The Battle of Ségou is a decisive point in the growth of the Toucouleur Empire (1850-1890), which spreads throughout the upper Niger River and Senegal River basins in the late nineteenth century.
It marks the destruction of the last of the Songhay successor states, the beginning of El Hadj Umar Tall's conflict with fellow Fula Jihad leader of Macina, and a Toucouleur movement to the east under pressure from French Colonial expansion in the Senegambia.
El Hadj Umar Tall, a Toucouleur conqueror who sweeps across West Africa from Fouta Djallon, invades Segou and finds an already shaken Bambara Empire.
Well trained, regimented, and equipped with modern firearms, Umar Tall's mujahideen readily and easily defeat the Bambara, seizing Ségou itself on March 10, 1861.
Umar makes his son Ahmadu Tall king or "Faama", and declares an end to the Bambara Empire.
The Niger River city of Ségou becomes the center of the Toucouleur Jihad state, and the base for its further expansion to the east.
