Earlier in the 1880s and 1890s, the French had conquered and ruled most territories in West Africa and managed them either under the ruling of Senegal or as individual regions. In 1895, the Colonial Ministry in Paris launched a plan to establish the Afrique Occidentale Française (AOF) or the Federation of French West Africa in order to decentralize French authoritative power into Africa so that proper political decisions could be made based on the local modalities. Also, they launched a development project along with the establishment of AOF, named mise en valeur — “rational economic development”, to level up African living standards and fulfill the French imperial needs.