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The origins of French North Africa lay in the decline of the Ottoman Empire. In 1830, the French captured Algiers and from 1848 until independence in 1962, Algeria was treated as an integral part of France. Seeking to expand their influence, the French established protectorates to the east and west of it.
The West African French colonies had developed self-government in 1956 due to the domestic policy given by France. The French had maintained control over the military, foreign affairs, and economic planning. The president of France, Charles de Gaulle, gave citizens of West Africa a choice in 1958. Their 1st options were yes to partner with the ...
Following the establishment of French settlements on the African west coast in 1659 and a gradual extension of the French West African territory during the nineteenth century, it was created a colonial territory under a Governor‐General in 1904. In 1942, it switched its allegiance from the Vichy government to de Gaulle.
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Britain and Italy, in the race for territory in Africa. But it is only within the past twenty years that she has successfully created a great colonial state there. French colonial enterprise in Africa began in 1637, when Claude de Rochefort built fort St. Louis at the mouth of the Senegal river on the west coast and explored the interior for ...
- Overview
- French territories
The problems facing the French were much more formidable than those facing the British. The British colonies were essentially based on territories close to the sea, in which European trade had been long established and whose African peoples were already accustomed to producing for the world market. The French had such a colony in Senegal, but from this they had expanded over vast, remote, and thinly populated territories that required very considerable investment before they could be efficiently administered or developed. By and large the French public had appreciably less capital to invest overseas than the British public had. By 1936 it was estimated that, whereas the British colonies in western Africa had attracted about $560 million of capital, the total outside investment in French West Africa amounted only to some $155 million.
French strategy was initially to open up and develop its western African empire from a base in Senegal on the same Sénégal–Niger river axis along which it had been conquered. As early as 1882 work was begun on a railway to link the heads of navigation of the two rivers at Kayes and at Bamako (which became the capital of the French Sudan). But this line was not completed until 1906, by which time it had become evident that Saint-Louis, at the mouth of the Sénégal River, was not capable of development into a modern port, and that the Sénégal was really suitable for navigation for only three months in the year. So first a railway was completed from Saint-Louis to the new harbour of Dakar in the lee of Cape Verde (1885), and then during 1907–24 a line was built directly from Dakar (since 1902 the federal capital for French West Africa) to Kayes to bypass the Sénégal River altogether.
The construction of an effective west–east transport system from the coast to the upper Niger thus took some 42 years to complete, and the only part of it that was profitable was that serving the peanut-growing areas of Senegal. There was a lag of some 20 years after 1924 before the thinly populated and impoverished French Sudan could respond to the stimulus of its improved communications with the outside world. Indeed the only major crop developed for the world market that could withstand the high costs of transport to the coast—over some 700 miles of railway—was cotton, and that only after considerable further investment in irrigation. Ultimately the main economic role of the Sudan was to provide foodstuffs for Senegal, whose peasant farmers found it more profitable to concentrate on growing peanuts for export.
By 1914 French economic strategy had shifted from the concept of opening up the inland territories of the French Sudan, Upper Volta, and Niger, to the encouragement of agricultural production in the coastal colonies. To a limited extent, the way was pioneered by European plantations, more especially perhaps in the Ivory Coast. Generally these colonies were made remunerative by administrative pressures to induce African farmers to produce for export. Ultimately, just as the economy of the Senegal had become largely dependent on the export of peanuts, so that of French Guinea became dependent on bananas (though at the very end of the colonial period, European and American capital began the successful exploitation of considerable deposits of bauxite and iron ore), and the economies of Dahomey and of Togo (after its conquest from Germany) became dependent on palm produce. The most dramatic successes were achieved in the Ivory Coast, where considerable exports were developed of coffee, cocoa, bananas, and lumber. Railways were built from suitable points on the coast to facilitate the export of these crops.
The problems facing the French were much more formidable than those facing the British. The British colonies were essentially based on territories close to the sea, in which European trade had been long established and whose African peoples were already accustomed to producing for the world market. The French had such a colony in Senegal, but from this they had expanded over vast, remote, and thinly populated territories that required very considerable investment before they could be efficiently administered or developed. By and large the French public had appreciably less capital to invest overseas than the British public had. By 1936 it was estimated that, whereas the British colonies in western Africa had attracted about $560 million of capital, the total outside investment in French West Africa amounted only to some $155 million.
French strategy was initially to open up and develop its western African empire from a base in Senegal on the same Sénégal–Niger river axis along which it had been conquered. As early as 1882 work was begun on a railway to link the heads of navigation of the two rivers at Kayes and at Bamako (which became the capital of the French Sudan). But this line was not completed until 1906, by which time it had become evident that Saint-Louis, at the mouth of the Sénégal River, was not capable of development into a modern port, and that the Sénégal was really suitable for navigation for only three months in the year. So first a railway was completed from Saint-Louis to the new harbour of Dakar in the lee of Cape Verde (1885), and then during 1907–24 a line was built directly from Dakar (since 1902 the federal capital for French West Africa) to Kayes to bypass the Sénégal River altogether.
The construction of an effective west–east transport system from the coast to the upper Niger thus took some 42 years to complete, and the only part of it that was profitable was that serving the peanut-growing areas of Senegal. There was a lag of some 20 years after 1924 before the thinly populated and impoverished French Sudan could respond to the stimulus of its improved communications with the outside world. Indeed the only major crop developed for the world market that could withstand the high costs of transport to the coast—over some 700 miles of railway—was cotton, and that only after considerable further investment in irrigation. Ultimately the main economic role of the Sudan was to provide foodstuffs for Senegal, whose peasant farmers found it more profitable to concentrate on growing peanuts for export.
By 1914 French economic strategy had shifted from the concept of opening up the inland territories of the French Sudan, Upper Volta, and Niger, to the encouragement of agricultural production in the coastal colonies. To a limited extent, the way was pioneered by European plantations, more especially perhaps in the Ivory Coast. Generally these colonies were made remunerative by administrative pressures to induce African farmers to produce for export. Ultimately, just as the economy of the Senegal had become largely dependent on the export of peanuts, so that of French Guinea became dependent on bananas (though at the very end of the colonial period, European and American capital began the successful exploitation of considerable deposits of bauxite and iron ore), and the economies of Dahomey and of Togo (after its conquest from Germany) became dependent on palm produce. The most dramatic successes were achieved in the Ivory Coast, where considerable exports were developed of coffee, cocoa, bananas, and lumber. Railways were built from suitable points on the coast to facilitate the export of these crops.
The Anglo-French wars of the 18th century had less direct effect on western Africa than did the earlier wars involving the Dutch, but the development of trade with western Africa to supply slaves for their American colonies continued to be an important aim of both countries. France emerged as master of the coastal trade north of the Gambia ...
Sep 2, 2013 · The French holdings on the Senegal were extended and consolidated into an effective base for future operations by the energetic General Faidherbe from 1854 to 1865, who added the Oulof country as far south as Cape Verde and the kingdom of Cayore, and built the harbor at Darkar.
