French Cameroon
Territory of Cameroun Cameroun | |||||||||
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1916–1960 | |||||||||
![]() League of Nations mandates in the Middle East and Africa; French Cameroon is number 9. | |||||||||
Status | Mandate of France | ||||||||
Capital | Yaoundé 3°51′59.108″N 11°31′14.027″E / 3.86641889°N 11.52056306°E | ||||||||
Official languages | French | ||||||||
Common languages | |||||||||
Religion | Christianity, Bwiti, Islam | ||||||||
Government | Mandate | ||||||||
History | |||||||||
• German Cameroon partitioned | 20 July 1916 | ||||||||
• independence as Cameroon | 1 January 1960 | ||||||||
Currency |
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ISO 3166 code | CM | ||||||||
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French Cameroon, also known as the French Cameroons (French: Cameroun), was a French mandate territory in Central Africa. It now forms part of the independent country of Cameroon.
History
Beginnings
The area of present-day Cameroon came under German sovereignty during the "
Interwar period
After World War I, French Cameroon was not integrated to
World War II
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d5/LT31_%285%29_Monument_au_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_Leclerc.jpg/220px-LT31_%285%29_Monument_au_g%C3%A9n%C3%A9ral_Leclerc.jpg)
In 1940 French Cameroon rallied to the
Post-war
After World War II, French Cameroon was made a
In 1946, a Representative Assembly of French Cameroon (ARCAM) was constituted.
The
A Cercle d'études marxistes (
Self rule in 1956 and continuation of the war
In 1957–58,
France granted internal autonomy in 1956, and the ATCAM became the Legislative Assembly of Cameroon (ALCM).
The insurrection continued after independence was granted, even though the UPC had been officially dismantled. The rebellion was really crushed only in the 1970s, after the death in the "maquis" of Ossendé Afana in March 1966 and the public execution of Ernest Ouandié, a historic leader of the UPC, in January 1971.
Estimates about the number of victims of the war ranged around several tens of thousands of deaths, mainly after independence. The war featured human rights abuses by UPC militants and the troops of Cameroon and France.[3][5] Despite the efforts of writer Mongo Beti, the war and the brutal methods employed by the French government has been overshadowed in France by the Algerian War. The lack interest has been attributed to the use of professional soldiers in the conflict, the low number of Cameroonian immigrants in France requesting recognition of the crimes committed during the war, and, more recently, the fall of Communism.[3]
French Cameroon became independent on 1 January 1960, becoming the Republic of Cameroon. The civil war with the UPC lasted for years afterward.
Colony and mandate
The area of present-day Cameroon was claimed by Germany as a protectorate during the "Scramble for Africa" at the end of the 19th century. During World War I, it was occupied by French and Belgian troops.
In 1922 it was
Independence
French Cameroon became independent during January 1960, and Nigeria was scheduled for independence later that same year, which raised question of what to do with the British territory. After some discussion (which had been going on since 1959), a
Northern Cameroons became a region of Nigeria on 31 May 1961, while Southern Cameroons became part of Cameroon on 1 October. In the meantime, the area was administered as a French Colony, in French West Africa.
Governors
See also
- Cameroon
- German Cameroon
- British Cameroons
- French colonial empire
- History of colonialism
- Algerian War
- List of French possessions and colonies
- French Equatorial Africa
- League of Nations Mandate
- French colonial flags
- French West Africa
- Cameroonian French
References
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica, 1910 edition, Volume 5, p 112 (Cameroon article)
- OCLC 742316797.
- ^ a b c Marc Michel, "La guerre oubliée du Cameroun", in L'Histoire n°318, March 2007, pp.50–53
- ^ Jacques Foccart, counsellor to Charles de Gaulle, Georges Pompidou and Jacques Chirac for African matters, recognized it in 1995 to Jeune Afrique review. See also Foccart parle, interviews with Philippe Gaillard, Fayard – Jeune Afrique (in French) and also "The man who ran Francafrique – French politician Jacques Foccart's role in France's colonization of Africa under the leadership of Charles de Gaulle – Obituary" Archived 24 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine in The National Interest, Fall 1997
- ^ Johnson, Willard R. 1970. The Cameroon Federation; political integration in a fragmentary society. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- ISBN 0-19-829645-2
External links
Media related to French Cameroon at Wikimedia Commons