French West Africa

French colonial federation in west Africa from 1895 to 1958
Organization federation Q210682
French West Africa
Martonne, Édouard de (1879-1952). Éditeur scientifique Afrique occidentale française. Service géographique. Dessinateur · Public Domain · Wikimedia
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Summary

French West Africa is a federation[1]. It draws 5,535 Wikipedia views per month (federation category, ranking #2 of 9).[2]

Key Facts

  • Country: France[3]
  • Continent: Africa[4]
  • Instance of: administrative territorial entity[5], defunct organization[6]
  • Capital: Dakar[7], Saint-Louis[8]
  • Official language: French[9]
  • Currency: French West African franc[10]
  • Basic form of government: federation[11], colony[12]
  • Part of: French colonial empire[13], French Union[14], French Colonial Africa[15]
  • Commons category: French West Africa[16]
  • Has part(s): French Ivory Coast[17], Colony of Niger[18]
  • Inception: January 1, 1895[19]
  • Dissolved, abolished or demolished date: October 4, 1958[20]
  • Topic's main category: Category:French West Africa[21]
  • Described by source: Granat Encyclopedic Dictionary[22], Small Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary[23], Encyclopædia Britannica 11th edition[24]
  • Replaces: Empire Peul[25], Samorian state[26]
  • Replaced by: Benin[27], Burkina Faso[28], Ivory Coast[29], Mali[30], Mauritania[31], Niger[32], Senegal[33], Guinea[34], Sudanese Republic[35], Nigeria[36], Kingdom of Libya[37], Italy[38]
  • Category for people born here: Q13335277[39]
  • Permanent duplicated item: Q71441949[40]
  • Category for maps or plans: Category:Maps of French West Africa[41]

Why It Matters

French West Africa has Wikipedia articles in 27 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[42] It is known by 41 alternative names across languages and contexts.[43]

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  24. [26] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  25. [27] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  26. [28] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  27. [29] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  28. [30] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  29. [31] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  30. [32] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  31. [33] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  32. [34] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  33. [35] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  34. [36] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  35. [37] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  36. [38] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  37. [39] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  38. [40] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  39. [41] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [42] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [43] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). French West Africa. Retrieved October 10, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/french-west-africa
MLA “French West Africa.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 10 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/french-west-africa.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_french-west-africa_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{French West Africa}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/french-west-africa}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-10}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): French West Africa — https://4ort.xyz/entity/french-west-africa (retrieved 2026-10-10)

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Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 17w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-06-12 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Instance of → —
    Coordinates → —
    Country → France
    Currency → —
    + 30 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Svkkl authority id: 0233500-Francouzska-zapadni-Afrika, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/259494|batch #259494]]"
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