The history of the Central African Republic is roughly composed of four distinct periods. The earliest period of settlement began around 10,000 years ago when nomadic people first began to settle, farm and fish in the region. The next period began around 10,000 years prior.
Early history Approximately 10,000 years ago, desertification forced hunter-gatherer societies south into the Sahel regions of northern Central Africa, where some groups settled and began farming as part of the Neolithic Revolution.The History of Central and Eastern Africa, Amy McKenna, 2011, pg. 4 Initial farming of white yam progressed into millet and sorghum, and then later the domestication of African oil palm improved the groups' nutrition and allowed for expansion of the local populations.The History of Central and Eastern Africa, Amy McKenna, 2011, pg. 5 Bananas arrived in the region and added an important source of carbohydrates to the diet; they were also used in the production of alcohol. This Agricultural Revolution, combined with a "Fish-stew Revolution", in which fishing began to take place, and the use of boats, allowed for the transportation of goods. Products were often moved in ceramic pots, which are the first known examples of artistic expression from the region's inhabitants.
The Bouar Megaliths in the western region of the country indicate an advanced level of habitation dating back to the very late Neolithic era (c. 3500–1700 BC).Methodology and African Prehistory by, UNESCO. International Scientific Committee for the Drafting of a General History of Africa, pg. 548UNESCO World Heritage, "Les mégalithes de Bouar", Ironworking arrived in the region by around 1000 BC, likely from early Bantu cultures in what is today southeast Nigeria and/or Cameroon. The site of Gbabiri (in the Central African Republic) has yielded evidence of iron metallurgy, from a reduction furnace and blacksmith workshop; with earliest dates of 896–173 BC and 907–196 BC respectively. Some earlier iron metallurgy dates of 2,000 BC from the site of Oboui (also in the Central Africa Republic) have also been proposed,Zangato, E. (2007) Les Ateliers d'Oboui: Premières Communautés Métallurgistes dans le Nord-Ést du Centrafrique. Paris: Editions Recherche sur les Civilisations (ERC).Zangato, E. and Holl, A.F.C. (2010) 'On the iron front: new evidence from Central Africa', Journal of African Archaeology 8:7-23. but these are disputed by some archaeologists.Clist, B. (2012) Vers une réduction des prejugés et la fonte des antagonisms: un bilan de l'expansion de la métallurgie du fer en Afrique sud-Saharienne, Journal of African Archaeology 10:71-84.
During the Bantu Migrations from about 1000 BC to AD 1000, Ubangian-speaking people spread eastward from Cameroon to Sudan, Bantu-speaking people settled in the southwestern regions of the CAR, and Central Sudanic-speaking people settled along the Ubangi River in what is today Central and East CAR.
Production of copper, salt, dried fish, and textiles dominated the economic trade in the Central African region.The History of Central and Eastern Africa, Amy McKenna, 2011, pg. 10
The territory of modern Central African Republic is known to have been settled from at least the 7th century on by overlapping empires, including the Kanem-Bornu, Ouaddai, Baguirmi, and Dafour groups based on the Lake Chad region and along the Upper Nile.
Early modern history During the 16th and 17th centuries Muslim slave traders began to raid the region and their captives were shipped to the Mediterranean coast, Europe, Arabia, the Western Hemisphere, or to the slave ports and factories along the West African coast.Central Africa Republic Timeline -- Part 1: From Prehistory to Independence (13 August 1960), A Chronology of Key Events in Central Africa Republic, by Alistair Boddy-Evans, About.com, During the 18th century Bandia-Nzakara peoples established the Bangassou Kingdom along the Ubangi river.
Population migration in the 18th and 19th centuries brought new migrants into the area, including the Zande, Banda, and Baya-Mandjia. The slave state of Dar al-Kuti was located on the northern extreme of the modern border, it existed this way until they were brought under French colonial rule in the late 19th century.
Colonial period
The European occupation of Central African territory began in the late 19th century during the Scramble for Africa.French Colonies – Central African Republic. Discoverfrance.net. Retrieved on 6 April 2013. Count Savorgnan de Brazza established the French Congo and sent expeditions up the Ubangi River from Brazzaville in an effort to expand France's claims to territory in Central Africa. Belgium, Germany, and the United Kingdom also competed to establish their claims to territory in the region. In 1875, the Sudanese sultan Rabih az-Zubayr governed Upper-Oubangui, which included present-day Central African Republic. Europeans, primarily the French, German, and Belgians, arrived in the area in 1885.
