Mission Foureau-Lamy

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Map showing the course of the Foureau-Lamy mission

The Foureau-Lamy mission was a French research and military expedition through Africa . It began in Ouargla in North Africa in 1898 and ended in Bangui in Central Africa in 1900 .

The expedition, led by Fernand Foureau and Amédée-François Lamy , crossed the Sahara and supported France's claims to large parts of French West Africa and French Equatorial Africa .

background

In the race for Africa at the end of the 19th century, any territorial claims by France and the United Kingdom to the central Sahara, the Nigerian region and the Lake Chad area were still unresolved. For a long time, the as yet unreached desert city of Timbuktu had been the goal of French imperialists . When this was occupied, Lake Chad became the new symbol of possible expansion.

The French government did not have a well-thought-out plan of what areas and how to subjugate France. The following developments were more shaped by improvisation and chance: There were three different missions that advanced more or less simultaneously for France from different directions in the areas mentioned. The Voulet-Chanoine mission, led by Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine, began on the Niger and was supposed to reach Lake Chad from the west. The Gentil Mission, led by Émile Gentil , also had Lake Chad as its destination, but started in the south in Brazzaville . Finally, the Foureau-Lamy mission was supposed to cross the Sahara from Algeria in France in a north-south direction and fly the flag in the high mountains of Aïr and the city of Agadez . Its beginning coincided with the climax of the Faschoda crisis .

Compilation

  • Foureau

  • Lamy

The Foureau-Lamy mission came about when Fernand Foureau and Amédée-François Lamy, two men of different origins who did not know each other before and who only shared the common goal of crossing the Sahara, joined forces. The civilian Foureau had been living in Algeria for several years and was considered France's leading Sahara expert through his research. Lamy was an officer with great military experience in the French colonies . He had served in Algeria, Tunisia and Tonkin , among others . The learned society Société de Géographie provided the financing for the expedition .

The mission's scientific orientation, with Fernand Foureau as the figurehead, only superficially concealed the imperialist-military character of the mission. In Paris , the circles that were promoting a claim to the Sahara based on military superiority had prevailed over the long prevailing proponents of subjugating the desert inhabitants through trade relations and cautious diplomacy. An earlier French expedition to the Sahara, that of Paul Flatters in 1880/1881, had failed catastrophically. This gap also had to be erased in the eyes of the Parisian colonialists .

The heavily armed Foureau-Lamy mission consisted of four civilians, ten officers, 32 French NCOs, 213 Algerian screechers , 50 Saharan scavengers and 13 Spahis . There were also 20 leaders from the Châamba Arab clan , six marabouts and 49 cameleers. On her march she was accompanied by 1200 camels, who transported more than 5000 boxes of luggage.

course

From Ouargla to Agadez

After arriving from Algiers , the Foureau-Lamy mission started at Ouargla on October 23, 1898 and headed south across the sand sea of ​​the eastern Great Erg and the Tassili n'Ajjer and Ahaggar mountains into the Aïr mountains. On February 24, 1899, the expedition set up camp for three months in the mountain village of Iférouane , from where they explored the surrounding valleys. The route then continued through the Aïr, again spending several weeks in the mountain village of Aoudéras , until the mission reached the city of Agadez on July 28, 1899. After tours in the vicinity of Agadez, the city was finally left further south on October 17, 1899.

During this leg of the journey, Tuareg attacked the mission, killing a French colonel. A large number of the camels and horses used as pack animals perished due to a lack of water. That is why the expedition members buried or burned loads they had carried more than once. Furthermore, the impassable desert and mountainous terrain led to several accidents.

From Agadez to Zinder

The mission passed the Tiguidit step and the Aderbissinat well and reached the villages of Gangara and Sabon Kafi in Damergou south of the Sahara . Finally she came to the city of Zinder , which was already under French occupation , where she took up her quarters from November 20 to December 28, 1899. During this time some of the troops went on an extensive expedition to the area west of the city. The localities Kantché , Koona , Gazaoua , Tessaoua , Maïjirgui and Dan Kori were visited. In this area, the Voulet-Chanoine mission had come to a violent end six months earlier.

