Uprising in the French Congo 1905

After an uprising in the French Congo in 1905, French forces established control over the Congo

By the early 19th century the Congo River had become a major avenue of commerce between the coast and the interior. Henry Morton Stanley, a British journalist, explored the river in 1877, but France acquired jurisdiction in 1880 when Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza signed a treaty with the Tio ruler. The formal proclamation of the colony of French Congo came in 1891. Early French efforts to exploit their possession led to ruthless treatment of the local people, and Brazza returned in 1905 to lead an inquiry. In 1910 the French joined Congo with neighbouring colonies as the federation of French Equatorial Africa, with its capital at Brazzaville.

The French were preoccupied with acquiring labour. Forced labour, head taxes, compulsory production of cash crops, and draconian labour contracts forced Africans to build infrastructure and to participate in the colonial economy. No project was more costly in African lives than the Congo-Ocean Railway, built between 1921 and 1934 from Pointe-Noire to Brazzaville; between 15,000 and 20,000 Africans died.

References

How to Stop a War; Congo.

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