ABSTRACT
Militant Islam presented the greatest challenge and mobilised the sternest resistance to the European occupation of Africa in the nineteenth century. In military terms Umar certainly had the capacity to resist French expansion. He also had the political and religious incentive. His initial conquests carried him north-west towards the Senegal just at the time when the French themselves were beginning to advance up-stream and assert their influence over the Tukulor homelands in Futa. By 1855 the Tukulor armies were fully committed to the costly and difficult conquest of Kaarta, and Umar had neither the desire nor the necessary manpower to open a second front against the French. The internal weaknesses of the Tukulor empire rather than the overwhelming superiority of the French provide the explanation for the Sultan’s failure to act in the years after 1883. The weaknesses of the Tukulor empire strengthened its incentive to co-operate with the French.
