Back غرب إفريقيا الفرنسي Arabic África Occidental Francesa AST فرانسه باتی آفریقاسی AZB Французская Заходняя Афрыка Byelorussian Френска Западна Африка Bulgarian Afrique-Occidentale française BM ফরাসি পশ্চিম আফ্রিকা Bengali/Bangla Afrika ar C'hornaoueg C'hall Breton Àfrica Occidental Francesa Catalan Francouzská Západní Afrika Czech
French West Africa | |
|---|---|
| 1895–1958 | |
 | |
| Anthem: La Marseillaise | |
 French West Africa (green) after World War II | |
| Status | Federation of French colonies |
| Capital | Saint Louis (1895–1902) Dakar (1902–1960) |
| Common languages | French (official) Arabic, Fula, Songhay, Hausa, Mossi, Mandinka, Wolof, Bambara, Berber languages, Mande languages widely spoken |
| Religion | Roman Catholicism, Islam, Animism[1][2][3] |
| Historical era | New Imperialism |
• Established | 27 October 1895 |
| 5 October 1958 | |
| Area | |
• Total | 4,689,000[4] km2 (1,810,000 sq mi) |
| Currency | French West African franc |
French West Africa (French: Afrique-Occidentale française, AOF) was a federation of eight French colonial territories in West Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea (now Guinea), Ivory Coast, Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Dahomey (now Benin) and Niger. The federation existed from 1895 until 1958. Its capital was Saint-Louis in Senegal until 1902, and then Dakar until the federation's collapse in 1960.
With an area of 4,689,000 km2, French West Africa was eight times the size of Metropolitan France.[4] French Equatorial Africa had an additional area of 2,500,000 km2.[4]
- ^ Lawrance, Benjamin Nicholas (2007). Locality, Mobility, and "nation": Periurban Colonialism in Togo's Eweland, 1900-1960. University Rochester Press. ISBN 9781580462648.
- ^ Hastings, Adrian (5 January 1995). The Church in Africa, 1450-1950. Clarendon Press. p. 417. ISBN 9780191520556.
- ^ Kobo, Ousman (2012). Unveiling Modernity in Twentieth-Century West African Islamic Reforms. Brill Publishers. p. 76. ISBN 9789004233133.
- ^ a b c Smith, Leonard V. (2023). French Colonialism: From the Ancien Régime to the Present. Cambridge University Press. p. 80. ISBN 9781108799157. OCLC 1389826279.