North Africa

For North Africa, that characterization is mostly inaccurate. Morocco had been an independent kingdom with Moroccan identity for centuries before French and Spanish protectorates were established in 1912.

Algeria had been a province of Ottoman north africa from the 1600s to 1830, although Constantinople's control over Algeria was very weak after 1800 and Algeria was autonomous. In 1830 France invaded coastal cities of Algiers, Oran and Annaba (Bône), and slowly spread French military control into the coastal and Atlas mountain hinterlands over the next 40 years. Here is a map from 1877 showing French territorial control just beginning to extend into the Sahara.

Tunisia was, like Algeria, an Ottoman province from the 1600s to 1881; also similar in that Tunisia was largely autonomous from metropolitan Ottoman control in the 1800s.

So, like Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia had already existed as political units prior to French colonial conquest in the 19th century, and were not colonial creations of the French. On the other hand, the French did change the borders in the sahara somewhat. For example, this map from the 1880s or 1890s portrays the Morocco kingdom extending control into the Tuat region. If you compare that map to a modern map that circles the Tuat region in blue, you can tell that French military victories pushed the border far to the west between 1890 and 1900, and further colonial adjustments happened up to 1930. So, while Ottoman Algeria consisted of the coastal and mountain region in the far north, French colonial rule extended Algeria's borders deep into the Sahara.

Secondly, we also have to remember that Algeria had a very different colonial experience than Tunisia or Morocco. While Algeria was from the outset treated as a settler-colony and organized into overseas departments of France starting in 1848, with the intent of assimilation and integration into France. By 1954, there were over 1 million French-Algerians in Algeria.

By contrast, Tunisia and Morocco were officially protectorates of France (Morocco also had regions that were protectorates of Spain). So, French rule in Tunisia was always mediated by a Bey of the Sharifian dynasty who was de jure in charge of all internal matters of Tunisia (though in practice the Bey was strongly influenced by French pressure). Ditto, Morocco was formally a sovereign state ruled by sultans of the Alaouite dynasty. Of course, in both instances, France would interfere and force uncooperative Beys or Sultans into exile, and maneuver a more pliable ruler onto the throne.

Ditto, both Tunis and Morocco saw significant European settlement and landholding (between 100,000 and 200,000 European settlers) during the protectorate era, though not as many as in Algeria.

These different legal regimes and different levels of assimilation/settlement also spilled over into differences in the road to independence. Tunisian independence struggle saw protests and assassinations between 1952 and 1954, then two years of negotiations before the protectorate was withdrawn and independence granted in 1956. Moroccan independence struggle kicked off when French governors sent Sultan Mohammad V into exile in 1953 for demanding independence from French and Spanish protectorate. Popular protests ensued, and the French were forced to recall Mohammed V in 1955 and enter into negotiations, which resulted in the withdrawal of the protectorate in April 1956.

By contrast, Algerian protests against discriminatory policies that favored European Algerians and demands for independence were met by far greater levels of French resistance, because Algeria was considered an integral part of France, and because there were over 1 million French citizens in Algeria. Thus, independence protests resulted in security crackdowns in Arab areas, escalating into an 8 year long war for independence between 1954-1962.

And just as the three countries reached independence differently, the post-independence governments showed different ideological tendencies. After independence, Morocco's Sultan Mohammed V changed his title to King, and Morocco continues to be a Monarchy to this day.

Tunisia began independence as a monarchy, but Prime Minsiter Habib Bourguiba declared Tunisia a monarchy a year later in 1957, and ruled as president of a one-party state for the next thirty years until 1987. Bourguiba's ideological orientation is described as nationalist, pursuing neutrality in foreign affairs while promoting state-planned modernization of the economy and secularism.

Finally, the FLN government that emerged in Algeria after the War for Independence was avowedly socialist, with presidents Ahmed Ben Bella (1963-65) legalizing agricultural co-operatives and nationalizing remaining French industries in Algeria; and Houari Boumidiene (1965-78) promoting state-planned industrialization and oil development under "revolutionary" economic plans.

So, any Pan-Arab plan to bring together these three countries into a North African Arab Union after 1962 would have to smooth over the differences between Moroccan monarchy, Tunisian nationalism, and Algerian socialism. It would also have to contend with the self-interest of post-independence leaders, and the very real challenge of Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian nationalism which had been engendered during the independence struggle.

French West Africa and French Central Africa

Unlike in North Africa, in West Africa and Central Africa it is much more accurate to talk about territorial borders as colonial formations.

Also, much of French West Africa and French Central Africa came to independence at the same moment in 1960. The politics around this widespread wave of independence are complex. I am going to over-simplify and say that it was a mix of:

• nationalist independence movements in these colonies pressing for independence

• the pressure of the Algerian war on France and French fears of losing her colonies to spreading anti-colonial conflicts.

• Specifically in Cameroon and Togo, those colonies status as United Nations trust territories, which entailed a level of international oversight.

• The fall of the French Fourth Republic in 1958 and the open question of what the Fifth Republic's relationship with Africa would look like. (Colonies? free association? total independence?)

In the end, in 1958 De Gaulle allowed each colony to hold a referendum, and the African colonies opted for independence.

Why did these colonies emerge as separate countries and not instead as a West African Union and a Central African Union in 1960?

Well, because the nationalist ideal was a powerful and widespread among Francophone (and Anglophone) African intelligentsia from the 1930s on. By the late 1950s, these intelligentsia formed the leadership of most of the leading pro-independence political parties in French African territories, and articulated their visions for the future to the colonial populations as visions of national independence.

Now, there were particular African leaders like Modibo Keita of French Soudan colony (now Mali) and Leopold Sedar Senghor of French Senegal who formulated the idea for the Mali Federation which was an experiment at forming Senegal and Mali into a larger federation.

Ditto, after independence there were leaders like Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea, and Modibo Keita of Mali who tried again to join into a trans-national federation called the Union of African States in 1961. That fell apart because they could not get Upper Volta (Burkina Faso) involved so Ghana shared no border with the other two members. Also because Ghana is Anglophone while Guinea and Mali are francophone, and Ghana enjoyed a much larger and more industrialized economy than the other two members, meaning Ghana was sending manufactures to other two members, and receiving livestock or agricultural produce that Ghana didn't really need.

So, both the Mali Federation and the Union of African States quickly failed as Supra-national federations.

Also, after independence, West Africa and Central Africa faced a similar dilemma of different ideological orientations of the post-independence leadership.

Some leaders like Felix Houphouet-Boigny of Cote d'Ivoire or Leon M'ba of Gabon preferred to seek close diplomatic and economic relations with France, believing that would be the quickest way to economic development and prosperity.

Other leaders like Ahmad Sekou Toure of Guinea believed in a pan-africanist socialist economic and diplomatic approach deeply skeptical of French economic engagement as "neo-colonialism".

Finally, there were also leaders like Ahmadou Ahidjo of Cameroon whose primary interest at independence was securing and expanding his own power, and promoting his Muslim, northern political base at the expense of southern, Christian political rivals.

So, while some like Toure might be interested in joining a broader federation and moving beyond the nation-state, other leaders at independence might have less interest in such a project, or might resist the ideological priori of the Nkrumahs and Toures. Some like Ahidjo were only interested in their own power.