Mali's Background

Mali is the cultural heir to the succession of ancient African empires -- Ghana, Malinke, and Songhai -- that occupied the West African savannah. These empires controlled Saharan trade and were in touch with Mediterranean and Middle Eastern centers of civilization.
The Ghana Empire, dominated by the Soninke people and centred in the area along the border of the modern states of Mali and Mauritanian, was a powerful trading state from about AD 700 to 1075.
The Malice Kingdom of Mali had its origins on the upper Niger River in the 11th century.
Expanding rapidly in the 13th century under the leadership of Sundiata Keita, it reached its height about 1325, when it conquered Timbuktu and Gao.  From then on, the kingdom began to decline, and by the 15th century, it controlled only a small fraction of its former domain.  The Songhai Empire expanded its power from its center in Gao during the period 1465-1530.
At its peak under Askia Mohammad I, it encompassed the Hausa states as far as Kano (in present-day Nigeria) and much of the territory that had belonged to the Mali Empire in the west.  It was destroyed by a Moroccan invasion in 1591.  French military penetration of the Sudan (the French name for the area) began around 1880.  Ten years later, the French made a concerted effort to occupy the interior.  The timing and method of their advances were determined by resident military governors.  A French civilian governor of Sudan was appointed in 1893, but resistance to French control did not end until 1898, when the Malinké warrior Samory Touré was defeated after 7 years of war.
The French attempted to rule indirectly, but in many areas they disregarded traditional authorities and governed through appointed chiefs.
As the colony of French Sudan, Mali was administered with other French colonial territories as the Federation of French West Africa. In 1956, with the passing of France's Fundamental Law (Loi Cadre), the Territorial Assembly obtained extensive powers over internal affairs and was permitted to form a cabinet with executive authority over matters within the Assembly's competence.