MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Mali

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Mali, on the map of history

What was Mali before it was Mali? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Mali · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Mali · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Mali (French Sudan) · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

French Sudan became Mali in 1960 after the Mali Federation with Senegal collapsed within weeks. Modibo Keïta pursued a radical socialist, pan-Africanist path and broke with France, before being overthrown in a 1968 coup that began decades of military rule. A vast, poor Sahelian state, landlocked and commodity-dependent — the structural inheritance of the interior colonies.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →