France arbitrarily split its West African holdings into five civilian-governed colonies

Evidence

Between I 89 I and 1893, it had divided the existing French territories in West Africa, more or less arbitrarily, into five separate colonies and one military territory, Mauritania. The five colonies were Senegal, which was actually administered under two separate regimes, one for the coastal cities and one for the protectorate areas in the interior; Guinea, Ivory Coast, and Dahomey, which made up the so-called southern colonies; and the landlocked Western Sudan, the largest colony in French West Africa. Administration for each of these five colonies had been placed in the hands of a civilian governor, who determined customs tariffs, drew up the budget, and was responsible for all policy making in his colony. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 124