The first half of the nineteenth century witnessed a slow increase in the number of French comptoirs in the Senegal Valley. Besides Bakel, the French constructed fortified posts at Dagana (1821), Merinaghen (1822), Lampbar (1843), Senoudebou (1845), and Podor (1854). In 1850, these forts and posts were given the name Sénégal et Dépendances. Between 1854 and 1855, eight more were built, from Richard Toll to Medine. Such growth, while modest, provided some support for a much more dramatic French expansion in the second half of the century, or what has been described as the French “shift from ‘water’ to ‘land’, from a coastal enclave with riverine interests to control of the territory of today's Senegal.”

Echoing the French, the British were also increasing their commercial activities along the Upper Gambia, with their principal settlement at McCarthy Island. In the 1820s, the British signed a series of treaties with the kingdom of Wuli for the purpose of facilitating such trade. Bundu, already in contact with British merchants along the Gambia, became even more involved with the latter in the exchange of various commodities, thereby diversifying its trade options.

The response to this gradual increase in the European presence was a rise in hostilities between the various states in the Upper Senegal. The struggle was over control of the region's commerce, considerably enhanced with the growth of French and British entrepots, and made much more deadly by a rise in the availability of European firearms.