View source for French West Africa

{{Infobox Former Country
|native_name = ''Afrique occidentale française''
|conventional_long_name = French West Africa
|common_name = French West Africa
|continent   = Africa
|status      = Federation
|status_text = Federation of [[French colonial empires|French colonies]]
|empire      = France
|year_start  = 1895
|year_end    = 1958
|event_start =
|date_start  = 27 October
|event_end   = [[French Fifth Republic|Fifth Republic]]
|date_end    = 5 October
|p1          = Senegambia and Niger
|flag_p1     = Flag of France.svg
|p2          = French Sudan
|flag_p2     = Flag of French Sudan.svg
|p3          = French Guinea
|flag_p3     = Flag of France.svg
|p4          = French Upper Volta
|flag_p4     = Flag of France.svg
|p5          = French Dahomey
|flag_p5     = Flag of France.svg
|p6          = French Togoland
|flag_p6     = Flag of Togo (1957-1958).svg
|s1          = French Community
|flag_s1     = Flag of France.svg
|s2          = Dahomey
|flag_s2     = Flag of Benin.svg
|s3          = Guinea
|flag_s3     = Flag of Guinea.svg
|s4          = Ivory Coast
|flag_s4     = Flag of Cote d'Ivoire.svg
|s5          = Mali Federation
|flag_s5     = Flag of Mali 1959-1961.svg
|s6          = Mauritania
|flag_s6     = Flag of Mauritania.svg
|s7          = Niger
|flag_s7     = Flag of Niger.svg
|s8          = Upper Volta
|flag_s8     = Flag of Upper Volta.svg
|image_flag  = Flag of France.svg
|flag        = French West Africa
|image_map   = french west africa.png
|image_map_caption = French West Africa after [[World War II]]<br><br>'''Green''': French West Africa<br>'''Dark grey''': Other French possessions<br>'''Darkest grey''': French Republic
|capital           = [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint Louis]] (1895-1902)<br>[[Dakar]] (1902-1960)
|common_languages  = [[French language|French]], Various African languages were also spoken by natives
|currency          = [[French West African franc]]
}}

[[File:AOFMap1936.jpg|thumb|right|Map of the seven colonies of the AOF 1936.  Note that the eighth colony, [[Upper Volta]] was in this period parceled between its neighbors. French Sudan also contains a large portion of what is today the eastern half of Mauritania.]]
[[File:GoréePalais.JPG|thumb|right|The former Governors palace on [[Gorée Island]], Dakar, Senegal.]]
[[File:AOF journal 1938.JPG|thumb|right|160px|''Afrique occidentale française'' Commercial Relations Report, showing the profile of a [[Fula people|Fula]] woman.  January–March 1938.]]
'''French West Africa''' ({{lang-fr|'''Afrique occidentale française''', AOF}}) was a [[federation]] of eight [[French colonial empires#Second French colonial empire|French colonial]] territories in [[Africa]]: [[Mauritania]], [[Senegal]], [[French Sudan]] (now [[Mali]]), [[French Guinea]] (now [[Guinea]]), [[Côte d'Ivoire]] (Ivory Coast), [[French Upper Volta|Upper Volta]] (now [[Burkina Faso]]), [[Dahomey]] (now [[Benin]]) and [[Niger]]. The federation was formed of individual coastal colonies the French had first seized as trading posts in the 17th and 18th centuries.

==History==

As the French pursued their part in the [[Scramble for Africa]] in the 1880s and 1890s, they conquered large inland areas, and at first ruled them as either a part of the Senegal colony, or as independent entities.  These conquered areas were usually governed by French Army officers, and dubbed  "Military Territories." In the late 1890s, the French government began to rein-in the territorial expansion of its "officers on the ground", and transferred all the territories west of [[Gabon]] to a single Governor based in Senegal, reporting directly to the Minister of Overseas Affairs. The first Governor General of Senegal was named in 1895, and in 1904, the territories he oversaw were formally named '''French West Africa''' (AOF).  Gabon would later become the seat of its own federation [[French Equatorial Africa]] (AEF), which was to border its western neighbor on the modern boundary between [[Niger]] and [[Chad]].

Following [[World War II]], the [[French Fourth Republic]] began a process of extending limited political rights in its colonies.  In 1946, the [[loi Lamine Guèye]] granted some limited citizenship rights to natives of the African colonies.  The 1956 Loi Cadre created popularly elected Territorial assemblies with only consultative powers. The French Empire was renamed the [[French Union]].  The Constitution of the [[French Fifth Republic]] of 1958 again changed the structure of the colonies from the French Union to the [[French Community]].  Each territory was to become a "Protectorate" with the consultative assembly named a National Assembly.  The Governor appointed by the French was renamed the "High Commissioner," and made head of state of each territory.  The Assembly would name an African as Head of Government with advisory powers to the Head of State.

