Arthur Verdier

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Verdiers agency in Grand-Bassam, based on a photograph by M. Alluaud

Arthur Verdier (born October 13, 1835 in La Rochelle ; † 1898 ) was a French seaman , shipowner , trader and diplomat . He is considered to be one of the founders of the French colony of Ivory Coast .

biography

Arthur Verdier was born the son of a businessman. Went bankrupt when his father in 1851, he left the Naval Academy and hired on the New World , an American vessel on which La Rochelle on Reede was. Over the next six years he worked his way up from a cabin boy to a simple seaman to a lieutenant. After all, he was a captain on a long voyage. As a seaman, he also took part in a military expedition during the Crimean War. In 1861 he commanded a three-master, the Sainte-Anne , starting from Nantes for Gabon . Stopovers were made in Sierra Leone and the Mellacorée River to pick up a cargo of peanuts. It took two months, during which he developed an enthusiasm for life in Africa, which was arduous but free.

In 1862 she settled Verdier in Grand-Bassam and became the fortress commander there. After a fire in 1864, which also destroyed his house, he returned to France. His return to Grand-Bassam took place as a civilian on behalf of Dutch traders. Verdier then went into business for himself as a shipowner in 1867. He operated three sailing ships that sailed between La Rochelle and Grand-Bassam four times a year and thus determined all trade. The Franco-German War also affected the Ivory Coast. The garrison, numbering about 300 men, was called back to their homeland and Verdier left Grand-Bassam and moved to Assinie . As a result of the French defeat, the British demanded that only those colonial territories should be granted that France were also able to rule militarily. Therefore, in 1873, in connection with acts of war against local tribes, the British imposed a blockade on Grand-Bassam. That stalled trade and hit Verdier financially sensitive. In 1878 the Nzema sent a delegation with the request to protect them, whereupon the fortifications of Grand-Bassam and Assinie were repaired in the following year.

From 1878 Verdier was appointed résident de Gran-Bassam as the official civil representative for France. In 1881 he founded a coffee plantation with Amédée Brétignère in Elima near Assinie , and in 1883 brought Marcel Treich-Laplène from France to manage it . In the same year he made unsuccessful attempts in mining. In 1887 the French government decided to start a secular school project in Elima. A teacher was sent from France for this purpose. However, the implementation turned out to be difficult and Verdier had to cover the majority of the costs from its own resources. Verdier remained the official representative of France until 1889. Since 1889, Verdier had more and more problems with colonial administration. The introduction of tariffs in particular repeatedly provoked his protests.

Verdier is trying hard to get an exclusive concession from the French government to exploit natural resources and trade in coffee and wood. Above all, he emphasizes his loyal work in the service of France in the region, which he has done for thirty years. He made several successive proposals that initially provided for a 99-year monopoly, which was then reduced to 20 years. In his ideas for the pricing of the raw materials, however, his demands were so exorbitant that the French trading houses feared a financial disadvantage and the government was asked to set up a trading post.

When the colony of Côte d'Ivoire was founded in 1893, thanks to Deputy Foreign Minister Théophile Delcassé, he finally got a 30-year agreement. This was rejected by Binger the Governor. Verdier has been accused of paralyzing trade with his monopoly and even contributing to the difficulties that befell the Parfait-Louis Monteil expedition . Verdier fell ill in 1884 and was bedridden, which prevented him from going about his business. In 1895, which also saw the establishment of French West Africa , in which the Ivory Coast was absorbed, his concession was canceled by Colonial Minister Émile Chautemps on the grounds that he had failed to make the agreed investments within the required period. As a result, trade in Grand-Bassam quickly came to a standstill. When Verdier died bitter and discouraged in 1898, the trading post in Assinie and the plantation in Elima had largely lost their importance.

Honors

Publications

  • Trente-cinq années de lutte aux colonies (Côte occidentale d'Afrique) , Paris, Librairie africaine et colonial e, Joseph André et Cie, 1897
  • La vérité à propos de l'expédition Monteil: questions coloniales, Côte d'Ivoire , Paris: S. Mercadier, 1895
  • Blocus du territoir d´Assinie possession francaise par le gouverment anglais , Hachette Livre BNF, 2016, ISBN 2-011-30820-8

literature

  • Yvon Marquis: Arthur Verdier: une ambition africaine, 1835-1898 , Paris: L'Harmattan, 2013, ISBN 978-2-343-00297-2
  • Trente-cinq années de lutte aux colonies (Côte occidentale d'Afrique) , Paris, Librairie africaine et colonial e, Joseph André et Cie, 1897

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Article with picture in Sudouest.fr , accessed on January 5, 2018
  2. ^ Trente-cinq années de lutte aux colonies (Côte occidentale d'Afrique) , digitized , accessed on January 5, 2018
personal data
SURNAME Verdier, Arthur
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French explorer of Africa
DATE OF BIRTH October 13, 1835
PLACE OF BIRTH La Rochelle , France
DATE OF DEATH 1898