By "in the way French did it IOTL" means I want it to colonize interior West Africa from scratch. And only focus on the West Africas the French did colonize IOTL, which means those Western Sahara Countries and some surrounding states(extension to Chad is optional though). And the process must be happening as fast as the French did it, and lasting as long as the OTL French rule on it, too. I want to keep any part of it from being settled by people from the colonizers' homeland country.
the only other power that would be positioned to do so and have the capability if a number of events did not happen would be Spain. There has to be greater stability in Spain through the 19th C though so the Carlist Wars have to be averted.
Thus Ferdinand does not attempt to amend the succession law and name Isabella II his sucessor. Don Carlos becomes King of Spain upon his death inn '33 without opposition from Maria Christina. The Liberals in Spain will stilll be a problem for him of course and he may be deposed in the '48 rebellions Spain adopting a more liberal constitution at the time under the guise of a purely Constitutional monarchy.
Even then though, the French are already in Dakar and Algerie but perhaps this Spain can get its foot in Guinea or Ivory coast and work inland through the kingdoms and cheifdoms of the Upper Niger establishing protectorates. mind you the French will have to have their attn diverted somewhere else, Indochina or the congo basin perhaps, East Africa. The Spanish could try to exercise their claims more fully along the coast between the Niger and the Ogooue. Such a TL would probably result inthe African coast getting divied up earlier between Britain, France, Spain and Portugal, with the Interior waiting until much later. But without an access point on the coast there won't be much for Italy or Germany left.
I don't think the Spanish could project as far inland as the French though without a considerable amount of luck and events going there way and generally with the benign acceptance of France. Of course post 1860 they might be able to leverage the newly independent Italians somehow to stengthen their hand.
Of course, though if Carlos is King in Spain in the 1830's do the Bourbon's necessarily have to fall from grace in France...The Duke of Angouleme does not abdicate but does accept a more liberal constitution and is eventually succeeded by his nephew in due course.
that could perhaps lead to a Franco - Spanish partnership where Africa is concerned. Defined spheres of influence for both. or areas of Co-protection. Its not like it is not without precedent in OTL. New Hebrides for instance. I am actually considering a no Carlist Wars option for something I am working on.
