French Chad

Chad, 1906–1960. Draft, not yet reviewed

Chad was a part of the French colonial empire from 1900 to 1960. Colonial rule under the French began in 1900 when the Military Territory of Chad was established. French forces succeeded in defeating Rabih az-Zubayr at the Battle of Kousséri in 1900. Chad distinguished itself in 1940 for being, under the governorship of Félix Éboué, the first French colony to rally by the side of Free France.

Seat of power: N'Djamena

Rulers

Culture

• Two fundamental themes dominated the colonial experience of Chad with the French: an absence of policies designed to unify the territory and an exceptionally slow pace of modernization.
• The French came to perceive Chad primarily as a source of raw cotton and untrained labour to be used in the more productive colonies to the south.
• Chad did not receive separate colony status or a unified administrative policy until 1920.
• France conquered the last of the independent polities in Chad in 1917, and by 1920 had defeated the last major native insurgencies.

Picture

The battle of Kousséri was a major engagement fought between France and the forces of the warlord Rabih az-Zubayr in the Rabih War.

Image: Lou tresor, CC BY-SA 4.0, file

Sources

• French Chad (Wikipedia)
• French Chad (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.