French Equatorial Africa

Republic of the Congo, 1910–1958. Draft, not yet reviewed

French Equatorial Africa was a federation of French colonial territories in Equatorial Africa which consisted of Gabon, French Congo, Ubangi-Shari, and Chad. It existed from 1910 to 1958 and its administration was based in Brazzaville. During World War II, French Cameroon and the entirety of the AEF except for Gabon rallied to the Free French Forces in August 1940. When the territories voted in the September 1958 referendum to become autonomous within the French Community, the federation was dissolved.

Seat of power: Brazzaville

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• French Equatorial Africa began with the concept of association, which was implemented through treaties promising French protection by the Italian-French explorer Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza.
• France granted private companies contracts for the exploitation of natural resources like ivory and rubber, rather than sustainable investment. Private companies implemented heavy taxation with little to no pay and cruel treatment towards workers and the local communities.
• The railway was built using forced labour recruited from what is now southern Chad and the Central African Republic, and deaths among the construction workers are estimated at more than 17,000.
• During the Nazi occupation of France in World War II, Brazzaville functioned as the symbolic capital of Free France between 1940 and 1943.

Picture

The Congo-Ocean Railway links the Atlantic port of Pointe-Noire with Brazzaville, a distance of 502 kilometres.

Image: Jkan997, CC BY 3.0, file

Sources

• French Equatorial Africa (Wikipedia)
• French Equatorial Africa (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

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