Reasons as to why Samori Toure Managed to Contain (Fight) the French Forces for so long?

Reasons as to why Samori Toure Managed to Contain (Fight) the French Forces for so long?



(i) Strong army. Samori Toure had established strong army of approximately 12,000 men and about 90,000 reserves. He had a standby army, trained military men who could be taken in emergence, cases to help the permanent army.

(ii) Modern weapons. Samori Toure had excess to modern arms that he had acquired from the coastal traders' that he had been friend with them. Samori Toure had established friendship with the coastal traders for quite some time, lie also had military workshops which supplied him with weapons and repaired his defected weapons.

(iii) Samori Toure had a lot of wealth from trade in slaves, gold and colanuts, which was utilized in rewarding his workers and soldiers for their services.

(iv) Some of the Samori soldiers had served in the French army where they had acquired modern military techniques and so were able to respond effectively to the invaders. These soldiers passed those skills to the rest of the Army.

(v) He was determined to maintain and preserve his independence in the eyes of Europeans advance. This motivated him to resist for a long time.

(vi) Samori Toure established state control of agriculture and markets to ensured regular food supply for the army. Availability of food to the soldiers encouraged them to fight for long time.

(vii) The use of guerrilla or commando tactics of surprise ambushes and right raids. This helped Samori Toure occasionally to win the war. The French soldiers found the Mandika people too difficult to control

(viii) He used scorched earth military technique such as burning villages and destroying crops in order to make the French starve when they reached the area.

(ix) Samori Toure got support from the Mandika people in national war of defense. This support helped Samori Toure to resist for a long time.