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
The French Union of Modern Artists The French Union of Modern Artists The French Union of Modern Artists (; UAM) was a movement made up of decorative artists and architects founded in France on 15 May 1929 and active until 1959. Initially made up of around 20 dissidents of the Société des Artistes-Décorateurs (SAD) and led by Robert Mallet-Stevens, the UAM offered a strong and militant alternative to the SAD. Motivated towards making a clean break from the past and struggling against objects "in style", artists of the union proclaimed 'We must rise up against everything that "looks rich", against whatever is "well made", and against