French West Africa

French West Africa was a federation of French colonial territories in West Africa that existed from 1895 to 1958. At its height it comprised Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan, French Guinea, Ivory Coast, Upper Volta, Dahomey and Niger, covering about 4.7 million square kilometres, eight times the size of metropolitan France. The federation grew out of the older Senegal colony and the military territories conquered during the scramble for Africa. A governor-general, first based in Saint-Louis and after 1902 in Dakar, coordinated the colonies and reported to the Ministry of Overseas France. Most Africans remained French subjects without citizenship, except for the residents of the Four Communes of Senegal; the 1916 Blaise Diagne law extended citizenship to them. After the Second World War, reforms created territorial assemblies and extended representation, but the federation was dissolved in 1958 as the colonies moved toward autonomy and independence. Its administrative boundaries still shape the borders of eight West African states.