The French asserted their legal claim to the area through an 1887 convention with Congo Free State (privately owned by Leopold II of Belgium), which accepted France possession of the right bank of the Oubangui River. In 1889, the French established a trading post on the Ubangi River at Bangui. In 1890–91, de Brazza sent expeditions up the Sangha River, in what is now south-western CAR, up the center of the Ubangi basin toward Lake Chad, and eastward along the Ubangi River toward the Nile, with the intention of expanding the borders of the French Congo to link up the other French territories in Africa. In 1894, the French Congo's borders with Leopold II of Belgium's Congo Free State and German Cameroon were fixed by diplomatic agreements, and France declared Ubangi-Shari to be a French territory.
Consolidation In 1899, the French Congo's border with Sudan was fixed along the Congo-Nile divide. This situation left France without her much coveted outlet on the Nile.
In 1900, the French defeated the forces of Rabih az-Zubayr in the 1900 Battle of Kousséri, but they did not consolidate their control over Ubangi-Shari until 1903 when they established colonial administration throughout the territory.
Once European negotiators had agreed upon the borders of the French Congo, France had to decide how to pay for the costly occupation, administration, and development of the territory it had acquired. The reported financial successes of Leopold II's concessionary companies in the Congo Free State convinced the French government to follow suit in Ubangi-Shari. A total of 27 concessionary companies were established in Ubangi-Shari, throughout the Oubangi basin and Ouham basin. In return for the right to exploit these lands by buying local products and selling European goods, the companies promised to pay rent to the colony and to promote the development of their concessions, including the establishment of customs posts, telegraph lines and the plantation of rubber plants. The companies employed European and African agents who frequently used brutal methods to force the natives to labor.
At the same time, the French colonial administration began to force the local population to pay taxes and to provide the state with free labor. The companies and the French administration at times collaborated in forcing the Central Africans to work for them. Some French officials reported abuses committed by private company militias, and their own colonial colleagues and troops, but efforts to hold these people accountable almost invariably failed. When any news of atrocities committed against Central Africans reached France and caused an outcry, investigations were undertaken and some feeble attempts at reform were made, but the situation on the ground in Ubangi-Shari remained virtually unchanged.
In 1906, the Ubangi-Shari territory was united with the Chad colony; in 1910, it became one of the four territories of the Federation of French Equatorial Africa (AEF), along with Chad, Middle Congo, and Gabon.
During the first decade of French colonial rule, from about 1900 to 1910, the rulers of the Ubangi-Shari region increased both their slave-raiding activities and the selling of local produce to Europe. They took advantage of their treaties with the French to procure more weapons, which were used to capture more slaves: much of the eastern half of Ubangi-Shari was depopulated as a result of slave-trading by local rulers during the first decade of colonial rule. After the power of local African rulers was destroyed by the French, slave raiding greatly diminished
In 1911, the Sangha and Lobaye basins were ceded to Germany as part of an agreement which gave France a free hand in Morocco. Western Ubangi-Shari remained under German rule until World War I, after which France again annexed the territory using Central African troops.
The next thirty years were marked by mostly small scale revolts against French rule and the development of a plantation-style economy. From 1920 to 1930, a network of roads was built, cash crops were promoted and mobile health services were formed to combat sleeping sickness. Protestant missions were established in different parts of the country. New forms of forced labor were also introduced, however, as the French conscripted large numbers of Ubangians to work on the Congo-Ocean Railway; many of these recruits died of exhaustion and illness as a result of the poor conditions.
In 1925, the French writer André Gide published Voyage au Congo, in which he described the alarming consequences of conscription for the Congo-Ocean railroad. He exposed the continuing atrocities committed against Central Africans in Western Ubangi-Shari by such employers as the Forestry Company of Sangha-Ubangi. 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 labor.
Resistance Although there were numerous smaller revolts, the largest was the Kongo-Wara rebellion. Peaceful opposition to recruitment for railway construction and rubber tapping, mistreatment by European concessionary companies, began in the mid-1920s, and these opposition descended into violence in 1928, when over 350,000 natives rebelled against the colonial administration. Although the primary opposition leader, Karnou, was killed in December 1928, the rebellion was not fully suppressed until 1931.
Growing economy and World War II During the 1930s, cotton, tea, and coffee emerged as important cash crops in Ubangi-Shari and the mining of diamonds and gold began in earnest. Several cotton companies were granted purchasing monopolies over large areas of cotton production and were able to fix the prices paid to cultivators, which assured profits for their shareholders.
In September 1940, during the Second World War, pro-Gaullist French officers took control of Ubangi-Shari.Central African Republic: The colonial era – Britannica Online Encyclopedia. Britannica.com. Retrieved on 6 April 2013. In August 1940, the territory responded, with the rest of the AEF, to the call from General Charles de Gaulle to fight for Free France.
Post-war transition to independence