French West Africa

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Location of the successor states of French West Africa within Africa
The eight colonies that formed French West Africa around 1936
French West Africa postage stamp, 1921

French West Africa ( French Afrique-Occidentale française , AOF ) was from 1895 to 1958 the name for the Federation of French Colonies in West Africa . Up to nine territories belonged to this area: Upper Senegal and Niger , Senegal , Mauritania , French Sudan (now Mali) , Guinea , Dahomey (now Benin) and the Ivory Coast .

In the area of Upper Senegal / Niger in 1911, a separate military district Niger , in 1919 a separate colony of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso) founded. The rest of the territory became part of French Sudan in 1920. Saint-Louis was the capital of French West Africa until 1902, but was then replaced by Dakar . The chief administrator was a governor general . In 1946 French West Africa became an autonomous federation within the " Union française " . In 1958 the colonies became autonomous republics within the " Communauté française " - with the exception of Guinea, which opted for independence. At the time of its inception, the federation had a population of around 10 million and when it dissolved it had 25 million. The area of ​​French West Africa was approximately 4.7 million km².

In 1910 France founded French Equatorial Africa (Afrique- Equatoriale française); its organization was similar to that of the AOF.

In 1942 , after Operation Torch, the troops in French West Africa joined De Gaulle's “ Free France ” .

Others

Until after the Second World War , almost no Africans in these colonies became French citizens . They were regarded as subjects (“ subjects ”) of France and had hardly any rights in court, to property , to freedom of travel , to object, to vote , etc. The four municipalities of Senegal were the exception.

One of France's war goals in World War I (agreements were made with the Allies on the Near and Middle East and West Africa) was to achieve a closed French West Africa, that is, without German or British enclaves . In the Orient , too , Great Britain was a greater competitor than the Ottoman Empire , the real enemy of the war.

France supported Spain from the AOF in the Rif War (1921–1926). In the course of hostilities Spain continued - with the knowledge of France, Britain, Germany and other countries - international law poison gas , including mustard gas ( mustards ).

Governors General of French West Africa

  1. Jean-Baptiste Chaudié (1895–1900)
  2. Noël Ballay (1900-1902)
  3. Ernest Roume (1902-1907)
  4. William Ponty (1908-1915)
  5. François Joseph Clozel (1916)
  6. Joost van Vollenhoven (1917-1918)
  7. Martial Merlin (1918-1923)
  8. Jules Carde (1923-1930)
  9. Jules Brévié (1930-1936)
  10. Marcel de Coppet (1936-1938)
  11. Léon Cayla (1939-1940)
  12. Pierre Boisson (1940-1943)
  13. Pierre Cournarie (1943-1946)
  14. René Barthès (1946–1948)
  15. Paul Béchard (1948–1951)
  16. Bernard Cornut-Gentille (1952–1956)
  17. Gaston Custin (1956-1957)

literature

  • Michael Crowder: West Africa under Colonial Rule. Hutchinson, London 1968.
  • John D. Hargreaves: West Africa. The Former French States. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs 1967
  • Djibril Tamsir Niane, Jean Suret-Canale: Histoire de l'Afrique Occidentale . Présence Africaine, Paris 1961.
  • Virginia Thompson, Richard Adloff: French West Africa . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1957.
  • Naval Intelligence Division : French West Africa . HMSO, London
  • Volume 1. The Federation . 1943
  • Volume 2. The Colonies . 1944
  • Ronald J. Harrison Church: West Africa. 8th edition. Longman, London 1980.
  • Guy de Lusignan: French-Speaking Africa since Independence. Pall Mall, London 1969
  • WB Morgan, John Charles Pugh: West Africa . Methuen, London 1969.
  • Ruth Schachter-Morgenthau: Political Parties in French-Speaking West Africa. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1964.
  • Jean Suret-Canale: French Colonialism in Tropical Africa, 1900-1945. Pica Press, New York 1971.
  • Edward Mortimer : France and the Africans, 1944-1960. A Political History . Walker, New York 1969.
  • Tony Chafer: The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization? Berg, Oxford / New York 2002, ISBN 978-1-85973-557-2 .
  • Michael Crowder: Colonial West Africa. F. Cass, London / Totowa 1978, ISBN 978-0-7146-2943-8 .
  • Richard Adloff: West Africa. The French-Speaking Nations Yesterday and Today . Holt, New York 1964.

Web links

Commons : French West Africa  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georges-Henri Soutou: Exuberance on all sides. The war aims of France in the First World War . In: Documents. Journal for the German-French dialogue . Vol. 43, 1987, No. 4, pp. 285-290, here: pp. 286 f.