French Sudan French Sudan French Sudan (; "") was a French colonial territory in the federation of French West Africa from around 1880 until 1960, when it became the independent state of Mali. The colony was formally called French Sudan from 1890 until 1899 and then again from 1921 until 1958, and had a variety of different names over the course of its existence. The colony was initially established largely as a military project led by French troops, but in the mid-1890s it came under civilian administration. A number of administrative reorganizations in the early 1900s brought increasing French administration over issues
Greeks in Sudan El Ghazal. Business tycoon Capato soon expanded his business into Kordofan for gum Arabic and Southern Sudan for ivory, before going bankrupt after a series of misfortunes in 1912. Some Greek traders moved on to settle in the Belgian Congo, French Central Africa and other African lands. In Southern Sudan the colonial government preferred giving licences to Greek merchants, who would go to remote places like Jonglei, rather than to Northern Sudanese "Jellaba" traders. Juba, now the national capital of South Sudan, is said to have been established in 1922 by Greek traders. Another center was Wau, where already in