WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -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.

Detailed explanation-2: -Senegal was France’s oldest colony in black Africa, and the two countries have main-tained the close ties developed during the colonial period since political inde-pendence in 1960.

Detailed explanation-3: -It remained a colony of France until 1960, when, under the leadership of the writer and statesman Léopold Senghor, it gained its independence-first as part of the short-lived Mali Federation and then as a wholly sovereign state.

Detailed explanation-4: -The French colonial empire in the Americas comprised New France (including Canada and Louisiana), French West Indies (including Saint-Domingue, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, Tobago and other islands) and French Guiana. French North America was known as ‘Nouvelle France’ or New France.

Detailed explanation-5: -The French conquest of Senegal started in 1659 with the establishment of Saint-Louis, Senegal, followed by the French capture of the island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677, but would only become a full-scale campaign in the 19th century.