Upper Senegal and Niger

Upper Senegal and Niger was a colony of French West Africa, created by a decree of 21 October 1904 that reorganised the general government of the federation. It was formed from the earlier colonial territories of Senegambia and Niger and covered a vast area of the western Sahel, including the Middle Niger and the military region of Niger. Its capital was Bamako, which had been established as a French colonial post in 1883 and grew into an administrative and commercial centre on the Niger River. The colony was divided on 1 March 1919: the decree creating French Upper Volta detached a large eastern block, while the remaining territory was reorganised as French Sudan in the early 1920s. Upper Senegal and Niger therefore represented a short-lived but important administrative stage in the consolidation of French rule in the Sahel. Its boundaries, railway projects and system of cercles influenced the later colonial geography of Mali and Burkina Faso.