[3]: 88 In the 1720's a revolt of Muslim Fula and Malinke broke out under the leadership of the Torodbe cleric Alfa Ba, who declared himself amir al-muminim, or “commander of the faithful.” He was killed in 1725, but his son Ibrahim Sambegu took over and defeated the animists at the decisive battle of Talansan in 1727.

[citation needed] The first attempts at economically penetrating the interior were made by the British from Sierra Leone in 1794 in an effort to secure trading privileges.

A resistance movement known as Hubbu, meaning 'those who refuse', broke out, led by a pious Fulbe named Alfa Mamadu Dyuhe.

His army, consisting of the oppressed herder class and runaway slaves, waged decades of war against the state, at one point even capturing Timbo before forces from the other provinces united to defeat them.

[2]: 54 In 1865, at the climax of a long period of on-and-off conflict, Futa Jallon invaded the Mandinka kingdom of Kaabu in support of a revolut by Alpha Molo [fr].

[9]: 54  For the Fulas, this alliance served a double purpose, enlisting the Malinke ruler to put down the remnants of the Hubbu, who raided trade caravans, and act as a counterweight to growing French power in the region.

[7]: 247 Since the mid-1800s the French, and particularly governor Louis Faidherbe, had envisioned Futa Jallon as an integral part of France's imperial project in West Africa.

Nevertheles by 1889 other international powers had accepted Futa Jallon as falling within the French sphere of influence, even after another treaty in 1893 validated the Fulani interpretation.

The Fula leadership held out the spectre of closer relations with the British in Sierra Leone as a threat against the French, having established a trading relationship before 1881.

[7]: 251 Bokar Biro moved to strengthen central control, and provincial leaders resisted led by Alfa Yaya of Labé.

[7]: 258  To make matters even more critical, the Alfaya almamy Hamadu, died, and the leading candidate to replace him, and thus to alternate rule with Biro, was the pro-French Omaru Bademba.

[13] The Imamate of Futa Jallon was governed under a strict interpretation of Sharia with a central ruler in the city of Timbo, near present-day Mamou.

Fula poets composed epic poetry in Fulfulde in the 19th century about faith, law, and morality, and many women could read the Quran.