French West Africa (Twilight of a New Era)

French West Africa (French: Afrique occidentale française) is part of the French Union in north west Africa. It borders in the north with Western Sahara, Algeria and Libya, French Equatorial Africa to the west, to the southwest Nigeria.

Administratively it is divided in the following territories:
 * Dakar (Administrative center of AOF), commune
 * Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal, commune
 * Gorée, commune
 * Rufisque, commune
 * Senegal (Administrative center: Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Mauritania (Saint-Louis-du-Sénégal) subdivided in Cercles.
 * French Sudan (Bamako) subdivided in Cercles.
 * French Guinea (Conakry) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Ivory Coast (Bingerville) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Dahomey (Porto-Novo) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Upper Volta (Ouagadougou) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Niger (Niamey) subdivided in Cercles.
 * Togo (Lomé) subdivided in Cercles.

The Cercles (in charge of a Cercle Commander) consisted of several cantons, each of which in turn consisted of several villages. Below the "Cercle Commander" there is a series of African "Chefs de canton" and "Chefs du Village": "chiefs" appointed by the French and subject to removal by the Europeans.

The Commune have local self government, equivalent to its metropolitan counterpart, save that suffrage its restricted to French citizens.