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
French Colonial but continued to be built after Spain assumed control of the colonial territory in 1763. Styles of building that evolved during the French colonial period include the Creole cottage, Creole townhouse, and French Creole plantation house. There are some colonial buildings as France's legacy in the area, dating back to the 19th- and 20th-century French Indochina colony. Most of them are located in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Phnom Penh. Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City) and Hanoi, as the capitals of Indochina, respectively, in 1887–1902 and 1902-1945, present the most exceptional and among the best-preserved French Colonial buildings