ABSTRACT
The conquest and occupation of French West Africa, between 1875 and its organization in 1904 into a unit nine times the size of France, was a tremendous labor of approach toward the interior from four coastal points and a gradual coordination of effort against nature, European rivals, and native resistance. A convention with England on June 14, 1898, did, meantime, fix the boundary between British and French possessions on the lower Niger. Boussa was left to England, but France was recognized as supreme in Mossi, Gourounsi, and Gourma. At the same time, Commandant Ple and the German von Massaw drew the boundary of Togoland and the second French military district, centering at Bobo-Dioulasso. During the ensuing two years Lobi was occupied, and its command placed at Gaoua. The mid-desert Ifoghas offered submission at Bamba and at Insalah; the Ifoghas of the Hoggar were taken under the control of the military territory of Timbuctoo, and a post was built at Kidal.
