French West Africa

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Collection of 7 illustrations from French and Italian periodicals on the French conquest of Senegal and the Senegal people, 1874-1891. B

Price: $280.00

Note: After two periods of British occupation, Saint-Louis and Gorée were returned to France in 1816. When attempts to grow cotton near Saint-Louis proved unprofitable, the colonial economy came to depend on trade for gum in the Sénégal Valley, where an upriver station was founded at Bakel. fa115a1FA 115fa115a2FA 115In the 1830s two coastal factories, at Carabane and Sédhiou, were acquired in Casamance. In 1848 the ailing colonial economy was further disrupted when the Second Republic outlawed slavery on French soil.

In 1854, at the request of local merchants, Napoleon III appointed as governor Commandant Louis-Leon-Cesar Faidherbe , who began to establish French military hegemony. He soon came into conflict with al-Hajj ‘Umar, a Tukulor from Fouta-Toro who, having become regional head of the Tijaniyah fraternity, was establishing an economic and military power base in the upper Niger Valley; but a military stalemate after 1857 led to a truce of coexistence.fa115a3FA 115fa115a4FA 115 When Faidherbe retired in 1865, French power was paramount over most of the territory of modern Senegal; and growing exports of peanuts, through the new colonial port of Dakar, were providing some economic resources.

In 1879 the French government approved a large program of railway construction. One line was designed to facilitate penetration of 'Umar's empire; another linked Saint-Louis with Dakar through the main peanut area in Kajor, where commercialization and indebtedness were already disturbing Faidherbe's system of collaboration. In 1886 the deposed damel (king), Lat Jor, died in battle against the French; fa115a5FA 115Islamic legitimacy among the Wolof now passed to his kinsman Amadu Bamba Mbake; he became spiritual leader of a new fraternity, the Muridiyah, whose devotees were exhorted to discharge their religious obligations by diligent cultivation of peanuts. Meanwhile, France was consolidating direct control over the rest of Senegal and other African colonies. In 1895 Jean-Baptiste Chaudié became first governor-general of French West Africa, and in 1902 its capital moved to Dakar.

Collection of 4 illustrations from French and English periodicals on the Sofa people, 1892-1894. B

Price: $140.00

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Complete 1891 Le Petit Journal illustration featuring Dahomey Amazons on the back cover, text above. Size 30x44cm. B

Price: $75.00

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Collection of 8 illustrations from French and Italian periodicals concerning the 1889-1892 Dahomey war with France. B

Price: $250.00

Note: When the French won control of Porto Novo and Cotonou and attracted coastal trade there, commerce at Whydah collapsed. After the accession of Behanzin (1889-1894) hostilities precipitated.

Alfred-Amedee (1842-1922) was the French military figure who played a leading role in French colonial expansion in West Africa in the late 19th century.fa113a1FA 113fa113a2FA 113 In 1892-1893, he led the campaign against the native forces of King Behanzin of Dahomey. His victory at Abomey (1892) was vital to the eventual linkage of French posessions in upper Senegal and the upper Niger Region.

King Behanzin was subsequently exiled to St. Pierre in Martinique and died there in the 1902 volcanic eruption, in which only one resident of St. Pierre survived.

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Two illustrations of the lifting of the British blockade of Whydah in July 1877. B

Price: $50.00

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Panorama of Porto Nuovo in 1864. Size 37 x 53cm. B

Price: $50.00

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Illustration from Le Petit Journal of the Senegal and Dahomey pavilions at the 1900 World Exposition. B

Price: $45.00

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1873 Illustrated London News illustration of the Logunkayau-Wa, or Tail Dancers of Dahomey. B

Price: $35.00

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Group of 12 colonial postcards on Mauretania types and places. M

Price: $240.00

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Five illustrations of French conflicts in West Africa, 1891-1911 from Le Petit Journal and Le Petit Parisien. Shown are fighting in Guinee, combat at S'Napa, the last moments of a French explorer, the capture of Thiassale, and the defense of Haut-Niger. B

Price: $300.00

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