Legally, the federation ceased to exist after the September, 1958 [[referendum]] to approve this [[French Community]].   All the colonies except for [[Guinea]] voted to remain in the new structure.  Guineans<ref>[http://www.asnom.org/en/151_aof.html]</ref> voted overwhelmingly for independence. In 1960, a further revision of the French constitution, compelled by the failure of the [[French Indochina War]] and the tensions in [[Algeria]], allowed members of the French Community to unilaterally change their own constitutions.  The new nations of West Africa were born.  Senegal and former French Sudan became the [[Mali Federation]] (1960–61), while Côte d'Ivoire, Niger, Upper Volta and Dahomey subsequently formed the short-lived [[Sahel-Benin Union]], later the [[Conseil de l'Entente]].

==Territorial changes==
The administrative structure of French colonial possessions in West Africa, while more homogeneous than neighboring British possessions, was marked by variety and flux. Throughout the history of the AOF, individual colonies and military territories were reorganised numerous times,<ref>for a progression of maps of the border changes of individual sub-entities, see:<br />[http://www.zum.de/whkmla/histatlas/westafrica/haxfrwa.html WHKMLA Historical Atlas of French West Africa].</ref> as was the ''Government General'' in Dakar.   [[French Upper Volta]] was formed and parceled out to neighboring colonies twice.  The future states of [[Mauritania]] and [[Niger]] remained out of the federation until the 1920s and 1940s respectively.{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}  They were ''Military Territories'', directly controlled by the [[French Army]].{{Citation needed|date=January 2011}}  World War II, and the passing of the [[Loi Cadre]] (''Overseas Reform Act of 1956''), both radically restructured the administration of the colonies. [[French Togoland]], seized by France from [[Germany]] in World War I, was for most of this period not nominally a colony but a [[Mandate territory]].

==Federal structure==
In theory, the Governors General of the AOF reported directly to the [[Minister of Overseas France|Minister of Colonies]] in Paris, while individual colonies and territories reported only to Dakar. Originally created in 1895 as a union of [[Senegal]], [[French Sudan]], [[French Guinea]] and [[Côte d'Ivoire]] only, the federation was placed on a permanent footing in 1904.  A governor-general was based first in [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]], then (from 1902) in [[Dakar]] (both in Senegal, the oldest French settlement). The AOF subsequently expanded to neighbouring French-ruled territories: [[Dahomey]] was added in 1904, after having been put under colonial tutelage in 1892; [[Mauritania]] in 1920,<ref>[http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query2/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0022)]</ref> and when the territory of [[Republic of Upper Volta|Upper Volta]] was divided from [[French Sudan]] by colonial decree in 1921, it automatically also entered the AOF.<ref>[http://www.asnom.org/en/151_aof.html#h]</ref>  Between 1934 and 1937, the [[League of Nations]] [[Mandate territory]] of [[French Togoland]] was subsumed into [[Dahomey]], and between its seizure from Germany in World War I and independence it was administered through the AOF. In 1904, both [[Mauritania]] and [[Niger]] were classed "''Military Territories''": ruled by the AOF in conjunction with officers of the [[French Colonial Forces]].

==Colonial administration==
Each colony of French West Africa was administered by a Lieutenant Governor, responsible to the Governor General in Dakar.  Only the Governor General received orders from Paris, via the [[Minister of Overseas France|Minister of Colonies]].  The Minister, with the approval of the [[French National Assembly]], chose Lieutenants Governor and Governors General.

===Governors General<ref>[http://www.worldstatesmen.org/Senegal.html www.worldstatesmen.org/Senegal.html]</ref>===
[[File:Joost van Vollenhoven.gif|thumb|left|100px|[[Joost van Vollenhoven]] : 1917-1918]]
[[File:NoelBallay.jpg|thumb|left|100px|Noel Ballay : 1900-1902]]
* [[Jean-Baptiste Chaudié]] : 1895-1900
* [[Noel Ballay]] : 1900-1902
* [[Ernest Roume]] : 1902-1907
* [[William Merlaud-Ponty]] : 1908-1915
* [[Joseph Clozel|François Joseph Clozel]] : 1916
* [[Joost van Vollenhoven]] : 1917-1918
* [[Martial Merlin]] : 1918-1923
* [[Jules Carde]] : 1923-1930
* [[Jules Brévie]] : 1930-1936
* [[Marcel de Coppet]] : 1936-1938
* [[Léon Cayla]] : 1939-1940
* Pierre Boisson : 1940-1943
* Pierre Cournarie : 1943-1946
* René Barthès : 1946-1948
* [[Paul Béchard]] : 1948-1951
* Bernard Cornut-Gentille : 1952-1956
* Gaston Custin : 1956-1957.

