The completion of the French occupation of West Africa

The lands wrested by the French from Samory and Ahmadou together with the Senegalese conquests represented over half of what was to become French West Africa. The defeat of Ahmadou and Samory gave France a dominating position in the Western Sudan. France’s trading posts on the Guinea coast had been established from Senegal. Their natural hinterland consisted of parts of Samory’s empire and the Imamate of Futa Jallon which had remained independent of Samory. Both the French in Senegal and the British in Freetown had shown interest in the Futa Jallon. The Berlin Act stimulated the French to action in this area once more, particularly because of the presence of the British in the neighbouring Gold Coast Colony. Control of Mossi meant that the French could now link their colony of Dahomey with that of the Sudan.

Geography · African history and culture studies · History