Kaarta, or Ka'arta , was a short-lived Bambara kingdom in what is today the western half of Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

.

As Bitòn Coulibaly

Bitòn Coulibaly

Bitòn Coulibaly founded the Bambara Empire in what is now Mali's Ségou Region and Mopti Region....

 tightened his control over Ségou

Ségou

Ségou is a city in south-central Mali, lying northeast of Bamako on the River Niger, in the region of Ségou. It was founded by the Bozo people, on a site about from the present town...

, capital of his newly-founded Bambara Empire

Bambara Empire

The Bamana Empire was a large pre-colonial West African state based at Ségou, now in Mali. It was ruled by the Kulubali or Coulibaly dynasty established circa 1640 by Kaladian Coulibaly also known as Fa Sine or Biton-si-u...

, a faction of Ségou Bambara dissatisfied with his rule fled west. In 1753, they founded the kingdom of Kaarta on the homeland of the long-defunct Ghana Empire

Ghana Empire

The Ghana Empire or Wagadou Empire was located in what is now southeastern Mauritania, and Western Mali. Complex societies had existed in the region since about 1500 BCE, and around Ghana's core region since about 300 CE...

, taking Nioro du Sahel

Nioro du Sahel

Nioro du Sahel often referred to as simply Nioro is a town and commune in the Kayes Region of western Mali, 241 km from the city of Kayes. It is located 275 miles north-west of the capital Bamako...

 as their capital. The kingdom was destroyed as an independent force in 1854 by El Hadj Umar Tall

Umar Tall

El Hadj Umar ibn Sa'id Tall , , born in what is now actual Senegal was a West African political leader, Islamic scholar, and Toucouleur military commander who founded a brief empire encompassing much of what is now Guinea, Senegal, and Mali.-Name:Umar Tall's name is spelled variously: in...

's jihad

Jihad

Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

 across West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

; Umar Tall seized Nioro, and put the Kaarta king (Fama) Mamady Kandian and his entire family to death.

In 1878 the French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 governor of Senegal Briere de l'Isle

Louis Brière de l'Isle

Louis Alexandre Esprit Gaston Brière de l'Isle was a French Army general who achieved distinction firstly as Governor of Senegal , and then as general-in-chief of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps during the Sino-French War .-Military career to 1871:Louis Briere de l'Isle was born on 4 June 1827 in...

 sent a French force against the Kaarta Toucouleur

Toucouleur Empire

The Toucouleur Empire was founded in the nineteenth century by El Hadj Umar Tall of the Toucouleur people, in part of present-day Mali....

 vassal state along the north bank of the Senegal River

Sénégal River

The Sénégal River is a long river in West Africa that forms the border between Senegal and Mauritania.The Sénégal's headwaters are the Semefé and Bafing rivers which both originate in Guinea; they form a small part of the Guinean-Malian border before coming together at Bafoulabé in Mali...

. Blocked by the colonial minister in Paris, he argued that they were a threat to the Senegalese kingdom of Fouta Tooro

Kingdom of Fouta Tooro

The Kingdom of Fouta Tooro or the Kingdom of Fuua Tooro was a pre-colonial West African state of the Fula-speaking people centered around the middle valley of the Senegal River...

 (then a French client state) with which the British were poised to interfere. The Ministry gave in and on 7 July 1878, a French force destroyed the Kaarta Toucouleur fort at Sabouciré, killing their leader, Almany Niamody. This portion of the Kaarta vassals were then incorporated into the Khasso

Khasso

Khasso or Xaaso was a West African kingdom of the 17th to 19th centuries, occupying territory in what is today Senegal and the Kayes Region of Mali. Its capital was at Medina until its fall....

 Wolof protectorate kingdom..

French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 Colonel Louis Archinard

Louis Archinard

Louis Archinard was a French Army general at the time of the Third Republic, who contributed to the colonial conquest of French West Africa. He was traditionally presented in French histories as the conqueror and "Pacifier" of French Soudan . Archinard's campaigns brought about the end of the...

 later conquered the entire territory of the former Kaarta kingdom in 1890, which was formally annexed into French West Africa

French West Africa

French West Africa was a federation of eight French colonial territories in Africa: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan , French Guinea , Côte d'Ivoire , Upper Volta , Dahomey and Niger...

in 1904.