France Builds an Empire in West Africa

France built the largest colonial territory in West Africa, expanding from its old base in Senegal. Governor Louis Faidherbe, who served in the 1850s and 1860s, founded Dakar in 1857 and created the tirailleurs sénégalais, African soldiers who later did much of France's fighting. From the 1880s French forces pushed east toward the Niger River and Lake Chad, meeting strong resistance from states such as the empire of Samori Touré and the kingdom of Dahomey, whose King Behanzin fought the French until 1894.

France grouped its territories into French West Africa in 1895, ruled from Saint-Louis and later Dakar. French policy spoke of assimilation, the idea that Africans could become French citizens, but in practice only a small minority, mainly in the Four Communes of Senegal, gained rights. Most people lived under the indigénat, a separate legal code that allowed punishment without trial.