[2]: 26  Still, he managed to capture all of the Toron region either by force or diplomacy, building alliances with the powerful Konate family of Gbodou and the leaders of Bissandougou, and taking the village of Faranfina by a ruse.

[2]: 30–32  This first expansionist phase, lasting from 1866 to 1873, saw Samory's army and influence grow dramatically as members of his mother's Camara clan and numerous other volunteers were attracted by his success.

[5] The next morning, Diakite's troops fired on Samory's without having loaded bullets into their guns, then turned and helped route Kourouma, who was captured and beheaded.

[2]: 55–6  After the treaty of Dielibakoro Samory looked to the gold fields of Buré, annexing Fodekaria (Balimana), then crossing the Milo river and where many of the local chiefs joined the alliance.

[citation needed] To protect his arms caravans, Samory formed a non-aggression pact with Aguibou Tall of Dinguiraye in 1878, then an alliance with the almamy of the Imamate of Futa Jallon Ibrahima Sory Dara in 1879.

[2]: 59  With this great trading center secure, the Wassoulou Empire extended through the territory of present-day Guinea and southern Mali, from what is now Sierra Leone to northern Côte d'Ivoire.

The sofas traditional frontal charges became a slaughter when faced with the latest French weaponry, but Samory quickly pivoted by adopting effective guerilla tactics and hit-and-run cavalry attacks.

[2]: 63–4  This victory won Ture a reputation as the African leader who could stand up to the invading toubab, massively boosting his prestige and recruitment, as well as providing a blueprint for future engagements.

[citation needed] When an 1885 French expedition under Col. A. V. A. Combes attempted to seize the Buré gold fields by capturing Niagassola, Ture counter-attacked.

[2]: 79–80  At roughly the same time, the frontier on the Bagoe river between the Samory's lands and the Kenedougou Kingdom was descending into violence as forces from both sides raided into the other, and Tieba Traore's army sought to spark a rebellion in the Wassoulou region.

The terms were similar to the treaty signed the year before, although he did accept a French protectorate that Samory saw as unenforceable, as the colonial army was engaged in a campaign to take Segou.

The elite troops were equipped with the Gras rifle, which local blacksmiths had learned to repair and even build from scratch, but not in the quantities necessary to supply the entire army.

Roads became quagmires during the rainy season, and dysentery struck the army, devastating the men and killing Kebe Brema among other important leaders.

[4][3]: 134 On March 10, 1891, a French force under Colonel Louis Archinard set out from Nyamina for a surprise attack on Kankan, rendering all the previous treaties moot.

[2]: 95 Samori organized a great assembly in August 1891 in Missamaghana, inviting his son in law Mangbe-Amadou Ture of the Kabadougou Kingdom, also called Kabassarana.

[2]: 96  While the best-armed troops resisted the French using French-made repeater rifles, those armed with the bolt-action chassepot conquered new territory to the east to use as a strategic reserve, and men with flintlocks served as the home guard or internal security.

[9]: 267–8 Archinard's replacement Col. Pierre Humbert arrived in Kankan in January 1892 and led a small, well-supplied force of picked men on an attack on Bissandougou.

The sofas fought defensive battles at the Soumbe and Diamanko creeks the 11th and 12th, taking heavy casualties but doing serious damage to the French and nearly capturing the enemy artillery, but could not save the once-again abandoned city.

The French kept chasing Samori's army south, facing ambushes, guerilla warfare, and scorched earth the whole way, installing garrisons at Bissandougou and Kerouane.

At another council at Frankonedou on May 9, 1892, Samory and his allies decided to rebase the empire in Kabadougou, devastating each area before evacuating it to delay French pursuit.

[2]: 97–8 [9]: 269 [12] During the first months of 1893 the French, although unable to corner Ture armies in Guinea, did manage to capture Faranah and block resupply routes to Liberia and Sierra Leone, Wassoulou's primary source of modern weaponry.

[9]: 269  The Wassoulou vassals in Kissidougou and the rest of the western- and southernmost parts of the empire surrendered, and the French looked to rebuild profitable colonies in the wartorn lands rather than push further.

[10] Encouraged by Babemba Traore, who had succeeded his brother Tieba as faama of Kenedougou, the Bambara country again rose in revolt in 1894, blocking Samory's access to Sahelian horses.

The city had nominally accepted French protection during Louis-Gustave Binger's visit in 1892, and the colonial leaders sought to formalize this relationship by putting together a column led by Col. Monteil in August 1894.

[9]: 269  Monteil stumbled onto the sofas on March 2, to the surprise of both sides; in a battle on the 14th, the French were forced to retreat and abandon Kong, which pledged fealty to Samory in April.

[citation needed] Ture accorded the city of Kong numerous privileges, but the local Dyula merchants' commerce with the coast, dominated by the French, had slowed since their absorption into the Wassoulou empire.

In April 1897, British Governor William Edward Maxwell of the Gold Coast tried to intimidate Saranken Mori, Samory's son and the commander in the region, into abandoning Bouna.

Hoping to live off the land while marching, a combination of the unfamiliar mountainous territory of western Ivory Coast, hostile locals, and colonial attacks turned the campaign into a disaster.

[2]: 124–5  Using information from sofa deserters, the French captain Henri Gouraud surprised Ture's forces at Guelemou on September 29, 1898, and captured the Almamy without a fight.

[10][3]: 135 In the first decades of colonial domination in southern Mali and northeastern Guinea, the French framed their conquest as having delivered the locals from the violence and insecurity of the Samory years, and therefore that the communities owed their lives and allegiance to them.