Colonial History of: Mali Mali started out as part of The Ghana Empire which was dominated by the Soninke people up until 1203 when it was taken over by an anti-Muslim Sosso Kingdom. The Mali Kingdom took over from 1230 – 1600 this empire had a lot of influence over West Africa; it began to weaken in the 14th century and was challenged by the Songhai Empire. The two empires ruled over Mali until they were defeated by the Moroccan Saadi Dynasty who controlled parts of Mali until they were challenged by other Kingdoms and this led to Mali falling under many different Kingdoms until it was colonized by the French in 1892.
France had taken over most of West Africa at the time and it named the territory taken over in Mali as the French Sudan and appointed civilian governors even though they did appoint a civilian as governor there was still a lot of opposition to French rule. By 1958 French Sudan was renamed to the Sudanese Republic and obtained complete internal autonomy and joined the French Community which meant it supplied labor to French colonies and was given full assistance by France.
In 1959 Sudanese Republic was renamed again to the Federation of Mali, one year later the France to let the Federation of Mali to be fully independent, and on 20th of June 1960 the Federation of Mali became fully independent and Modibo Keita was named its first President. After Keita was made President he wanted to move to a more socialist policy which led him to withdraw from the French Community and he decided to have close ties to the Eastern Bloc.
In 1967 Mali was forced to rejoin the French Community due to its deteriorating economy. A bloodless coup in 1978 saw a group of young officers set up a 14-member Military Committee for National Liberation (CLMN). This committee tried to improve the economic situation in the country but faced internal political struggles; these struggles have continued over the years and are one of the main issues which Mali faces as a country and has led to a number of insurgencies taking place.
