Upper Senegal and Niger

Upper Senegal and Niger
Haut Sénégal et Niger
Colony in French West Africa
1904 (1904)–1921 (1921)
A map of Upper Senegal and Niger circa 1911 from the Encyclopædia Britannica
Capital		Bamako
Languages		French
Political structure		Colony in French West Africa
History
•	Established	1904 (1904)
•	Disestablished	1921 (1921)
Currency		French West African franc
Preceded by Succeeded by Senegambia and Niger French Upper Volta French Sudan Colony of Niger

Upper Senegal and Niger (French: Haut Sénégal et Niger) was a colony in French West Africa, created on 21 October 1904 from colonial Senegambia and Niger by the decree "For the Reorganisation of the general government of French West Africa".

At its creation, the "Colony of Upper Senegal and Niger" contained the old territories of Upper Senegal, the Middle Niger, and the military Niger territory. Its capital was Bamako.

A decree of 2 March 1907 added the cercles of Fada N'gourma and Say, which had been part of the colony of French Dahomey (present day Benin). On 1 January 1912, the military territory of Niger was split off from Upper Senegal and Niger, and became its own colony in 1922.

Between November 1915 and February 1917, the Colony of Upper Senegal and Niger witnessed vastly popular, temporarily successful, and sustained armed opposition to colonial government in its western Volta region, which is referred to as the Volta-Bani War. It challenged colonial government authority for more than a year in an area stretching from Koudougou (in present day Burkina Faso) in the east, to the banks of the Bani River (present day Mali) in the west. This was the most significant armed opposition to colonial authority organized anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa in the period preceding World War II.

After World War I ended, the unsuspected success of this resistance movement caused the French authorities to issue the decree "Concerning the Division of the Colony of Upper Senegal and Niger and the Creation of the Colony of Upper Volta" of 1 March 1919, which divided the colony into two distinct units:

The colony of Upper Senegal and Niger is perhaps remembered most often by philatelists, since it issued a number of postage stamps during its existence.