French West Africa with the exception of the Senegalese Communes, the administrative structure of French rule at the lower levels remained constant, based upon the Cercle system. This was the smallest unit of French political administration in French colonial Africa that was headed by a European officer. They might range in size, but French Sudan (modern Mali) consisted of less than a dozen Cercles for most of its existence. Thus, a Cercle Commander might be the absolute authority over hundreds of thousands of Africans. A Cercle consisted of several cantons, each of which in turn consisted of several villages, and was almost universal
History of Sudan on these areas and they planned on annexing them to [[French West Africa]]. An international conflict known as the [[Fashoda incident]] developed between France and the United Kingdom over these areas. In 1899, France agreed to cede the area to the [[Anglo-Egyptian Sudan]]. From 1898, the United Kingdom and Egypt administered all of present-day Sudan as the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, but northern and southern Sudan were administered as separate [[province]]s of the [[History of Anglo-Egyptian Sudan|condominium]]. In the very early 1920s, the British passed the Closed Districts Ordinances which stipulated that passports were required for travel between the two zones, and