Editing French Equatorial Africa (section)

==History==
Established in 1910, the Federation contained four colonial possessions: [[French Gabon]], [[French Congo]], [[Ubangi-Shari]] and [[French Chad]]. The [[Governor-General]] was based in [[Brazzaville]] with deputies in each territory.

In 1911, France ceded parts of the territory to [[German Kamerun]] as a result of the [[Agadir Crisis]]. The territory was returned after Germany's defeat in [[World War I]], while most of [[French Cameroon|Cameroon]] proper became a French [[League of Nations mandate]] not integrated into the AEF.

French Equatorial Africa, especially the region of [[Ubangi-Shari]], had a similar concession system as the [[Congo Free State]] and similar atrocities were also committed there. Writer [[André Gide]] traveled to Ubangi-Shari and was told by inhabitants about atrocities including mutilations, dismemberments, executions, the burning of children, and villagers being forcibly bound to large beams and made to walk until dropping from exhaustion and thirst.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nossiter |first=Adam |date=2014-01-10 |title=Colonial Ghosts Continue to Haunt France |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/africa/colonial-ghosts-continue-to-haunt-france.html |access-date=2023-02-03 |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=14 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230214074432/https://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/08/world/africa/colonial-ghosts-continue-to-haunt-france.html |url-status=live }}</ref> Gide's book ''[[Travels in the Congo (book)|Travels in the Congo]]'', published in 1927, was fiercely critical of the system of the concession companies in French Equatorial Africa. The book had an important impact on the anti-colonialist movement in France.<ref> Voyage au Congo suivi du Retour du Tchad Archived 16 March 2007 at the Wayback Machine, in Lire, July–August 1995 (in French)</ref> The number of victims under the French concession system in Ubangi-Shari and other parts of French Equatorial Africa remains unknown. [[Adam Hochschild]] estimates a population decrease of half in the French Congo and Gabon, similar to his estimate of the population decline in the Congo Free State.<ref>Hochschild, Adam (1998). ''King Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa'' (Pan Macmillan. ISBN 0-330-49233-0){{page number|date=July 2023}}.</ref>

In French Equatorial Africa, the French authorities long tolerated indigenous slavery, but finally acted against the slave trade of the Sultan of Dar Kuti in 1908, and took action against his slave raids in 1911, declaring the slaves in [[Dar al Kuti]]  free.<ref>Miers, S. (2003). Slavery in the Twentieth Century: The Evolution of a Global Problem. Storbritannien: AltaMira Press. p. 38-39</ref> 

During the late 1920s and early 1930s an anti-colonial movement ''[[Société Amicale des Originaires de l'A.E.F.]]'' was established by [[André Matsoua]],<ref name="col">{{cite book |last=Ansprenger |first=Franz |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NbYOAAAAQAAJ |title=The Dissolution of the Colonial Empires |location=London |publisher=Routledge |year=1989 |page=103 |isbn=9780415031431 }}</ref> seeking French citizenship for the territory's inhabitants.<ref name="congo1">{{cite book |last=Bazenguissa-Ganga |first=Rémy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=15Qza8LQcFMC |title=Les voies du politique au Congo: essai de sociologie historique |location=Paris |publisher=Karthala |year=1997 |page=29 |isbn=9782865377398 |language=fr}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], French Cameroun and the entirety of the AEF except for Gabon rallied to the [[Free French Forces]] in August 1940, Gabon instead remained loyal to [[Vichy France]] until 12 November 1940 when the Vichy administration withdrew following the [[Battle of Gabon]]. The federation became the strategic centre of Free French activities in Africa. [[Félix Eboué]] was installed as Governor-General of AEF. A separate administrative structure was established under the auspices of [[Free French Africa]] grouping both AEF and Cameroun.

Under the [[French Fourth Republic|Fourth Republic]] (1946–58), the federation was represented in the [[Parliament of France|French parliament]]. When the territories voted in the [[1958 French constitutional referendum|September 1958 referendum]] to become autonomous within the [[French Community]], the federation was dissolved. In 1959 the new republics formed an interim association called the Union of Central African Republics, before becoming fully independent in August 1960.