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 Union French Colonial Union The French Colonial Union () was a group of French merchants established for the purpose of ensuring continued French colonialism, as well as solidifying their own commercial interests. It was founded in 1893 and published "The Colonial Fortnightly" ("La Quinzaine coloniale"). The French Colonial Union served as a pivotal colonial organization that greatly aided in commercial and foreign French affairs. Though from its initial establishment, the French Colonial Union was never major, its members set out with a mindset of expressing its ideas, being vocal, and then placing those ideas into reality. The foundations of the French