Fr. Somali Coast
1891-1918







Stamps issued by the French postal administration for Obock. The left stamp, issued 1893, has inscriptions in French, Ge'ez and Arabic. In 1901 Obock stamps were replaced by those of the French Somali Coast.
Stamp issued by the French postal administration for Djibouti. In 1894 the issuance of Djibouti stamps began; in 1902 the stamps of both Djibouti and Obock were replaced by those for the French Somali Coast, as both colonies were amalgamated..


French Presence at Obock, 1862-1891



Construction of the Suez Canal began in 1859; the opening took place in 1869. It was a French-financed project, organized by Ferdinand de Lesseps. The French, in order to establish their presence at the southern end of the Red Sea (where the English already had a colony at Aden) in 1862 acquired, for a sum of 10,000 Maria Theresa Thalers, the right to establish and administrate a suitable port facility at OBOCK or anywhere else along the coast between Eritrea and Tadjoura, by treaty with the SULTANS OF TADJOURA, GOBAAD and RAHEITA.
The French established a port; the French made use of the Suez Canal and Red Sea route when France acquired Indochina in the 1850es-1880es; ships to and from Indochina called at the port of Obock, a major coal station. In 1881, the FRANCO-ETHIOPIAN TRADING Co. was founded, with seat in Obock. In 1884, LEONCE LAGARDE was appointed French governor of Obock; he expanded the colony and is regarded the real founder of the Cotes des Somalis protectorate.
In the 1880es, interest in the region, both political (colonial) and economical, intensified. At the BERLIN CONFERENCE, France claimed it's share of the Somali coast as defined in the Obock treaty. The first coffee plantation was set up. In 1888, an Anglo-French agreement delimiting their mutual spheres of influence on the northern Somali coast was signed.

An Egyptian expedition in 1873 established military outposts in the area, among others in Massawa, Zeila and Tadjoura. In 1884-1885 Egypt got preoccupied by the Mahdiyya in the Sudan; France seized the opportunity and proclaimed a protectorate over Tadjoura in 1884. France's war with China over Tonkin (1884-1885) increased Obock's importance. The population grew from 800 in 1884 to 2,000 in 1886.
In 1888 the port city of DJIBOUTI was founded; in 1891 the French administration of the COTE DES SOMALIS was transferred there.


Obock's Governors
1884-1899 A.M.J.L. Lagarde de Rouffey Roux







EXTERNAL
FILES 		Articles from Infoplease : Djibouti
French Somaliland : Obock, from Djiboutian Sightings
Brief history, from al.oueb, in French
More detailed history, from Republic of Djibouti Website, in French
DOCUMENTS Lists of Governors, from World Statesmen by Ben Cahoon
REFERENCE Ioan Myrddin Lewis, The Modern History of Somaliland, from Nation to State, London : Weidenfeld and Nicolson 1965



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on April 26th 2008

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