This book describes how, at the end of the nineteenth century, France came to govern large areas of the West African interior. French rule in the Western Sudan developed as a result of military expansion and the influence with which the officers with experience in the field exerted on the direction of official thinking forms the central theme of the book. French policies in West Africa are set within the context of France's wider interests as a European power at a time when colonial expansion was supposedly of minor importance in the government's eyes. The African response to the French military advance is also described. The subject with which the book deals has received little attention in the past and is an important one in understanding the expansion of European influence and rule in Africa.