France centralized its West African federation to fund public works

Evidence

Clearly, a further reorganization was necessary. It would be Ernest Roume’s particular contribution to the history of French colonial rule in West Africa to oversee this reorganization from I 902 to … I904-the last reorganization until the 192o’s. During those years he submitted a series of reforms to Paris that transformed the fledgling organization from a loose federation, with little authority, to one more like its recently reformed counterpart in Indochina-that is to say, a highly centralized and financially independent organ, capable of undertaking the public works program in which he so believed. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 151