The French imposed direct canton-based administration across the Western Sudan.

Evidence

Faced with these dilemmas, the French colonial army developed a preference for, or had no choice but to resort to, a system of direct administration for its territories in the Western Sudan. That is to say, it subdivided all circles into cantons of more or less equal size, and made the canton the basic unit of African administration. According to this system, there were to be no collaborators between the French commandant de cercle and the French-appointed canton chiefs. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 384

Categorization

• DEFINE: Clarifies the ‘direct administration’ system that becomes the template for French rule in West Africa.