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.[2] 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.[3] It formally added
Gabon on in 1891,[1] was officially renamed Middle Congo (French: 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.
Petringa, Maria. Brazza, A Life for Africa. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2006.
ISBN978-1-4259-1198-0. Describes Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's extensive explorations of what became French Congo, and later, French Equatorial Africa.
External links
Media related to
French Congo at Wikimedia Commons