The city started expanding again after World War II. But the growth of the city as a colonial industrial center halted because of the world economic crisis during the Great Depression, as well as the suppression of the colony of Upper Volta in 1933. The Abidjan Railway reached Bobo-Dioulasso in 1934, increasing its access to markets, transportation, and communications. This established the framework for the modern city center. Between 19, the French colonial government constructed a typical European grid pattern of new avenues and streets in the city, intersected by diagonals radiating from a center, with square urban lots between them. It was dramatically modified in 1932 when a large road artery was built through it and by the widening of streets in successive urban renewal projects. Sia proper, which survives today as the Dioulasoba neighborhood, was partly spared this total destruction. It was made available for redevelopment as a residential neighborhood (the current neighborhood of Tounouma). In 1927 the French razed the old village of Tunuma and the other settlements their population was relocated either to neighboring villages or to a previously farmed empty zone away. A colonial military base was established in the southern sector of the city, adding to its growing importance. The French based their activities in the city in an effort to suppress the insurrection, while the city itself became a center for the organization of the suppression. This became the headquarters of a district ( cercle) of the same name, Bobo-Dioulasso.Дuring the 1915-16 anti-colonial war, the population in the north and east of district Bobo-Dioulasso took up arms against the French colonial government. Soon afterward the French created an administrative settlement near them, on the east side of the We river. The two main villages were occupied by the French on Septemafter a brief but bloody confrontation. A number of other independent villages in the surroundings (Bindogoso, Dogona, Kwirima, Kpa) have been absorbed by the developing city and are now within its municipal boundaries and incorporated as part of the city. Britannica, Bobo-Dioulasso,, USA, accessed on JThree small satellite villages were located beyond this natural border. HistoryДЄt the end of the nineteenth century, Sia consisted of two large villages, Tunuma and Sia proper, located a few hundred meters from each other on a narrow spit of land bounded by ravines on either side, carved by the We (HouГ«t) river to the east and by its tributary Sanyo to the west. Bobo-Dioulasso is significant both economically (agricultural trade, textile industry) and culturally, as it is a major center of culture and music.

The city is situated in the southwest of the country, in the Houet Province, some 350В km (220В mi) from Ouagadougou. There are two distinct dialects spoken of Jula, based on the origins of different peoples who speak this language.

The local Bobo-speaking population (related to the Mande) refers to the city simply as Sia. The name means 'home of the Bobo-Dioula'. (11вЃ1' -4вЃ7') Bobo-Dioulasso is a city in Burkina Faso with a population of 903,887 () it is the second largest city in the country, after Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso's capital.

Capital city of upper volta