Immediately after restoring peace through military action in Chad, the French colonial power attempted to establish a completely new social and economic order. New trade arteries, oriented from the coast to the hinterland, were supposed to gradually substitute centuries old trans-Saharan trade routes. However, since the early 1990s there has been an intensive growth in trade and labor migrations between Chad and the Arab world. Should this trend continue, would it not indicate that colonization was merely an interlude?