Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction -- The origins of European imperialism and the rise of militant Islam -- Background to the Scramble -- The French conquest of the Western Sudan -- The completion of the French occupation of West Africa -- The British occupation of Nigeria -- The British occupation of the Gold Coast, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia -- Administration in theory and practice -- The administration of French West Africa -- British administration in West Africa -- Indirect rule in practice -- Togo, the model colony -- West Africa and the 1914-18 war -- Colonial development and commercial expoitation -- Lebanese and monopolists -- Government and economy in the inter-war years -- Migration and the new towns -- The economic impact of colonial rule -- Islam and Christianity -- Western education -- The colonial European -- The origins of protest -- French West African politics, 1919-39 -- Politics in British West Africa, 1920-39 -- Prelude to de-colonisation : the Second World War.