French Congo Explained

Conventional Long Name:French Congo
Common Name:French Congo
Status:Colony
Empire:France
Life Span:1882–1960
Year Start:1882[1]
P1:Kingdom of Kongo
Flag P1:Flag of the Kingdom of Kongo according to Giovanni Cavazzi da Montecuccolo.svg
P2:Kingdom of Loango
Flag P2:Flag of the Kingdom of Loango.svg
P3:Kingdom of Orungu
S1:French Equatorial Africa
Flag S1:Flag of France.svg
Date Event1:1903
Event1:Renamed Middle Congo
Year End:1910
Event End:Reestablished as French Equatorial Africa
Flag Type Article:French colonial flags
Religion:Christianity, Bwiti, Islam, traditional religions
Capital:Brazzaville
Common Languages:French (official)
Fang, Myene, Kongo, Lingala
Currency:French franc
Today:Republic of the Congo

The French Congo (French: Congo français) or Middle Congo (French: Moyen-Congo) was a French colony which at one time comprised the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo and parts of Gabon, and the Central African Republic. In 1910, it was made part of the larger French Equatorial Africa.

The modern Republic of the Congo is considered French Congo's successor state, having virtually identical borders, and having inherited rights to sovereignty and independence from France through the dissolution of French Equatorial Africa in the late 1950s.

History

The French Congo began at Brazzaville on 10 September 1880 as a protectorate over the Bateke people along the north bank of the Congo River.[1] The treaty was signed between King Iloo I and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza; Iloo I died the same year it was signed, but the terms of the treaty were upheld by his queen Ngalifourou. It was formally established as the French Congo on 30 November 1882,[1] and was confirmed at the Berlin Conference of 1884–85. Its borders with Cabinda, Cameroons, and the Congo Free State were established by treaties over the next decade. The plan to develop the colony was to grant massive concessions to some thirty French companies. These were granted huge swaths of land on the promise they would be developed. This development was limited and amounted mostly to the extraction of ivory, rubber, and timber. These operations often involved great brutality and the near-enslavement of the locals.

Even with these measures most of the companies lost money. Only about ten earned profits. Many of the companies' vast holdings existed only on paper with virtually no presence on the ground in Africa.

The French Congo was sometimes known as Gabon-Congo.[2] It formally added Gabon on in 1891,[1] was officially renamed Middle Congo (French: link=no|Moyen-Congo) in 1903, was temporarily divorced from Gabon in 1906, and was then reunited as French Equatorial Africa in 1910 in an attempt to emulate the relative success of French West Africa.

In 1911 the Morocco-Congo Treaty gave part of the territory to Germany for an outlet on the Congo River. This land, known as Neukamerun, was officially regained by France after the First World War.

A 1906 study French: label=none|L'Expansion coloniale au Congo français|translation=The colonial expansion of French Congo, was published in conjunction with the French Colonial Exposition in Marseille.[3] In 1925 African-American historian, sociologist, and Pan-Africanist W. E. B. Du Bois wrote "'Batouala' voices it. In the depths of the French Congo one finds the same exploitation of black folk as in the Belgian Congo or British West Africa."[4] [5]

List of governors

See also

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. Histoire militaire des colonies, pays de protectorat et pays sous mandat. 7. "Histoire militaire de l'Afrique Équatoriale française". 1931. Accessed 9 October 2011.
  2. Payeur-Didelot: "Gabon – Colonie française du Gabon-Congo, 1/3,700,000", 1894.
  3. Book: Rouget , Ferdinand . Émile Larose – via World Digital Library. The Colonial Expansion of French Congo. 2014-06-19. 1906. fr.
  4. Du Bois. W. E. Burghardt. W. E. B. Du Bois. 1925-04-01. Worlds of Color. 3. 3. Foreign Affairs. 0015-7120. subscription.
  5. Book: DuBois, W. E. B.. W. E. B. Du Bois. Locke. Alain LeRoy. Alain LeRoy Locke. 1925. 1927. The New Negro: An Interpretation. The Negro Mind Reaches Out. 385. Albert and Charles Boni. https://archive.org/details/newnegrointerpre00unse/page/413/mode/1up. 25025228. 639696145.

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