After the independences, most of the countries of Africa in general and West Africa specially opted to unite within the framework of regional integration. It is in this context that the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU) was created in 1994. Moreover, beyond the African continent or even on this continent, there is a variable geometry in the process of regional integration of setting up. Thus, the present article, based on a documentary research aims to surround the foundations or the main logics which favored the creation of the WAEMU which wants to be a space of regional integration. Overall, it emerges from this investigation that the establishment of this regional integration institution is based on historical, political and economic foundations linked to endogenous factors in the region and exogenous factors related to the influence of the former colonial power and especially global economic challenges.

regional integration, West Africa