;High Commissioners
* Gaston Custin : 1957-1958
* [[Pierre Messmer]] : 1958

===Grand Council of French West Africa===
[[File:Réunion-gouverneurs-Musée-Colonies.JPG|thumb|right|A gathering of former Governors of Senegal in Dakar, 1950s.]]
Beginning in 1946,{{Citation needed|date=January 2009}} a [[Grand Council of French West Africa]] was created in Dakar. Two representatives from each colony, usually the Lieutenant Governor and a representative of the French population there, were seated. This council had only consultative powers over the office of the Governor General. The functioning of such bodies rested upon the [[Indigénat]] legal code of 1885.

Those native to the colonies of France were not citizens of France. Rather they were "French Subjects", lacking rights before the law, property ownership rights, rights to travel, dissent, or vote. The exception were the [[Four Communes]] of Senegal: those areas had been towns of the tiny Senegal Colony in 1848 when, at the abolition of slavery by the [[French Second Republic]], all residents of France were granted equal political rights. This special status was quickly overturned. Anyone able to prove they were born in these towns was legally French. They could vote in parliamentary elections, which had been previously dominated by white and [[Métis]] residents of Senegal.

In 1914, the first black man, [[Blaise Diagne]], was elected from one of these Communes, Saint-Louis. In 1916, Diagne pushed through the National Assembly  a law ([[Loi Blaise Diagne]]) granting full citizenship to all residents of the so-called Four Communes. In return, he had promised to help recruit millions of Africans to fight in World War I. Thereafter, black Africans of [[Dakar]], [[Gorée]], [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]], and Rufisque could vote to send representatives to the French National Assembly, as well as to the Grand Council.

==Local administration==
Despite this state of flux, and with the exception of the Senegalese Communes, the administrative structure of French rule at the lower levels remained constant, based upon the [[Cercle (French colonial)|Cercle]] system.  This was the smallest unit of French political administration in French Colonial Africa that was headed by a European officer. They might range in size, but [[French Sudan]] (modern Mali) consisted of less than a dozen Cercles for most of its existence.  Thus, a Cercle Commander might be the absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of Africans.

===Cercles===
[[File:Cccfkn.JPG|thumb|right|200px|A "Section Chief" in the building of the [[Dakar-Niger Railway]], pushed by African workers.  [[Kayes, Mali]], 1904.]]
A Cercle consisted of several [[Canton (country subdivision)|cantons]], each of which in turn consisted of several villages, and was almost universal in France's African colonies from 1895 to 1946.

The "Cercle Commander" ("''commandant de cercle''") was subject to the authority of a District Commander,  and the government of the colony above him, but was independent of the Military structure (outside of Military areas, e.g.: modern [[Niger]] and [[Mauritania]] prior to the Second World War).  Below the "Cercle Commander" were a series of African "Chefs de canton"  and "Chefs du Village": "chiefs" appointed by the French and subject to removal by the Europeans.  As well, the "Cercle Commander" made use of a large number of servants, employees, and African officers such as the "Gardes-de-cercle" police, any military units seconded to them by government authorities, and sub-administrators such as the ''Precepteur du marché'' trade inspectors, etc.

Because of administrative practice and geographic isolation, Cercle Commanders had a tremendous amount of power over the lives of the Africans around them.  The Cercle Commanders also had tremendous power over the economic and political life of their territories.  Legally, all Africans outside the [[Four Communes]] of Senegal were "subjects" under the [[Indigénat]] legal code of 1885. This code gave summary powers to French administrators, including the rights to arrest, try, punish and imprison subjects.  It also gave French local authorities the right to requisition forced labour, usually limited to able-bodied men for a few weeks a year, but in practice having few restrictions.  These "tools" included the [[Civilizing mission]] ideology common in the period following the First World War.  Every new Cercle Commander might well bring with him vast projects for development and the restructuring of the people's lives he governed.
[[File:Dakar king N'Diagaye 1900s.jpg|thumb|right|King N'Diagaye, a local chief near Dakar Senegal, receiving a French Administrator. c.1910.]]

===Chiefs===
The other official office particular to the local administration of French West Africa was the "Chief".  These were Africans appointed by French officials for their loyalty to France, regardless of their rights to local power. These chiefs were assigned created territories based on the scale of a French Canton, as well as on the small scale tribal structures the French found in the coastal areas of the [[Rivières du Sud]] colony in the 1880s, modern Guinea. The Canton, then, was much smaller than, and qualitatively different from, the precolonial states of the [[Sahel]] (such as the [[Toucouleur Empire]]) which the French would later conquer.<ref>[[Ruth Ginio]], [http://etudesafricaines.revues.org/index146.html French Colonial Reading of Ethnographic Research], Cahiers d'études africaines, 166 | 2002, [En ligne], mis en ligne le 10 juin 2005. Consulted 16 January 2009.</ref>

They were styled "Chefs de canton", "Chefs du Village", or occasionally taking the title of Precolonial states assimilated by the French structure whole.  This last was uncommon, but became more prevalent in the later colonial territories conquered, as fewer administrators were available to rule over larger, less populated territories with strong pre-colonial state structures.

