West Africa

French “Backyard” and/or American “Front Yard”?

Abstract

After World War II, France sought to manage the fate of its vast colonies by establishing the “French Union” (1945), a modified continuation of colonialism, and then the “French Community” (1958), which eliminated the colonial nature of this structure but continued to ensure the interests of the French “empire.” However, the independence of the French colonies in Black Africa deprived the French Community of its basis for existence.