When the French arrived and claimed the area in 1896, Mossi resistance ended with the capture of their capital at Ouagadougou. In 1919, certain provinces from Cote d'Ivoire were united into a separate colony called the Upper Volta in the French West Africa federation. In 1932, the new colony was dismembered in a move to economize; it was reconstituted in 1937 as an administrative division called the Upper Coast. After World War II, the Mossi renewed their pressure for separate territorial status and on September 4, 1947, Upper Volta became a French West African territory again in its own right.

A revision in the organization of French Overseas Territories began with the passage of the Basic Law (Loi Cadre) of July 23, 1956. This act was followed by reorganizational measures approved by the French parliament

Lamizana's government faced problems with the country's traditionally powerful trade unions, and on November 25, 1980, Col. Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup. Colonel Zerbo established the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress as the supreme governmental authority, thus eradicating the 1977 constitution.

Sankara and other officials were assassinated in 1987, and Capt. Blaise Compaore seized control. Compaore, unlike his predecessor, began to attract foreign investment and expanded the private sector. In 1991 a new constitution was approved and, in subsequent elections, Campaore (the only candidate) was elected president. In 1992 the country held its first multiparty parliamentary elections since 1978; Compaore's party won over two thirds of the seats amid widespread charges of fraud. The party made even bigger gains in the 1997 elections, and Campaore was reelected president in 1998.

On Nov. 25, 1980, Col. Saye Zerbo led a bloodless coup that toppled Lamizana. In turn, Maj. Jean-Baptist Ouedraogo ousted Zerbo on Nov. 7, 1982. But the real revolutionary change occurred the following year when a 33-year-old flight commander, Thomas Sankara, took control. A Marxist-Leninist, he challenged the traditional Mossi chiefs, advocated women's liberation, and allied the country with North Korea, Libya, and Cuba. To sever ties to the colonial past, Sankara changed the name of the country in 1984 to Burkina Faso, which combines two of the nation's languages and means ?the land of upright men.?

Some members of the leftist Organisation pour le Democratie Populaire/Movement du Travail (ODP/MT) were against the admission of non-Marxist groups in the front. On September 18, 1989, while Compaore was returning from a two-week trip to Asia, Lengani and Zongo were accused of plotting to overthrow the Popular Front. They were arrested and summarily executed the same night. Compaore reorganized the government, appointed several new ministers, and assumed the portfolio of Minister of Defense and Security. On December 23, 1989, a presidential security detail arrested about 30 civilians and military personnel accused of plotting a coup in collaboration with the Burkinabe external opposition.

In 2000, the UN accused Burkina Faso's president of being a chief player in Africa's illicit diamond trade. Compaore, the reports claim, has traded weapons for diamonds with UNITA rebels in Angola, Sierra Leone's Revolutionary United Front (RUF), and Liberia, ignoring the international arms embargo and fueling the continuing violence plaguing western Africa.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Burkina Faso, Upper Volta, Sangoule Lamizana, Blaise Compaore, Union UDV, Thomas Sankara, Front FP, Period Near, Yatenga Tengkodogo, Mali Agache, upper volta, burkina faso, national assembly, military coup, called upper, blaise compaore, autonomous republic french, republic french community, 5 1960, dissolved national, maurice yameogo, trade unions, dissolved national assembly, upper volta french, bobo lobi gurunsi,
Approximate Word count = 2140
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)