 France occupied the area of modern Niger in 1900, declaring it a military territory, ruled originally from Zinder.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 of the federal colony of French West Africa ("Afrique occidentale française", abbreviated AOF).In the meantime in Algeria France had been pushing south from the littoral region, conquering much of the Algerian Sahara in 1902.