Introduction

Summary

By the turn of the century the era of overt military conquest had come to an end. The conquest of the western Sudan had created heroes – Archinard, Gallieni and Marchand amongst the best known – but the financial strain it imposed on the colonial budget made these heroes the enemies of the colonial accountants in Paris. By the 1890s economy was the order of the day, and Chaudié, the Governor-General of AOF, was expected to restrain the activity of his military colleagues. The other imperative, linked to the need for economy, was organisation. Military conquest had not only been costly but it had also been haphazard. Legislation passed between 1895 and 1904 gradually imposed order on the situation with the creation of a federal government headed by the Governor-General based in Dakar. By 1904 the federal government had effective political control over the local governments of the various colonies of the Federation. Through its control of the federal budget, to which all colonies contributed their revenue raised from custom duties, the federal government also exercised economic control. The system survived more or less intact throughout the period covered in this study.