According to Foureau's later assessment, the most difficult part of the route was over from Zinder. Lamy commanded combat operations against insurgent local rulers west of Zinder. The body of officer Jean-François Klobb , who was murdered by participants in the Voulet-Chanoine mission, was brought to Zinder by Dan Kori on the Foureau-Lamy mission.

From Zinder to Lake Chad

Photographs of the Foureau-Lamy mission from Lake Chad (1900)

After Zinder, the Foureau-Lamy mission moved further east into the heart of the Bornu Empire . In January 1900 it reached the Komadougou Yobé River and Lake Chad via the old manor house of Mirriah . After a detour to the ruins of Kuka , the route led along the lake shore, where the villages of Bosso , Barwa and N'Guigmi were visited. In February 1900 the journey continued southwards along the Shari River . From March 3 to April 26, 1900, the expedition took up quarters in the village of Kousséri .

The Foureau-Lamy mission took over the route that had been planned for the Voulet-Chanoine mission, and at the same time followed the trail of the scattered remains. Lack of water was no longer a problem, but the arid vegetation was insufficient for food, so that the expedition lost more horses. The marshy shoreline of Lake Chad was difficult to understand and, in the absence of suitable local guides, the travelers had to make many detours. Already on Komadougou Yobé, the expedition encountered burned down villages and many human bones scattered on the ground, which could be ascribed to the tyranny of Rabih az-Zubayr , who had headed the Bornu Empire. The Foureau-Lamy Mission and the remnants of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission met on the lakeshore and united on their way to the Shari. Finally, in Kousséri, the third French expedition, the Mission Gentil, met. The military of the three missions - without the participation of civilians like Foureau - now saw themselves strong enough for a direct confrontation with the troops of Rabih az-Zubayr. In command, Amédée-François Lamy, the oldest officer took over. In the Battle of Kousséri on April 22, 1900, Rabih az-Zubayr was defeated and killed, but Lamy also lost his life.

From Lake Chad to Bangui

Despite Lamy's death, the mission continued its explorations. First she advanced into areas that were also claimed for the German colony of Cameroon and spent two weeks in Dikoa , the capital Bornus. Then she returned to the Shari River and crossed the Baguirmi area to the south, along the so-called duck's bill . Her stations were French bases such as Fort-Archambault , Fort-Crampel , Fort-Sibut and, in mid-1900 , Fort-de-Possel , located on the Ubangi River on the border with the Congo Free State . From there, the last stage to the city of Bangui was mastered, which was reached by the last participants in the mission on August 15, 1900.

The mission had covered more than 5,200 kilometers from Ouargla to Bangui. The return journey to France took place via the port city of Matadi and the Atlantic . Foureau traveled the last part of the route alone, the remainder of the mission followed its route several weeks late. Foureau sailed the Shari and the Ubangi in a pirogue . He made a precise survey of the shari between Kousséri and Fort-Archambault.

Aftermath

With its presence and military actions, the Foureau-Lamy mission defined the French claims in a large area of ​​Africa and thus had a long-term influence on the formation of states in Algeria, Niger and Chad . Already on May 29, 1900, five weeks after the death of Amédée-François Lamy, a place was founded opposite Kousséri under the name Fort-Lamy as the administrative seat of a French colonial administration. On July 23, 1900, the French military territory reaching as far as the Aïr and Lake Chad was founded by Zinder, which was merged with the Djerma district to form the Third Military Territory on December 20, 1900, thus creating the nucleus of Niger . In Chad, on November 5, 1900, a French military territory was established for the Shari-Lake Chad area, which was a direct result of the victory over Bornu in the Battle of Kousséri. The fact that Algeria extends noticeably far into the Sahara compared to the neighboring states of Tunisia and Morocco is a result of the mission: its origins and composition emerged from French Algeria.

