Editing Central African Republic (section)

=== French colonial period ===
{{Main|Ubangi-Shari|French Equatorial Africa|Colonialism in the Central African Republic}}
The European invasion of Central African territory began in the late 19th century during the [[Scramble for Africa]].<ref>[http://www.discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Centr_Afr_Rep.shtml French Colonies – Central African Republic] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130321032403/http://discoverfrance.net/Colonies/Centr_Afr_Rep.shtml |date=21 March 2013 }}. Discoverfrance.net. Retrieved 6 April 2013.</ref> Europeans, primarily the French, [[Germans]], and [[Belgians]], arrived in the area in 1885. France seized and colonized [[Ubangi-Shari]] territory in 1894. In 1911 at the [[Treaty of Fez]], France ceded a nearly 300,000&nbsp;km<sup>2</sup> portion of the Sangha and Lobaye basins to the [[German Empire]] which ceded a smaller area (in present-day [[Chad]]) to France. After [[World War I]] France again annexed the territory. Modeled on [[Leopold II of Belgium|King Leopold]]'s [[Congo Free State]], concessions were doled out to private companies that endeavored to strip the region's assets as quickly and cheaply as possible before depositing a percentage of their profits into the French treasury. The concessionary companies [[corvée|forced local people]] to harvest rubber, coffee, and other commodities without pay and held their families hostage until they met their quotas.<ref name=fp1015>{{Cite magazine|url=https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/28/one-day-we-will-start-a-big-war-central-african-republic-un-violence/|title=One day we will start a big war|magazine=Foreign Policy|access-date=13 February 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170205203123/http://foreignpolicy.com/2015/10/28/one-day-we-will-start-a-big-war-central-african-republic-un-violence/|archive-date=5 February 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:De Gaulle Bangui 1940.jpg|thumb|[[Charles de Gaulle]] in Bangui, 1940]]
In 1920, [[French Equatorial Africa]] was established and Ubangi-Shari was administered from [[Brazzaville]].<ref name="Francophone Africa 1997, pg. 111">Thomas O'Toole (1997) ''Political Reform in Francophone Africa''. Westview Press. p. 111</ref> During the 1920s and 1930s the French introduced a policy of mandatory cotton cultivation,<ref name="Francophone Africa 1997, pg. 111"/> a network of roads were built, attempts were made to combat [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]], and [[Protestant]] [[Mission (Christianity)|missions]] were established to spread Christianity.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gardinier|first=David E.|title=Vocational and Technical Education in French Equatorial Africa (1842–1960)|date=1985|journal=Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society|publisher=Michigan State University Press|volume=8|pages=113–123|issn=0362-7055|jstor=42952135}}</ref> New forms of forced labour were also introduced and a large number of Ubangians were sent to work on the [[Congo-Ocean Railway]]. Through the period of construction until 1934 there was a continual heavy cost in human lives, with total deaths among all workers along the railway estimated in excess of 17,000 of the construction workers, from a combination of both industrial accidents and diseases including [[malaria]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_malaria_train/html/3.stm |title=In pictures: Malaria train, Mayomba forest |publisher=news.bbc.co.uk |access-date=9 December 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131003022228/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/07/africa_malaria_train/html/3.stm |archive-date=3 October 2013 |url-status=live  }}</ref> In 1928, a major insurrection, the [[Kongo-Wara rebellion]] or 'war of the hoe handle', broke out in Western Ubangi-Shari and continued for several years. The extent of this insurrection, which was perhaps the largest anti-colonial rebellion in Africa during the interwar years, was carefully hidden from the French public because it provided evidence of strong opposition to French colonial rule and forced labour.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kalck, Pierre.|title=Historical dictionary of the Central African Republic|date=2005|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=0-8108-4913-5|edition=3rd|location=Lanham, Md.|oclc=55487416}}</ref>
French colonization in Oubangui-Chari is considered to be the most brutal of the French colonial Empire.<ref>{{cite web|access-date=2020-02-07|date=2010-08-11|title=Key dates for the Central African Republic|url=http://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20100811-dates-cle-republique-centrafricaine|website=rfi.fr|archive-date=22 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422052427/https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20100811-dates-cle-republique-centrafricaine|url-status=live}}<!-- auto-translated by Module:CS1 translator --></ref>

In September 1940, during the [[Second World War]], [[Charles de Gaulle|pro-Gaullist]] French officers took control of Ubangi-Shari and [[General Leclerc]] established his headquarters for the [[Free French Forces]] in [[Bangui]].<ref>[https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102152/Central-African-Republic/40700/The-colonial-era Central African Republic: The colonial era – Britannica Online Encyclopedia] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412075355/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/102152/Central-African-Republic/40700/The-colonial-era |date=12 April 2013 }}. ''Encyclopædia Britannica''. Retrieved 6 April 2013.</ref> In 1946 [[Barthélemy Boganda]] was elected with 9,000 votes to the [[French National Assembly]], becoming the first representative of the Central African Republic in the French government. Boganda maintained a political stance against racism and the colonial regime but gradually became disheartened with the French political system and returned to the Central African Republic to establish the [[Movement for the Social Evolution of Black Africa]] (''Mouvement pour l'évolution sociale de l'Afrique noire'', MESAN) in 1950.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabih-az-Zubayr|title=Rābiḥ az-Zubayr {{!}} African military leader|date=1 January 2020|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en|access-date=27 February 2020|archive-date=27 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727191106/https://www.britannica.com/biography/Rabih-az-Zubayr|url-status=live}}</ref>