France–Africa relations cover a period of several centuries, starting during the Middle Ages, and have been very influential to both regions. French soft power in Africa is often referred to Françafrique.
The Defense Agreements between France and French-speaking African countries established close cooperation, particularly in defense and security matters. Often accompanied by secret clauses, they allowed France to intervene militarily: to rescue regimes in order to establish the legitimacy of political powers favorable to its interests, to fight jihadism, particularly in the Sahel, or to put an end to civil wars. The departure of French troops from the African continent signals the end of a world, that of interventions in Chad, Togo, Gabon, Rwanda, Djibouti, Zaire, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Mali, Libya, and Cameroon. It also marks the end of Françafrique.
First exchanges (8th century)
Following the invasion of Spain by the Berber Commander Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711, during the 8th century Arab and Berber armies invaded Southern France, as far as Poitiers and the Rhône valley as far as Avignon, Lyon, Autun, until the turning point of the Battle of Tours in 732.Tricolor and crescent: France and the Islamic world by William E. Watson p.1
Cultural exchanges followed. In the 10th century, the French monk Gerbert d'Aurillac, who became the first French Pope Sylvester II in 999, traveled to Spain to learn about Islamic culture, and may even have studied at the university of Al-Qarawiyyin in Fez, Morocco.The Champions of Change Dr. Allah Bakhsh Malik p.29ff
France would become again threatened by the proximity of the expanding Moroccan Almoravid Empire in the 11th and 12th centuries.Reconquest and crusade in medieval Spain by Joseph F. O'Callaghan p.31
Early French explorations (14th–15th century) According to some historians, French merchants from the Normandy cities of Dieppe and Rouen traded with the Gambia and Senegal coasts, and with the Ivory Coast and the Gold Coast, between 1364 and 1413.African glory: the story of vanished Negro civilizations by John Coleman De Graft-Johnson p.121 Carter G. Woodson: a historical reader by Carter Godwin Woodson p.43 Probably as a result, an ivory-carving industry developed in Dieppe after 1364.African glory: the story of vanished Negro civilizations by John Coleman De Graft-Johnson p.122 These travels however were soon forgotten with the advent of the Hundred Years War in France.
In 1402, the French adventurer Jean de Béthencourt left La Rochelle and sailed along the coast of Morocco to conquer the Canary Islands.Canary Islands by Sarah Andrews, Josephine Quintero p. 25
Barbary States
Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt
France signed a first treaty or Capitulation with the Mamluk Sultanate in 1500, during the rules of Louis XII and Sultan Bajazet II,Three years in Constantinople by Charles White p.139Three years in Constantinople by Charles White p.147 in which the Sultan of Egypt made concessions to the French and the Catalans.
Important contacts between Francis I of France and the Ottoman Emperor Suleiman the Magnificent were initiated in 1526, leading to a Franco-Ottoman alliance. This alliance soon created close contacts between France and the Barbary States of Northern Africa, which were in the process of becoming vassals to the Ottoman Empire. In 1533, the first Ottoman embassy to France was led by Hayreddin Barbarossa, then head of the Barbary States in Algiers.
Suleiman ordered Barbarossa to put his fleet at the disposition of Francis I to attack Genoa and the Milanese.Suleiman the Magnificent 1520–1566 Roger Bigelow Merriman p.139 In July 1533 Francis received Ottoman representatives at Le Puy, and in return he dispatched Antonio Rincon to Barbarossa in North Africa and then to Suleiman in Asia Minor.Suleiman the Magnificent 1520–1566 Roger Bigelow Merriman p.140
Various military actions were also coordinated during the Italian War of 1551–1559. In 1551, the Ottomans, accompanied by the French ambassador Gabriel de Luez d'Aramon, succeeded in the Siege of Tripoli.The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Philip II by Fernand Braudel p.920-
Morocco In 1533, Francis I sent Colonel Pierre de Piton as ambassador to Morocco, thus initiating official France-Morocco relations."Francois I, hoping that Morocco would open up to France as easily as Mexico had to Spain, sent a commission, half commercial and half diplomatic, which he confided to one Pierre de Piton. The story of his mission is not without interest" in The conquest of Morocco by Cecil Vivian Usborne, S. Paul & co. ltd., 1936, p.33 In a letter to Francis I dated August 13, 1533, the Wattassid ruler of Fes, Ahmed ben Mohammed, welcomed French overtures and granted freedom of shipping and protection of French traders.
France started to send ships to Morocco in 1555, under the rule of Henry II, son of Francis I.Travels in Morocco, Volume 2 James Richardson p.32 As early as 1577, France established a consul in Fez, Morocco, in the person of Guillaume Bérard, the first European country to do so.The International City of Tangier, Stuart, p.38Studies in Elizabethan Foreign Trade p.149 Bérard was succeeded by Arnoult de Lisle and then Étienne Hubert d'Orléans in the position of physician and representative of France at the side of the Sultan. These contacts with France occurred during the landmark rules of Abd al-Malik and his successor, Moulay Ahmad al-Mansur.
