricting the organizational vehicles available to would-be reformers. Examining the rise of Populist mobilization provides important theoretical insights into the nature of populism today. By way of comparison, this chapter revisits the argument that populism is a form of political practice bound up with the configuration of competing elites within the political field. To the extent that political identities are anchored in the physical environment, the resulting patterns of contention tend to persist over long periods of time.