chapter 6 French Equatorial Africa 1 Introduction As in Britain, the imperialist wind blew through French politics and society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This renewed interest in overseas territories originated in a national trauma: the loss of most of the Alsace-Lorraine region to Germany in 1871. This event, a keenly felt humilia- tion, would determine French foreign policy until after World War i. French foreign and, by extension, colonial policy was directed at restoring its status among the other European powers: ‘France had to reforge her prestige in the community of European nations. This, according to Jules Ferry, would have to be done, not on the Rhine, but in Africa.’1 France mitigated its revanchist at- titude to Germany over time as it adjusted its national polities. Weighing the pros and cons of its colonial venture in Africa, France decided on an autono- mous colonial policy. Subordination, centralization, executive supremacy, uniformity and formality characterized French rule of its African territories. However, French criticism of informal empire, the system of rule used by Brit- ain and, to a lesser extent, Germany,2 diminished in the 1890s when France realized that direct rule of the overseas territories was impossible and that it necessarily had to deploy trading companies active on the ground. Despite its preference to acquire African territory by way of occupation, French control over Equatorial Africa originated in the establishment of pro- tectorates by concluding treaties with native rulers in the 1880s and 1890s.3 Once the French and African contracting parties had signed the treaty text, French law, administration and institutions were imported into the protector- ate. French sovereignty being exercised over African territory put considerable strain on both the sovereign rights of the native ruler and native land owner- ship. It is this tension that gives rise to the two main questions to be addressed in this chapter. First, what property and sovereignty arrangements were made in the treaties and other agreements concluded between the French and the people residing in Equatorial Africa in the second half of the nineteenth cen- tury? Second, how did existing sovereignty and property rights fare after the 1 J.J. Cooke, New French Imperialism 1880–1910: The Third Republic and Colonial Expansion (Newton Abbot, Hamden: David and Charles, Archon Books, 1973), 11. 2 See Koskenniemi, Gentle Civilizer, 144. 3 Fisch, ‘Africa as Terra Nullius,’ 354–357. © Mieke van der Linden, 2017 | doi 10.1163/9789004321199_007 Mieke van der Linden - 9789004321199 This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC-NDDownloaded 4.0 license. from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:17:34AM via free access 140 chapter 6 treaties had been signed? The main purpose of the current chapter is to estab- lish the facts of the treaty-making practices between France and African rulers as a prelude to assessing the legality of these practices in Chapter 8. First a brief historical background to French presence in Equatorial Africa will be given (§2). Next, the treaty texts and practices between France and na- tive rulers in Central Africa will be analysed and evaluated, with particular at- tention being paid to the transfer of sovereignty over territory and the French approach to native land ownership (§3). Following this exploration, the dis- cussion will shift to the legislation France enacted in Equatorial Africa after the treaties had been concluded (§4) and the interpretation and execution of the treaties (§5). The chapter concludes with some remarks on the issue of the legality of the French colonization of Africa (§6). 2 Historical Background By the time of Third French Republic was established, France’s imperial history stretched back to the sixteenth century. In the second half of the eighteenth century, France had lost a great deal of territory and influence in India, Can- ada and the Caribbean to Britain. In the early nineteenth century, the French set their heart on imperial expansion in Northern Africa, with the acquisition of Algeria as its first major result4 after its unsuccessful invasion of Egypt in 1798–1801.5 From the seventeenth century onwards, the Senegal in West Africa was the lifeline for French trade.6 West Africa was the springboard for French territorial expansion on the African continent.7 The appropriation of Tunisia in 1881 proved pivotal in the founding of the French Empire and in France’s rehabilitation on the international scene. Although France was especially in- terested in the Arabic part of the continent, Sub-Saharan Africa played a vital role in French colonial practice. French rule was established over a territory stretching 1,400 miles from the lower Congo River to Lake Chad, and consisted of present-day Gabon, the Congo Republic, the Central African Republic and the southern part of Chad. In the late nineteenth century, this area was known 4 J. Sessions, By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2011). 