Cote d'Ivoire
COTE D'IVOIRE
Côte d'Ivoire, also known as Ivory Coast, is located on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital is Yamoussoukro, while its largest city and economic hub is Abidjan. The country shares borders with Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Burkina Faso, Ghana, and the Gulf of Guinea. With a population of 30.9 million in 2023, it is the third-most populous country in West Africa. French is the official language, but there are around 78 indigenous languages spoken, including Bété, Baoulé, Dioula, Dan, Anyin, and Cebaara Senufo. The population practices Islam, Christianity, and traditional faiths like Animism.
In the late 19th century, France sought to expand its influence over West Africa, starting with the establishment of direct administration over its coastal trading posts and an exploration campaign in 1886. In 1887, Lieutenant Louis Gustave Binger secured treaties that created French protectorates in what is now Ivory Coast, while Marcel Treich-Laplène extended French influence further through the region with additional agreements. By the end of the 1880s, France had firmly established its control over Ivory Coast, with Britain recognizing this control in 1889. The area was officially declared a French colony in 1893, and its boundaries were finalized in 1947 to include parts of Upper Volta and French Sudan.
During the partitioning, many local African rulers were either unaware of or misled about the true implications of French treaties. Some sought French support against their rivals, but most lost their sovereignty due to French deception and military strength rather than a genuine desire for French expansion.
Côte d'Ivoire officially became a French colony on March 10, 1893, with Louis Gustave Binger appointed as the first governor. Binger negotiated boundary treaties with Liberia and Britain, establishing the colony’s borders. Throughout the early years of French rule, French military expeditions ventured inland to set up new posts, often encountering resistance from local populations, even in areas that had signed treaties of protection. Samori Touré, who had founded the Wassoulou Empire over large parts of present-day Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Ivory Coast starting in 1878, offered the strongest resistance. His well-equipped army, capable of manufacturing and repairing its own firearms, garnered significant support across the region. Binger responded to Touré's territorial expansions with military pressure, leading to fierce confrontations. The French campaigns against the Wassoulou Empire intensified in the mid-1890s until Touré was captured in 1898.
In 1900, France imposed a head tax to fund public works programs in the colony, sparking several revolts. The public works and related resource exploitation required a massive labor force. The French instituted a system of forced labor, mandating that each adult male Ivorian work ten days a year without compensation. This system was widely abused and became the most detested aspect of French colonial rule by the Africans. Due to the insufficient local population to meet labor demands, the French recruited large numbers of workers from Upper Volta to work in Ivory Coast. This forced labor system not only disadvantaged the men forced to work but also harmed Ivorian farmers. As farming became crucial to Ivory Coast's economic growth, European and African farmers worked to expand their businesses, leading to an increased need for labor. During World War II, the French government gave preferential treatment to European farmers, forcing African farmers to find voluntary workers locally or close their operations. These systemic injustices caused significant strife among the African working class, who had no voice in the matter as they were not recognized as French citizens. The labor source was so vital to the colony's economy that in 1932 the AOF annexed a large part of Upper Volta to Ivory Coast, administering it as a single colony. Many Ivorians saw the head tax as a violation of the protectorate treaties, feeling that France was now demanding payment from local kings rather than vice versa. Much of the population, especially in the interior, viewed the tax as a humiliating symbol of subjugation.
From 1904 to 1958, Ivory Coast was part of the Federation of French West Africa, a colony and an overseas territory under the Third Republic. Until after World War II, French West Africa's affairs were administered from Paris, with France's policy in the region reflecting a philosophy of "association," meaning that all Africans in Ivory Coast were officially French subjects without representation rights in Africa or France. In 1905, France officially abolished slavery in most of French West Africa.
