Editing History of Ivory Coast (section)

==Establishment of French rule==
[[File:Aouabou-Traité-1892.jpg|thumb|[[Louis-Gustave Binger]] in 1892 treaty signing with [[Famienkro]] leaders.]]To support its claims of effective occupation, France again assumed direct control of its West African coastal trading posts and embarked on an accelerated program of exploration in the interior in 1886.<ref name=":5" /> In 1887, Lieutenant [[Louis Gustave Binger]] began a two-year journey across Ivory Coast's interior.<ref name=":6">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Cote d'Ivoire: a country study |publisher=[[Federal Research Division]], [[Library of Congress]] |location=Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/90005878/ |date=1988 |editor-last=Handloff |editor-first=Robert Earl |page=10 |pages= |isbn= |oclc=44238009 |postscript=. {{PD-notice}}}}.</ref> By the end of his journey, Binger had secured four treaties that established French protectorates in Ivory Coast.<ref name=":6" /> Also in 1887, Verdier's agent, [[:fr:Marcel Treich-Laplène|Marcel Treich-Laplène]], negotiated five additional agreements that extended French influence from the headwaters of the [[Niger River Basin]] through Ivory Coast.<ref name=":6" />

By the end of the 1880s, France had established effective control over the coastal regions of Ivory Coast and Britain recognized French sovereignty in the area in 1889.<ref name=":6" /> France named Treich-Laplène the titular governor of the territory in 1889.<ref name=":6" /> In 1893, Ivory Coast was made a French colony; agreements with [[Liberia]] in 1892 and with Britain in 1893 determined the eastern and western boundaries of the colony, but the northern boundary was not fixed until 1947 when the French government wanted to attach parts of [[French Upper Volta|Upper Volta]] (present-day [[Burkina Faso]]) and [[French Sudan]] (present-day Mali) to Ivory Coast for economic and administrative reasons.<ref name=":6" />[[File:Gustave Binger.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Louis-Gustave Binger]]]]Throughout the process of partition, the Africans were little concerned with the occasional European who came wandering by.<ref name=":6" /> Many local rulers of small, isolated communities did not understand or, more often, were misled by the French about the significance of treaties that compromised their authority.<ref name=":6" /> However, other local leaders thought that the French could solve economic problems or become allies in the event of a dispute with belligerent neighbors.<ref name=":6" /> In the end, the loss of sovereignty by the local rulers was often the result of their inability to counter French deception and military force, rather than a result of support for French encroachment.<ref name=":6" />