Where these larger polities resisted the French, they were often broken into small chiefdoms.  Larger polities which presented a segment of the elite who would work with the French, were maintained under new leadership. The [[Sultanate of Agadez|Sultan of Agadez]], the [[Sultanate of Damagaram|Sultan of Damagaram]], and the [[Djermakoy of Dosso]] are examples of these large scale "Chefs de canton".  But even these rulers were replaced by individuals handpicked by French authorities.

Regardless of source, chiefs were given the right to arm small numbers of guards and made responsible for the collection of taxes, the recruitment of forced labour, and the enforcement of "Customary Law".  In general, Canton Chiefs served at the behest of their Cercle Commander, and were left to see to their own affairs as long as calm was maintained and Administrative orders were carried out.

== Geography ==
With an area of some {{convert|4689000|km2|sqmi}} (mostly the [[desert]] or semi-desert interior of [[Mauritania]], [[French Sudan|Sudan]] and [[Niger]]) extending from Africa's westernmost point to the depths of the [[Sahara]], the federation contained more than ten million inhabitants at its creation, and some 25 million at its dissolution. The AOF included all of the [[Senegal River]] valley, most of the [[Niger River]] valley, and most of the West African [[Sahel]] region. It also included tropical forests in Côte d'Ivoire and Guinea, the [[Futa Djallon]] highlands, and the [[Aïr Mountains]] of modern Niger.

===Territories===
*[[History of Côte d'Ivoire#French Period|Côte d'Ivoire]]
*[[French Dahomey|Dahomey]]
*[[French Sudan]]
*[[French Guinea|Guinea]]
*[[History of Mauritania#French colonization and post-colonial history|Mauritania]]
*[[History of Niger#Colonization|Niger]]
*[[History of Senegal|Senegal]]
*[[French Upper Volta|Upper Volta]]
*[[French Togoland]]

==See also==
*[[Colonialism]]
*[[Decolonization]]
*[[François-Victor Équilbecq]]
*[[List of French possessions and colonies]]
* [[French colonial Empire]]
*[[Postage stamps and postal history of French West Africa]]
*[[French Equatorial Africa]]
*[[French colonial flags]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}
{{refbegin}}
*Robert Aldrich. Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion. Palgrave MacMillan (1996) ISBN 0312160003.
*Alice L. Conklin. A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa 1895-1930. Stanford: Stanford University Press (1998), ISBN 9780804729994.
*Patrick Manning. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880-1995. Cambridge University Press (1998) ISBN 0521642558.
*[[Jean Suret-Canale]]. Afrique Noire: l'Ere Coloniale (Editions Sociales, Paris, 1971); Eng. translation, ''French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 1900 1945''. (New York, 1971).
*Crawford Young. The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective. Yale University Press (1994) ISBN 0300068794
{{refend}}

==External links==
*[http://www.sandafayre.com/atlas/fwaia.htm Map of the progression of French expansion in West Africa in the period 1885-1920]. Related maps of French West African expansion are at [http://www.sandafayre.com/atlas/fwaf.htm sandafayre.com, Sandafayre Stamp Atlas: French West Africa.  Dated 2000, retrieved January 2008].

{{Former French colonies}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:West Africa, French}}
[[Category:1958 disestablishments]]
[[Category:Territorial evolution]]
[[Category:Former countries in Africa]]
[[Category:Former colonies of France]]
[[Category:French West Africa| ]]
[[Category:History of Africa]]
[[Category:West Africa|French]]
[[Category:History of Senegal]]
[[Category:History of Mauritania]]
[[Category:History of Benin]]
[[Category:History of Mali]]
[[Category:History of Burkina Faso]]
[[Category:History of Niger]]
[[Category:History of Guinea]]
[[Category:History of Côte d'Ivoire]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1895]]

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[[cs:Francouzská Západní Afrika]]
[[da:Fransk Vestafrika]]
[[de:Französisch-Westafrika]]
[[es:África Occidental Francesa]]
[[eu:Frantziar Mendebaldeko Afrika]]
[[fr:Afrique-Occidentale française]]
[[id:Afrika Barat Perancis]]
[[is:Franska Vestur-Afríka]]
[[it:Africa Occidentale Francese]]
[[lt:Prancūzijos Vakarų Afrika]]
[[nl:Frans West-Afrika]]
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[[no:Fransk Vest-Afrika]]
[[pl:Francuska Afryka Zachodnia]]
[[pt:África Ocidental Francesa]]
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[[sk:Francúzska Západná Afrika]]
[[fi:Ranskan Länsi-Afrikka]]
[[sv:Franska Västafrika]]
[[uk:Французька Західна Африка]]
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