The successes of the Foureau-Lamy Mission from the French perspective spurred nationalism and colonialism in the country. A memorial was erected for the mission in Ouargla in 1930 and a memorial stele in Algiers in 1938 . In 1950, a memorial service was held at the Sorbonne in Paris with the surviving participants of the Foureau-Lamy mission chaired by the French President Vincent Auriol .

Fernand Foureau published an extensive scientific documentation of the mission from 1902 to 1905, which includes detailed observations from astronomy and meteorology to orography , hydrography , topography , botany , geology , petrography and paleontology to ethnography and economics . Foureau's work, enriched with images and maps, was received very favorably by contemporary science.

literature

Publications of the expedition participants

  • Jean-Claude Abadie, Françoise Abadie: Sahara – Tchad (1898–1900). Carnet de route de Prosper Haller, médecin de la mission Foureau-Lamy . L'Harmattan, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-7384-0286-0 .
  • Jacques Britsch: La mission Foureau-Lamy et l'arrivée des Français au Tchad, 1898–1900. Carnets de route du lieutenant Gabriel Britsch . Foreword by Pierre Rondot. L'Harmattan, Paris 1989, ISBN 2-7384-0308-5 .
  • Fernand Foureau: Mission Saharienne Foureau-Lamy. D'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Masson, Paris 1902 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Fernand Foureau: Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Volume I: Observations astronomiques. Meteorology. Orography. Hydrography. Topography. Botanique. Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Fernand Foureau: Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Volume II: Geology. Petrography and paleontology. Esquisse ethnographique. Notes on the faune préhistorique. Aperçu commercial. Conclusions économiques. Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Fernand Foureau: Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Atlas (cartographer: Verlet-Hanus). Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr ).
  • Charles Guilleux: Journal de route d'un caporal de tirailleurs de la Mission Saharienne (Mission Foureau-Lamy), 1898–1900. Sahara - Aïr - Soudan - lac Tchad - Chari - Congo . Schmitt, Belfort 1904 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Alexis Métois: De l'Algérie au Congo par le Tchad. Conference faite à la Société de Géographie de Poitiers le 27 juin 1901 . Blais et Roy, Poitiers 1901 ( gallica.bnf.fr ).
  • Emile Reibell: Carnet de route de la mission saharienne Foureau-Lamy (1898–1900) . Preface by General Chambrun. Plon, Paris 1931.

Secondary literature

  • Edmond Bonnet: Note on the collections botaniques recueillies par la mission saharienne Foureau-Lamy . In: Bulletin du Muséum d'histoire naturelle . No. 6 , 1901, pp. 280-283 .
  • Jean-Pierre Duhard: Le spahi Fernand Ravin. Une vocation saharienne . L'Harmattan, Paris 2013, ISBN 978-2-343-00379-5 , Chapitre 6: Avec la mission Foureau-Lamy, p. 91-155 .
  • Th. Fischer: Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne, mission Foureau-Lamy . Book review. In: Geographical Journal . tape 13 , no. 11 , 1907, pp. 649-650 .
  • Gabriel Galland: Vingt mois au pays de la soif. La mission saharienne Foureau-Lamy, October 1898 – May 1900 . Librairie nationale d'éducation et de récréation, 1906 ( archive.org - fictional correspondence with a member of the mission).
  • Louis Gardel: Les rêveurs du Sahara. Fernand Foureau and François-Joseph Lamy, de l'Algérie au Soudan, 1898–1900 . In: Pierre Fournié, Sophie de Sivry (ed.): Aventuriers du monde. Les grands explorateurs français au temps des premiers photographes, 1866–1914 . L'Iconoclaste, Paris 2003, ISBN 2-913366-07-4 , pp. 212-223 .
  • Raoul Gautier: Documents scientifiques de la Mission Saharienne (Mission Foureau-Lamy, 1898–1900), par F. Foureau, 1903–1905 . Book review. In: Le Globe. Revue genevoise de geographie . No. 47 , 1908, pp. 124-136 ( persee.fr ).
  • Dr. Haller: Wyprawa Foureau-Lamy do jeziora Czad . Noskowski, Warsaw 1901 ( polona.pl ).
  • Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  • René Pottier: La mission Foureau-Lamy . Éditions de l'Union Française, Paris 1951.
  • Maurice Zimmermann: La mission Foureau-Lamy - La question du Transsaharien . In: Annales de Géographie . No. 38 , 1899, pp. 185-186 ( persee.fr ).
  • Maurice Zimmermann: La mission Foureau-Lamy . In: Annales de Géographie . No. 39 , 1899, pp. 282-283 ( persee.fr ).
  • Maurice Zimmermann: La France in the Sahara. L'occupation d'In Salah. La mission Foureau-Lamy . In: Annales de Géographie . No. 44 , 1900, pp. 180-182 ( persee.fr ).

