1920-1939 History of Central Africa Independence





Chad, 1939-1960



Chad was the first territory within the French Colonial Empire to have an ethnically African governor, FELIX EBOUE. In 1939, World War II broke out, on June 25th 1940 Petain signed the capitulation of French forces and soon afterward, CHARLES DE GAULLE proclaimed a FREE FRENCH government in Brazzaville. Governor Felix Eboue was the first to recognize the Free French administration.
During World War II, the Chad was frontier country, as it shared a common border with Italian LIBYA. In 1943, French troops occupied the FEZZAN region.
After World War II, French Equatorial Africa was given the status of an OVERSEAS TERRITORY, with representation in the French National Assembly. It was given a territorial assembly, and the adult native population was given the right to vote. Political sentiment was against integration and in favour of independence; French Equatorial Africa was dissolved in 1957, independence proclaimed in 1960.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Chad, History of, from Infoplease, from Library of Congress, Country Studies
Chad : The Party System in 1950-1956 and 1957-1962, in : Kenneth Janda, Political Parties : A Cross-National Survey
DOCUMENTS
REFERENCE Naval Intelligence Division : French Equatorial Africa (Geographical Handbook Series), London 1942, 524 pp. [G]
Article Chad, Republic of, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1960 p.148 (on events of 1959) [G]
Article : Chad, in : Americana Annual 1940 p.118, 1943 p.139, 1944 pp.134-135 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 28th 2007

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