In order to continue the exploration efforts of his predecessor Henry IV, Louis XIII considered a colonial venture in Morocco and sent a fleet under Isaac de Razilly in 1619."The narrative really begins in 1619, when the adventurer, Admiral S. John de Razilly, resolved to go to Africa. France had no colony in Morocco; hence, King Louis XIII gave whole-hearted support to de Razilly." in Round table of Franciscan research, Volumes 17–18 Capuchin Seminary of St. Anthony, 1952 Razilly was able to reconnoiter the coast as far as Mogador. In 1624, he was put in charge of an embassy to the pirate harbour of Salé in Morocco, in order to solve the affair of the library of Mulay Zidan.[The chevalier de Montmagny (1601–1657): first governor of New France by Jean-Claude Dubé, Elizabeth Rapley p.111]
In 1630, Razilly was able to negotiate the purchase of French slaves from the Moroccans. He visited Morocco again in 1631 to participate in the negotiation of the Franco-Moroccan Treaty (1631).A man of three worlds Mercedes García-Arenal, Gerard Albert Wiegers p.114 This treaty gave France preferential treatment, known as Capitulations: advantageous tariffs, the establishment of a consulate, and freedom of religion for French subjects.France in the age of Louis XIII and Richelieu by Victor Lucien Tapié p.259
Senegal (1659)
In 1659, France established the trading post of Saint-Louis, Senegal. The European powers continued contending for the island of Gorée, until in 1677, France led by Jean II d'Estrées during the Franco-Dutch War (1672–1678) ended up in possession of the island, which it would keep for the next 300 years.International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa by Trudy Ring p.303 In 1758 the French settlement was captured by a British expedition as part of the Seven Years' War, but was later returned to France in 1783.
Maghreb
French conquest of Algeria (1830) The French conquest of Algeria took place from 1830 to 1847, resulting in the establishment of Algeria as a French colony. Algerian resistance forces were divided between forces under Ahmed Bey at Constantine, primarily in the east, and nationalist forces in Kabylie and the west. Treaties with the nationalists under `Abd al-Qādir enabled the French to first focus on the elimination of the remaining Ottoman threat, achieved with the 1837 Capture of Constantine. Al-Qādir continued to give stiff resistance in the west. Finally driven into Morocco in 1842 by large-scale and heavy-handed French military action, he continued to wage a guerilla war until Morocco, under French diplomatic pressure following its defeat in the First Franco-Moroccan War, drove him out of Morocco. He surrendered to French forces in 1847.
First Franco-Moroccan War (1844)
France again showed a strong interest in Morocco in the 1830s, as a possible extension of her sphere of influence in the Maghreb, after Algeria and Tunisia. The First Franco-Moroccan War took place in 1844, as a consequence of Morocco's alliance with Algeria's Abd-El-Kader against France. Following several incident at the border between Algeria and Morocco, and the refusal of Morocco to abandon its support to Algeria, France faced Morocco victoriously in the Bombardment of Tangiers (August 6, 1844), the Battle of Isly (August 14, 1844), and the Bombardment of Mogador (August 15–17, 1844).Navies in modern world history Lawrence Sondhaus p.71ff The war was formally ended September 10 with the signing of the Treaty of Tangiers, in which Morocco agreed to arrest and outlaw Abd al-Qādir, reduce the size of its garrison at Oujda, and establish a commission to demarcate the border. The border, which is essentially the modern border between Morocco and Algeria, was agreed in the Treaty of Lalla Maghnia.
Algeria 1958 The May 1958 seizure of power in Algiers by French army units and French settlers opposed to concessions in the face of Arab nationalist insurrection ripped apart the unstable Fourth Republic. The National Assembly brought him back to power during the May 1958 crisis. De Gaulle founded the Fifth Republic with a strengthened presidency, and he was elected in the latter role. He managed to keep France together while taking steps to end the war, much to the anger of the Pieds-Noirs (Frenchmen settled in Algeria) and the military; both previously had supported his return to power to maintain colonial rule. De Gaulle granted independence to Algeria in 1962.Winock, Michel. "De Gaulle and the Algerian Crisis 1958–1962." in Hugh Gough and John Home, eds., De Gaulle and Twentieth Century France (1994) pp 71–82.
French West Africa
From 1880, France endeavoured to build a railway system, centered on the Saint-Louis-Dakar line that involved taking military control of the surrounding areas, leading to the military occupation of mainland Senegal.Slavery and colonial rule in French West Africa by Martin A. Klein, p.59 The construction of the Dakar-Niger Railway also began at the end of the 19th century under the direction of the French officer Gallieni.
The first Governor General of Senegal was named in 1895, overseeing most of the territorial conquests of Western Africa, and in 1904, the territories were formally named French West Africa (AOF: "Afrique Occidentale Française"), of which Senegal was a part and Dakar its capital.
Sub-Saharan Africa 1940–1981
French conservatives were disillusioned with the colonial experience after the disasters in Indochina and Algeria. They wanted to cut all ties to the numerous colonies in French sub-Saharan Africa. During the war, de Gaulle had successfully based his Free France movement and the African colonies. After a visit in 1958, he made a commitment to make sub-Saharan French Africa a major component of his foreign-policy.Julian Jackson, De Gaulle (2018), pp 490–93, 525, 609–615. All the colonies in 1958, except Guinea, voted to remain in the French Community, with representation in Parliament and a guarantee of French aid. In practice, nearly all the colonies became independent in the late 1950s, but maintained very strong connections.Patrick Manning, Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa 1880–1995 (1999) pp 137–41, 149–50, 158–62. Under close supervision from the president, French advisors played a major role in civil and military affairs, thwarted coups, and, occasionally, replaced upstart local leaders. The French colonial system had always been based primarily on local leadership under a policy of indirect rule.