the 1956 and 1957 elections throughout the colonies. The RDA became the largest political party in French Africa and the largest group in the UDSR which allowed Houphouët-Boigny to become a prominent French minister after the 1956 elections. As minister, Houphouët-Boigny crafted the 1958 option to the colonies to vote for immediate independence or to join a community linking the colonies with France but with increased autonomy. The vote, however, divided the RDA over the issues of independence and federalism and the party largely split. Despite the breakup of the party after the 1958 vote, the national parties and the connections established regionally through the party remained important. The RDA parties in Guinea and Mali, which were the dominant parties in those countries during and after independence, joined together with the former British colony of Ghana to form the Union of African States. In contrast, the Ivory Coast, Niger and Dahomey were joined together with the Conseil de l'Entente in the era after independence. Political context With the end of World War II, the French colonial empire set about a significant reorganization of the relationship between France and the colonies. Before the establishment of the French Fourth Republic, the only colony in French West Africa or French Equatorial Africa with any elections for political authorities was Senegal. The rest of the colonies had few Africans who were considered citizens of France, no elections, and suppression of most political movements. With the establishment of the French Union () in 1946 all of the colonies of French Africa (except for the trusteeship of Togo) became overseas departments which would provide to the colonies expanded citizenship, the right to elect members to the French National Assembly, and some limited autonomy for local councils. The 1946 French elections in June largely split the legislature between a coalition of the Popular Republican Movement ( or MRP) the French Communist Party ( or PCF), and the French Section of the Workers' International ( or SFIO). This split meant that each party needed to court African deputies to the National Assembly in order to further their legislative causes. The SFIO was the only party with actual party branches established in the African colonies, while the Communist party had established Groupes d’Etudes Communistes (Communist Study Groups) in many of the capitals of the African colonies in 1943 and the MRP had various networks arranged by the church. Combined