In 1908, Gabriel Angoulvant was appointed governor of Ivory Coast. Although he had little experience in Africa, Angoulvant believed that Ivory Coast's development required a forceful conquest, or "pacification," of the colony. He sent military expeditions to the interior to suppress resistance. As a result, local rulers were compelled to follow existing antislavery laws, supply porters and food to French forces, and protect French trade and personnel. In return, the French promised to leave local customs intact and not intervene in the selection of rulers, though they often violated this agreement by deporting or interning leaders seen as instigators of revolt. They also reorganized villages and established a uniform administration across most of the colony, replacing the coutume system with a performance-based allowance.
French colonial policy included concepts of assimilation and association. Assimilation presumed the inherent superiority of French culture, extending French language, institutions, laws, and customs throughout the colony. Association, on the other hand, affirmed French superiority but allowed Africans to preserve their customs as long as they were compatible with French interests. An indigenous elite trained in French administrative practices acted as intermediaries between the French and Africans.
Assimilation in Ivory Coast allowed a small number of Westernized Ivorians to apply for French citizenship after 1930. However, most Ivorians remained French subjects with no political rights under the principle of association. They were conscripted to work in mines, on plantations, as porters, and on public projects as part of their tax obligations. They were also expected to serve in the military and were subject to the indigénat, a separate legal system for Africans.
During World War II, the Vichy regime controlled the colony until 1943, when General Charles De Gaulle's provisional government took over French West Africa. The Brazzaville conference in 1944, the first Constituent Assembly of the Fourth Republic in 1946, and France's gratitude for African loyalty during the war led to significant governmental reforms. In 1946, French citizenship was granted to all African subjects, political organization was recognized, and various forms of forced labor were abolished. The 1956 Overseas Reform Act (Loi-cadre Defferre) transferred several powers from Paris to elected territorial governments in French West Africa, removing remaining voting inequalities.
Until 1958, governors appointed in Paris administered the colony, using a centralized system that left little room for Ivorian participation in policymaking. The French colonial administration adopted divide-and-rule policies, applying assimilation ideas only to the educated elite. The French aimed to ensure that the small but influential elite was sufficiently satisfied with the status quo to avoid anti-French sentiment. Although opposed to the association practices, educated Ivorians believed they would achieve equality with the French through assimilation rather than independence, which would eliminate the economic advantages of remaining a French possession. After postwar reforms, Ivorian leaders realized that assimilation implied French superiority and that discrimination and inequality would only end with independence.
As early as 1944, Charles de Gaulle proposed changing France's politics, moving towards a new era. In 1946, the French Empire was converted into the French Union, which was replaced by the French Community in 1958. In December 1958, Ivory Coast became an autonomous republic within the French Community following a referendum on August 7. On July 11, 1960, France agreed to Ivory Coast becoming fully independent. Ivory Coast achieved independence on August 7, 1960, establishing Abidjan as its capital.
Ivory Coast's contemporary political history is closely linked with Félix Houphouët-Boigny, president of the republic and leader of the Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI) until his death on December 7, 1993. He was one of the founders of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), the leading pre-independence political party for French West African territories.
Houphouët-Boigny first gained political prominence in 1944 as the founder of the African Agricultural Union, an organization that won improved conditions for African farmers and formed the nucleus for the PDCI. After World War II, he was narrowly elected to the first Constituent Assembly. Representing Ivory Coast in the French National Assembly from 1946 to 1959, he focused on inter-territorial political organization and improving labor conditions. After thirteen years in the French National Assembly, including almost three years as a minister in the French Government, he became Ivory Coast's first prime minister in April 1959, and the following year was elected its first president.
In May 1959, Houphouët-Boigny strengthened his position in West Africa by leading Ivory Coast, Niger, Upper Volta (Burkina Faso), and Dahomey (Benin) into the Council of the Entente, a regional organization promoting economic development. He believed in achieving African solidarity through gradual economic and political cooperation, emphasizing non-intervention in the internal affairs of other African states.
Houphouët-Boigny was more conservative than most post-colonial African leaders, maintaining close ties to the West and rejecting the leftist and anti-western stance of many contemporary leaders. This contributed to the country's economic and political stability. The first multiparty presidential elections were held in October 1990, which Houphouët-Boigny won convincingly. He passed away on December 7, 1993.
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