As you say, colonization of Algeria began comparatively early, first with the capture of the cities of Algiers, Oran and Bone in 1830. A diplomatic spat between France and the Dey of Algiers that was the pretext for war. However, other factors that contributed to the decision to invade North Africa included the domestic unpopularity of the French cabinet, as well as a desire to compensate for colonial possessions lost in the Revolution and Napoleonic era.

From the footholds of Oran, Algiers and Bone, French influence spread outward to the hinterlands, gaining effective control of the area north of the Atlas range by 1848. French colonial governors were quick to encourage colonization of French farmers in the agricultural lands of the Mediterranean coast in the 1840s. However, French influence does not expand deep into the Sahara until the end of the 19th century.

In the case of what is now Mali, French interest began in the 1850s, in response to the creation of the Tocoleur Empire by the jihad of Umar Tal.

In 1855, the governor of Senegal General Louis Faidherbe, oversaw the construction of a fort at Medine, in what is now eastern Senegal. The strategic significance of this fort was that it extended French influence over the Futa Toro region, and prevented Umar Tal from recruiting jihadist Fula warriors from this region. Tal laid siege to the fort in 1857, but was unable to capture it after a siege of 97 days.

Contrary to what you might expect, further confrontations between France and the Tocoleur did not materialize. Instead, Umar Tal redirected his attention to conquering the Bambara states to his east, while Faidherbe focused on expanding the borders of Senegal, and making war on the serer people. So, a treaty of peace was signed between Faidherbe and Tal at Medine in 1860.^1

A renewed French military effort would wait a generation, until the appointment of Colonel Louis-Alexandre Briere as governor of Senegal in 1876.

Briere's objective was to create a French empire in West Africa, partially informed by the recent national humiliation of the Franco-Prussian War. Briere proposed to the French Parlement the construction of a railroad from Dakar to the Niger river, but justified the plan to skeptics as a way to open the region to French commercial interests. He was fortunate in his timing because in 1879 a new cabinet included the railroad enthusiast Charles de Freycinet as PM, as well as Jean Jaureguiberry as Minister of Marine and Overseas Colonies. Freycinet embraced the plan with (false) ideas that the western sudan was home to 100 million people, and would develop into an imperial jewel to rival what India was to the British Empire.

With the enthusiastic support of Freycinet and Jaureguiberry at home, money was soon appropriated for Briere's railroad plan, and a military force was organized to conquer the Tocoleur and Sokoto caliphate that stood in the path of the proposed railway. What followed was a long struggle from 1880-1896 to conquer a path to Timbuktu.^2 As areas were pacified by the French army, railroad track was laid, using corvee labor extracted from locals.

A few points of similarity-

In both areas, France had to come to terms with Islam of the local people. The lessons learned in the 1840s in Algeria helped form policy in Senegal and Mali from 1850 onward. For instance, the establishment of local Zouave regiments in Algeria is reflected in Faidherbe's establishment of regiments of Tirailleurs in Senegal^3.

The expansion of empire comes after periods of military defeat (Napoleonic wars or Franco-Prussian war) or domestic discontent.

During World War 1, colonial regiments of Tirailleurs from Senegal and Mali and Zouaves from Algeria were called upon to fight for France on the Western front.

Some differences in colonial experience-

Although Islam was present in Mali, and had just undergone a revival under the purifying movement of Umar Tall, there was still a significant portion of Malians that did not practice Islam throughout the colonial period. France did make some effort at conversion of locals. However, of the African peoples that did not convert to christianity, French colonial governors and anthropologists tended to consider Muslim africans more refined and reliable than adherents of animism.

You are correct in that Algeria was formed as a settler colony, while European settlement in what is now Mali was extremely limited.

However, I do not agree with the assessment that there was "more" racism in Algeria compared to the Western Sudan. Rather, I would say that racism took different forms, and was motivated for different reasons. Tensions in Algeria were driven in large part by competition for land, or rather local ire at dispossession of land.

Whereas in the Western Sudan, European ideas of Black African "primitiveness" led early anthropologists to propose explanations for the presence of cities like Timbuktu. One early theory was that migrants from Assyria must have crossed the Sahara circa 500 BCE and laid the foundation for urban culture along the Niger. (Only since the 1970s did archaeologists begin to look and found the development of cities in the Niger Bend region is the result of local development.)

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1- Wars of Imperial Conquest in Africa by Bruce Vandevort, 1998. pp.72-81.

2- ibid, pp. 115-125.

3- France and Islam in West Africa by Bruce Harrison, 1988. Chapter 2.

If your library has it, you might also check for Colonial West Africa; selected essays by Michael Crowder.