 Niger was originally included, along with modern Mali and Burkina Faso, within the Upper Senegal and Niger colony, however it was split off in 1911 and became a constituent territory of the federal colony of French West Africa ("Afrique occidentale française", abbreviated AOF).Italy meanwhile, which desired territory in the area of modern Libya, sought to emulate the colonial expansion of the other European powers, and they indicated their recognition of the above line to France on 1 November 1902.The Ottoman Empire had ruled the coastal areas of what is today Libya since the 16th century, organised into the Vilayet of Tripolitania, with an ill-defined border in the south.