Gabon

Gabon, officially the Gabonese Republic is a liberal and capitalist state in Central Africa near Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Cameroon and the Republic of the Congo.

History

Pre-Colonial History

Unfortunately, little is known about Gabon before European colonialism except that it was settled in the 1300s by Bantu peoples, little is known of life then, but tribal art suggests a rich cultural heritage.

First Contact

The first contact made between Europeans and the Gabonese were explorers of the Portuguese Empire who colonised São Tomé and Príncipe in the late 1400s. Gabon was used as a centre of entry for the slave trade and some colonisers established themselves as rulers of some small islands and points on the coast, but nothing really came of it. Dutch, English, and French traders came in the 1500s.

French Colony

In 1839, Gabon was colonised by the French Empire. In 1842 American missionaries from New England established a mission at the mouth of the Komo River in 1842. In 1849, the French authorities captured an illegal slave ship and freed the captives on board. The captives were released near the mission station, where they founded a settlement which was called Libreville (French for "free town"). It operated as a fairly standard colony, with a white French minority controlling most of the wealth and it largely being used to extract natural resource and cheap laborers for overseas markets.

Independence

Gabon was decolonised in 1960 and became a representative democracy with two main political parties, one representing social democracy and one representing centrist liberalism. This soon ended after a military coup in 1964 followed by French military intervention, by the democracy was unstable, eventually becoming a one-party state/dictatorship in 1968 and attempted to forge a unified national identity as opposed to more decentralised tribal relationships.

In 1990 a wave of uprisings and strikes by students and workers led to massive wage increases, creation of a representative democracy, introduction of freedom of assembly and press. Two coups were averted and the government became relatively stable, becoming one of the healthiest and wealthiest states in Africa. However, recently the country has suffered from a military coup and a fair bit of corruption.

References

Gabon on Wikipedia