All Africans who were not considered assimiles qualified as subjects of the French Empire. From a legal point of view, an assimile was treated like a European and came under the jurisdiction of the French courts. … Meunier argues that this definition was left out of the final decree because it would unintention- ally place several categories of individuals under the jurisdiction of French laws against their wishes.

Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The …, loc. 1094