French West Africa Area Transition Chart - Input Requested

Those that have visited me at DCStamps, know that I have developed a set of Transition Charts to help collectors understand the overall movement of nations within a region. If you are unfamiliar with the charts, you see the ones I have completed to date at: http://www.dcstamps.com/?page_id=1464.

The reason for this thread is that I am in the process of developing one for the French West Africa Area. (this is for you Jim).

Since this chart is rather complicated, I value the input of experts on this forum and am requesting your input before it "goes live". The following is a draft of the French West Africa Area Transition Chart. Please feel free to let me know what is not correct on the chart.

I apologize for the blurry graphics - so if you want a much clearer look, here is a link to the pdf file at DCStamps: http://www.dcstamps.com/wp-content/...t-Africa.pdf



Thank you in advance for your input.

Nice write-up. I've bookmarked your site.

Under Dahomey/Benin, you may want to have a footnote concerning the Portuguese fort at Ouidah. See Dahomey Scott #s 153 and 154, issued in July, 1962, that note the 1st anniversary of the fort going over into Dahomian ownership. The fort was sovereign Portuguese territory and recognized as such by the French. It never issued its own stamps, but stamps of St. Thomas & Prince Islands are known with Ouidah cancellations. The ISPP journal, Portu-Info, had an article about the fort some years ago. If you want more info, I can dig it out over the upcoming holiday weekend and give you a better summary. (ISPP = International Society for Portuguese Philately)

Before becoming a separate French protectorate, Mauritania was considered part of Senegal (at least the areas along the Senegal river were). Not sure if any Senegal issues are recorded from towns on the north bank of the river, but you might want to change where Mauritania is on your chart to being to the right of Senegal with a split-off from Senegal coming in 1902. That way all the dates that fall within the AOF grey box time period will be within the box (right now your 1902 Mauritania box is above the 1894 start of the grey shaded area.)

Also, until they were spin off as separate colonies, Rivieres du Sud and Ivory Coast were subject to governance from Senegal So maybe you should make the start of your Senegal line (which is dated 1779) higher up and then show the spin-offs of Rivieres du Sud and Ivory Coast with lines as well.

Similarly, the Upper Senegal-French Sudan line should derive from Senegal as well, as the expeditions to take over these regions came from Senegal in the 1870s and 1880s and *technically* they were governed from Senegal until the creation of French Sudan in the 1880s.

I gleaned this info from an article in Linn's about a year ago.



The Sudanese Republic is sandwiched between French Sudan and Mali Republic Federation. I haven't confirmed this info by verifying the Sudanese Republic ever issued stamps.

Robert

Thanks Michael for putting this together- we, who swim the deep sea of WW collectioning, are much appreciative, as trying to make sense of French West Africa is- well, it doesn't make sense.

But it will be much easier with your transition chart.

An excellent & useful contribution to the hobby; thank you, DCStamps!

Wow - You guys have really come through!!

ClimberSteve - Thanks for your kind words and the info, although I probably won't include because it was a fairly minor change which didn't affect stamps. Actually there was a lot of small border and sovereignty movements in this region over this time period.

DJCMHOH - Thanks, I will see if I can effectively indicate these relationships. I don't include a box unless it was an official entity, so I will look at these changes carefully. Also, I do see that the Mauritania should be fully included in the French West Africa Federation box.

Trainwreck - I never heard of the Sudanese Republic. I had to go and look it up and sure enough, there was a Sudanese Republic. While I can't see that they issued any stamps or banknotes, I will add the box, thanks.

One of the go to sites I use for dates and helping understand changes is WorldStatesman.org. The include the Sudanese Republic.

Thanks to all of you for taking the time to help.

Brilliant work - really a useful overview, and constructive contributions as well.
Thanks for sharing, Michael

Excellent post and a useful one for an 1840-1940 worldwide collector. Plus, it led me to your website, which I was not aware of until now.

Jkjblue said:



Thanks Jim, actually this is easy compared to the areas I am REALLY dreading doing. Such as the Germany Area, China and the worst of all ---- India States. I will be doing lots of consulting with TonyMacg when I finally get there and I am assuming it will be wall poster size rather than computer screen size.

That is an excellent chart DCstamps. I started doing one for French Africa a few years ago, but never got nearly as far as you!

OK, I have updated the Chart based on the comments to date, plus have done some additional research and modified it accordingly.

Change 1 - Moved Mauritania to be next to Senegal and indicated that it came from Senegal. Moved to Protectorate to be within the Federation of French West Africa.

Change 2 - Added Sudanese Republic and clarified the Mali Federation to better reflect its place. Senegal and the Sudanese Republic joined together in a federation, but both entities never lost their separate identities (this the reason the Federation never really worked. It still isn't completely right, as the Mali Federation existed before it became fully independent, and only lasted a few months after full independence was granted. However if you are following the movement of the entities, it is right enough.

Change 3 - The dissolution of the first French Sudan happened over a couple of years and the very large territory was divided across most of the colonies when the French reorganized everything in 1898-99. Then a couple of years later in 1902, French Sudan was the basis of the formation of a new entity - Senegambia and Niger (which was renamed Upper Senegal and Niger two years later. I tried to illustrate this the best I could on the Chart.

Change 4 - Updated some date errors and resized some boxes.

There were several things I didn't do. DJCMHOH, you indicated that technically some of the other colonies grew out of an expansion from Senegal. It was just too complicated to try and show this, and in reality, they were considered as territories rather than an official part of the Senegal Colony. Also many of the colonies were demoted to territory status after WW2, but it also was just too complicated to try and indicate all of these colonial changes. Also, ClimberSteve, I also didn't have the room to cover Ouidah either.

I have provided a picture of the almost final version below. Again, if you would rather see a clearer version, please go to the following site (and link to the pdf) to see it: http://www.dcstamps.com/?page_id=6970



Again, thanks for everyone's great comments. As always (even after it is finally published), I am open for comments and corrections.
Michael

DCStamps - Just a reminder that the Chart still does not show the fact confirmed by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postag...tory_of_Mali that "The first stamps of the Mali Federation were issued on 7 November 1959."

Was Togo ever a part of French West Africa?