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Ivory Coast
Index
The mosque at Kong, c. 1897.
Engraving from Louis Gustave Binger, Du Niger au Golfe de
Guinée , 1892.
The African continent, situated between Europe and the
imagined
treasures of the Far East, quickly became the destination
of the
European explorers of the fifteenth century. The first
Europeans to
explore the West African coast were the Portuguese. Other
European
sea powers soon followed, and trade was established with
many of
the coastal peoples of West Africa. At first, the trade
included
gold, ivory, and pepper, but the establishment of American
colonies
in the sixteenth century spurred a demand for slaves, who
soon
became the major export from the West African coastal
regions.
Local rulers, under treaties with the Europeans, procured
goods and
slaves from inhabitants of the interior. By the end of the
fifteenth century, commercial contacts with Europe had
spawned
strong European influences, which permeated areas
northward from
the West African coast.
Côte d'Ivoire, like the rest of West Africa, was
subject to
these influences, but the absence of sheltered harbors
along its
coastline prevented Europeans from establishing permanent
trading
posts. Seaborne trade, therefore, was irregular and played
only a
minor role in the penetration and eventual conquest by
Europeans of
Côte d'Ivoire. The slave trade, in particular, had little
effect on
the peoples of Côte d'Ivoire. A profitable trade in ivory,
which
gave the area its name, was carried out during the
seventeenth
century, but it brought about such a decline in elephants
that the
trade itself virtually had died out by the beginning of
the
eighteenth century.
The earliest recorded French voyage to West Africa took
place
in 1483. The first West African French settlement, Saint
Louis, was
founded in the mid-seventeenth century in Senegal, while
at about
the same time the Dutch ceded to the French a settlement
at Ile de
Gorée off Dakar. A French mission was established in 1687
at
Assini, and it became the first European outpost in that
area.
Assini's survival was precarious, however, and only in the
midnineteenth century did the French establish themselves
firmly in
Côte d'Ivoire. By that time, they had already established
settlements around the mouth of the Senegal River and at
other
points along the coasts of what are now Senegal, Gambia,
and
Guinea-Bissau. Meanwhile, the British had permanent
outposts in the
same areas and on the Gulf of Guinea east of Côte
d'Ivoire.
Activity along the coast stimulated European interest
in the
interior, especially along the two great rivers, the
Senegal and
the Niger. Concerted French exploration of West Africa
began in the
mid-nineteenth century but moved slowly and was based more
on
individual initiative than on government policy. In the
1840s, the
French concluded a series of treaties with local West
African
rulers that enabled the French to build fortified posts
along the
Gulf of Guinea to serve as permanent trading centers. The
first
posts in Côte d'Ivoire included one at Assini and another
at GrandBassam , which became the colony's first capital. The
treaties
provided for French sovereignty within the posts and for
trading
privileges in exchange for fees or
costumes (see Glossary)
paid annually to the local rulers for the use of the land.
The
arrangement was not entirely satisfactory to the French
because
trade was limited and misunderstandings over treaty
obligations
often arose. Nevertheless, the French government
maintained the
treaties, hoping to expand trade. France also wanted to
maintain a
presence in the region to stem the increasing influence of
the
British along the Gulf of Guinea coast.
The defeat of France in the Franco-Prussian War (1871)
and the
subsequent annexation by Germany of the French province of
AlsaceLorraine caused the French government to abandon its
colonial
ambitions and withdraw its military garrisons from its
French West
African trading posts, leaving them in the care of
resident
merchants. The trading post at Grand-Bassam in Côte
d'Ivoire was
left in the care of a shipper from Marseille, Arthur
Verdier, who
in 1878 was named resident of the Establishment of Côte
d'Ivoire.
Data as of November 1988
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