History of Central Africa French Congo
1908-1918







Stamp issued in 1900 for Moyen Congo by France's Postal Administration



French Congo, 1880-1910



The lands between the lower Congo River and the Atlantic Ocean are mostly jungle country; the population density is low.
French, Portuguese and Dutch traders visited the area, the French trading from LOANGA.
PIERRE SAVORGNAN DE BRAZZA lead an expedition into the area in 1875 and, in 1880 obtained a document from the BATEKE requesting French protection; on that occasion, the Fench established a post at what was to become Brazzaville. By 1883, Albert Dolisle had acquired treaties with tribes on the lower Oubangui, and Brazza lead an expedition to the coast where he obtained a treaty with the Loango.

A French PROTECTORATE was proclaimed in 1880; the French claim was recognized by the BERLIN CONFERENCE of 1884/1885, the borders with Portuguese Cabinda fixed by treaty in 1885, by agreement (1885) with Germany (Cameroons) and the Congo Free State in 1887 / 1894. Various stretches of the protectorate were assigned to French colonial companies, which exploited the area's resources of RUBBER and IVORY, demanding the native population to deliver certain amounts of these.
The French Congo, also called MOYEN CONGO (Middle Congo), was included in the CONGO FREE TRADE AREA established by the CONGO ACT of 1885. From 1889 to 1904, GABON, itself not part of the Congo Free Trade Area, formed a part of French Congo, when it was made a separate protectorate again because France was concerned that the scandal caused by the maltreatment of the native population in the Belgian Congo (the situation in French Congo was not much different) might result in the cancellation of the Congo Act. This did not happen, although a rebellion occurred in the French Congo in 1905.
In 1906, Moyen Congo, Gabon, Oubangi-Chari and Chad joined the FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICAN FEDERATION, with capital at Brazzaville.
The scandals resulted in the French government pass restrictions on companies' activities and in 1910 in the incorporation of the French Congo into the Colony of FRENCH EQUATORIAL AFRICA, the capital of which was Brazzaville.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Republic of Congo, History of, from Infoplease
Brazzaville, from Infoplease
Pierre Paul Francois Camille Savorgnan de Brazza, from Infoplease
Gabon, History of, from Infoplease
Uprising in the French Congo 1905, from Armed Conflict Events Data
DOCUMENTS Map of Africa 1890, from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Am. edition, 1890, from Perry Castaneda Library, Utexas
Map of Africa 1892, from Gardiner's Atlas of English History
Map of Central Africa 1895 from Annales de Geographie IV, from Perry Castaneda Library, UTexas, has borders between Congo and Kamerun
The Story of the French Congo, from E.D. Morel, The Black Man's Burden (1920), posted by boondocksnet
REFERENCE Virginia Thompson, Richard Adloff, Historical Dictionary of the People's Republic of the Congo (Congo Brazzaville), Metuchen : Scarecrow 1974, African Historical Dictionaries No.2, 139 pp.
Article : French Congo and Gabun, in : Statesman's Year Book 1895 p.515, 1898 p.514 [G]
Article : French Congo, in : Statesman's Year Book 1901 pp.589-591, 1905 pp.650-652, 1910 pp.796-797 [G]
Article : French Congo and Gaboon, in : International Year Book 1898 pp.335-336, 1899 pp.348-349 [G]
Article : French Congo, in : International Year Book 1900 p.368 [G]
Article : French Congo, in : New International Year Book 1907 p.286, 1908 pp.266-267, 1909 p.285 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on August 30th 2007

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