5 A.L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930 (Stanford University Press, 1997), 16–19. See Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 27–28. 6 Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 218–219. 7 Ibid., 220–232. Mieke van der Linden - 9789004321199 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:17:34AM via free access <UN> French Equatorial Africa 141 as French Equatorial Africa,8 covering 2,687,190 square kilometres,9 i.e., more than five times the surface area of France. Before elaborating on the coloni- zation of this specific part of Africa, French imperial practices on the whole continent will be considered. French colonial policy and practice reflected the view of the French liberal government minister Jules Ferry (1832–1893) that economic, political and cul- tural considerations were the main drivers of French territorial expansion in Africa,.10 As Minister of Foreign Affairs (1883–1885) and Prime Minister (1880– 1881 and 1883–1885), Ferry laid the foundation for French colonialism. He felt that economic considerations dominated France’s national and international politics and these considerations required industrialization, protection, mar- kets and colonies.11 From a political perspective France wanted to restore the balance of power by expanding its sphere of influence outside Europe. It was especially the political ambition behind the scramble for Africa that height- ened tensions between France and its European contenders,12 and as the Fashoda incident (1898) proved, the antagonism between France and Britain in particular was palpable.13 Even so, the cultural incentive also mattered. The French believed in the superiority of their culture and saw it as their mission to civilize others. This conviction explains why the French policy of assimilation, influenced by nationalist and patriotic sentiments, played a central role in France’s rule 8 See C. Coquery-Vidrovitch, ‘French Congo and Gabon, 1886–1905,’ in: G.N. Sanderson and R. Oliver (eds.), The Cambridge History of Africa, vol. vi (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 298–314. See also A. Mangongo-Nzambi, ‘La délimitation des frontiers du Gabon (1885–1911),’ Cahiers d’études africaines, 9 (1969), 5–53. 9 As is determined in 1920. The total extent of the whole French Empire amounted in that same year 10,184,810 square kilometres. See Roberts, History of French Colonial Policy, xvi. 10 Wesseling, Verdeel en heers, 33. See also J. Darcy, La Conquête de l’Afrique (Paris: Perrin, 1900). 11 S.H. Roberts, The History of French Colonial Policy 1870–1925 (Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1963), 15. 12 See G. Hardy, La Politique Coloniale et le Partage de la Terre au xix et xx Siècles (Paris: Albin Michel, 1937). 13 See D. Bates, The Fashoda Incident of 1898: Encounter on the Nile (Oxford University Press, 1984); W. Churchill, The River War: An Account of the Reconquest of the Sudan (London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1902), Chapter 17; D. Levering Lewis, The Race to Fashoda: Euro- pean Colonialism and African Resistance in the Scramble for Africa (New York: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1987) and C.M. Andrew and A.S. Kanya-Forstner, ‘Gabriel Hanotaux, the Colonial Party and the Fashoda Strategy,’ Journal of Imperial Commonwealth History, 3 (1975), 22–104. Mieke van der Linden - 9789004321199 Downloaded from Brill.com09/25/2021 08:17:34AM via free access <UN> 142 chapter 6 of African territory.14 Assimilation was the ‘system which tends to efface all difference between the colonies and the motherland, and which views the colonies simply as a prolongation of the mother-country beyond the seas.’15 Overseas territories were, in other words, considered extensions of the Euro- pean mainland. ‘Assimilation, by giving the colonies institutions analogous to those of metropolitan France, little by little removes the distances which separate the diverse parts of French territory and finally realizes their intimate union through the application of common legislation.’16 In the acquired ter- ritories French administration would be established and Paris would assume control. In keeping with the earlier tradition of colonization, as in Algeria in the 1830s, government by direct colonial rule became the standard of French colonial policy. The development of the overseas territories as particular and separate entities could not be countenanced: ‘[T]hey were pieces in the wider organism and their sole function was to strengthen France and to serve her needs. They had to develop along the lines France needed, they had to sac- rifice themselves if need be for France.’17 This zeal and firmness in France’s policy towards overseas territories differed markedly from the British strategy and attitude towards Africa and its indigenous population. British rule was first and foremost based on maintaining existing political relationships and respecting – indirect rule.