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| 1864 |
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| Umar Tal was killed while trying to quell a revolt in Hamdallahi. Following Umar Tal's death, his son Sheku Ahamdu, also known as Ahmad b. Umar, took power. Umar's death led to a series of internecine revolts and a weakening of the political cohesion of the empire. | 1 |
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| 1854–61, 1863–65 |
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| The French appointed Col. Louis Faidherbe as governor of Senegal in 1854. Faidherbe was instrumental in reviving French colonialism in Senegal. Based in St.-Louis, Faidherbe built a series of institutions designed to encourage African loyalty to French colonial ambitions, including special privileges for African Muslims and schools for chiefs' sons. Under Faidherbe, the French also launched aggressive territorial expansion, using African troops. Gov. Faidherbe laid the foundations for the eventual French conquest of the western Sudan. He left Senegal in 1865. With his departure, the aggressive advance of the colonial frontier was arrested. | 2 |
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| 1879–93 |
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| French conquest of the interior was revived with the appointment of Col. Borgnis-Desbordes (1879–83) to a newly established military command. Under Col. Louis Archinard, the French conquered the Umarian capitals at Segu in 1890 and at Nioro in 1893. | 3 |
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| 1881 |
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| The French army's march into the Sahara, as part of the bold vision of trans-Saharan conquest, was abruptly halted in 1881 when the Tuareg confederation crushed the mission of Col. Flatters. As a result of the Tuareg attack, the French abandoned their plans to construct a railway line from Algiers to Timbuktu. Plans for a punitive counterraid against the Tuareg were never realized. | 4 |
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| 1883 |
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| The French arrived in Bamako after several years of gradual European military conquest in West Africa. Sheku Ahmadu, the Umarian ruler, proved unable to stem the erosion of his hegemony at the hands of brothers, who sought power for themselves and the better-armed European adversaries. The French occupation of Bamako signaled their determination to control the upper Niger valley. French conquest was conducted by a small group of French officers and soldiers and a large army of African recruits. | 5 |
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| Late 19th Century |
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| State-building activities occurred in the upper Niger region under Almamy Samori. Born in upper Guinea (c. 1830), the Muslim Almamy Samori began to build up a private army in the late 1860s and early 1870s. Fueled by various grievances against local rulers, his army embarked on wars of conquest and consolidated a power base on the upper Niger. By the 1880s, Samori's empire among the Malinke occupied a vast region, and his soldiers were using modern firearms. The Samorian Empire first clashed with the French in the 1880s, and the conflict continued for over a decade. In 1892, Samori initiated a scorched earth policy as he moved his state eastward, away from his French pursuers. He was captured by the French on Sept. 29, 1898, and was deported to Gabon, where he died in 1900. Samori's state was one of a handful of MILITARY CONQUEST STATES WHOSE ACTIVITIES YIELDED LARGE NUMBERS OF SLAVES. Most of these slaves fed demand within Africa. | 6 |
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| 1875–90s |
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| An offshoot of the Kong kingdom, the kingdom of Kenedugu consolidated its position of power under the leadership of Tieba Traore (r., c. 1878–93). Tieba was initially an ally of the French and built a strong fortress at Sikasso in present-day Mali. Tieba was succeeded by Babemba, who fought against both Samori's forces and the French until he too was captured in 1898. | 7 |
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| 1893 |
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| Umar Tal's forces had begun to clash with the French as early as the 1850s. French conquest of the interior began in 1879, and followed the southern limits of the Umarian Empire. The French reached Bamako in 1883, gaining ground in their quest to conquer the empire. Umar Tal's son Sheku Ahmadu was defeated by the French in 1893. He fled eastward toward Hausaland, where he died in 1902. | 8 |
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| 1898 |
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| France's eastward advance throughout West Africa gained momentum in the 1890s. In May 1898, the French military occupied the fortress of Sikasso and captured Samori as part of their effort to secure access to Lake Chad. | 9 |
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| 1890s |
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| Rise of Mouridiyya under Ahmad Bamba in Senegal, in the immediate aftermath of French conquest of the interior of Senegal. Ahmad Bamba's Mouridiyya brotherhood brought together peasants, former slaves, and defeated warriors who sought to create a new Muslim community in a period of expanding French colonial rule. As Ahmad Bamba began to be persecuted by the French authorities, his following increased. His group represented a cultural rather than military response to French colonialism and became instrumental in the expansion of peanut production, the main export from Senegal. | 10 |
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| 1895, June 15 |
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| In order to impose administrative authority and regularity on vast areas recently conquered, the French minister of colonies established the office of governor-general of French West Africa, based in Senegal. His task was to jointly administer the diverse and often competing set of French colonies in West Africa. The governor-general was also charged with facilitating economic cooperation among the territories. In 1895, these territories included Senegal, French Soudan, Guinea, the Ivory Coast, and numerous military districts, which were still not pacified. | 11 |
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| 1903 |
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| Armed with rifles, artillery, and Maxim guns, Britain's Royal Niger Company launched military expeditions in northern Nigeria in the early 1900s to secure territory. In 1903, a small but well-armed force conquered Kano, Sokoto, and Burwuri. Instead of dismantling the Sokoto Caliphate, the British established a protectorate retaining Muslim Hausa administrative, legal, and fiscal policies. Northern Nigeria became the premier example of British INDIRECT RULE POLICY associated with Frederick Lugard. | 12 |
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