Web links

Commons : Mission Foureau-Lamy  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 , pp. 145-146 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  2. ^ Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 , pp. 148-149 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  3. ^ A b Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 , pp. 164 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  4. ^ A b Fergus Fleming: The Sword and the Cross. Two Men and an Empire of Sand . New York 2003, p. 98-99 .
  5. ^ Edward L. Bimberg: Tricolor Over the Sahara. The Desert Battles of the Free French, 1940-1942 . Greenwood Press, Westport 2002, ISBN 0-313-31654-6 , pp. 9 .
  6. ^ Charles Le Coeur: La carte et le dessin. Exemple de la mission Saharienne Foureau-Lamy 1898–1900. In: Les Cafés Géographiques. February 24, 2015 (French).;
  7. ↑ a b c d Fernand Foureau: Documents scientifiques de la mission saharienne. Mission Foureau-Lamy d'Alger au Congo par le Tchad . Atlas (cartographer: Verlet-Hanus). Masson, Paris 1905 ( jubilotheque.upmc.fr [accessed May 6, 2018]).
  8. ↑ a b c d Raoul Gautier: Documents scientifiques de la Mission Saharienne (Mission Foureau-Lamy, 1898–1900), par F. Foureau, 1903–1905 . Book review. In: Le Globe. Revue genevoise de geographie . No. 47 , 1908, pp. 126–127 ( persee.fr [accessed May 6, 2018]).
  9. ^ A b Douglas Porch: The Conquest of the Sahara . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, New York 2005, ISBN 978-0-374-12879-1 , pp. 198-200 (first edition: Knopf, New York 1984).
  10. ^ A b Otto Riemer: The French Congo region (Le Congo français). Development history, physiography, flora, fauna, ethnography, organization, finance, trade and transport . Dissertation. Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn, Bonn 1909, p. 26 .
  11. ↑ Abdourahmane Idrissa, Samuel Decalo: Historical Dictionary of Niger . 4th edition. Scarecrow, Plymouth 2012, ISBN 978-0-8108-6094-0 , pp. 128-129 .
  12. ↑ Jan C. Jansen: Conquering and remembering. Symbol politics, public space and French colonialism in Algeria, 1830–1950 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-486-72361-8 , p. 520 .
  13. ^ Bernard Lanne: Histoire politique du Tchad de 1945 à 1958. Administration, partis, élections . Karthala, Paris 1998, ISBN 2-86537-883-7 , pp. 157 .
  14. ^ Raoul Gautier: Documents scientifiques de la Mission Saharienne (Mission Foureau-Lamy, 1898–1900), par F. Foureau, 1903–1905 . Book review. In: Le Globe. Revue genevoise de geographie . No. 47 , 1908, pp. 124 and 136 ( persee.fr [accessed May 6, 2018]).