France divided West Africa arbitrarily into five colonies without military-civilian coordination

Evidence

Despite the incomplete conquest of French West Africa, Paris had tried repeatedly since r89I to phase out military control of the various territories and introduce civilian administration. 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. … As a result, the administrative situation in French West Africa in I895 was somewhat confused. In particular, competing interests had emerged, as the colonial army launched campaigns without consulting either the governors in whose territories it was operating, or Parliament, to whom the military was ultimately responsible. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 124