French conquest of Senegal The French conquest of Senegal started from 1659 with the establishment of Saint - Louis , Senegal , followed by the French capture of the island of Gorée from the Dutch in 1677 , but would only become a full - scale campaign in the 19th century . First establishments . According to some historians , French merchants from the Normandy cities of Dieppe and Rouen traded with the Gambia and Senegal coasts , and with the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast , between 1364 and 1413 . Probably as a result , an ivory - carving industry developed in Dieppe after 1364 . These travels however were soon forgotten with the advent of the Hundred Years War in France . Various European powers , such as Portugal , the Netherlands , and England then competed for trade in the area of Senegal from the 15th century onward . The Portuguese first established a post on the island of Gorée in 1444 , from where they organized a slave trade . The island was captured by the Dutch in 1588 , where they established defensive forts and developed trade further . In 1659 , France established the trading post of Saint - Louis , Senegal . The European powers continued contending for the island of Gorée , until in 1677 , France led by Jean II d ' Estrées during the Franco - Dutch War ( 1672 – 1678 ) ended up in possession of the island , which it would keep for the next 300 years . In 1758 the French settlement was captured by a British expedition as part of the Seven Years ' War , but was later returned to France in 1783 . The states of the Wolof and Sereer , neighbouring the two colonial outposts , were particularly involved with the slave trade , having strong military organizations geared to supplying slaves to the Europeans . Conflicts erupted with the Muslims to the north , as when Marabout Nasr al Din attacked Mauritania and the Wolof across the border in 1673 , but he was defeated through an alliance between local forces and the French . 19th - century territorial conquests . During the Napoleonic Wars , Great Britain captured Gorée in 1803 and Saint - Louis in 1809 , and proclaimed the abolition of the slave trade in 1807 , to which the new French monarchy had to agreed upon recovering the two posts . The 19th century thus saw a decline in slave trade , and the rise of commodity production instead . The trade of acacia gum , used for dyes for high quality textiles and for medicine production , became paramount . Peanut cultivation also proved to be a valuable resource for the area . In the Franco - Trarzan War of 1825 , the French started to assert control of the mouth of the Senegal river against the rival state of Trarza . In the 1850s , the French under the governor Louis Faidherbe , began to expand their foothold onto the Senegalese mainland , at the expense of the native kingdoms . From 1854 , Faidherbe started to establish a series of inland forts up the Senegal River . In 1855 he conquered the Kingdom of Waalo . A counter - attack by the Toucouleur in 1857 led to the Siege of Medina Fort in which the Toucouleur failed . By 1860 , the forts built between Médine and St . Louis allowed Faidherbe to launch missions against the Trarza Moors in Waalo ( north of the Senegal river ) , who had previously collected taxes on goods coming to Saint - Louis from the interior . Faidherbe also started the westernization of the area by developing banks , civil administration , and also established an accord with Senegal ’ s religion , Islam . Expansion would continue under Governor Louis Brière de l ' Isle from 1876 to 1881 . Through diplomatic and military efforts Briere reinforced French control on the Senegal river , the " Peanut Basin " and the Guinea Coast in favour of the development of millet , peanut and cotton trade . He also developed railroad projects that would facilitate further expansion as far as French Sudan ( modern Mali ) . From 1880 , France endeavoured to build a railway system , centered around the Saint - Louis - Dakar line that involved taking military control of the surrounding areas , leading to the military occupation of mainland Senegal . The construction of the Dakar - Niger Railway also began at the end of the 19th century under the direction of the French officer Gallieni . The first Governor General of Senegal was named in 1895 , overseeing most the of territorial conquests of Western Africa , and in 1904 , the territories were formally named French West Africa ( AOF : " Afrique Occidentale Française " ) , of which Senegal was a part and Dakar its capital .