History
The prehistoric find (2002) of a 7–6 million year old ancestor of humans ( Sahelanthropus tchadensis ) indicates an early colonization of today’s Chad by hominids. From the 8th century, the Kanem Empire ( Kanem-Bornu ) existed around Lake Chad. Further to the east, several states (including Wadai ) formed along the trade routes to the Nile Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. On April 21, 1900, French troops defeated Kousseri Rabeh Zubair (* around 1846, † 1900), a slave hunter who had conquered large parts of Sudan from the late 1880s and Kanem-Bornu in 1893. Bornu then fell to British Nigeria, Kanem became French. In the following years France incorporated the whole of Chad into its colonial empire; In 1910 Chad became part of French Equatorial Africa, in 1946 overseas territory within the French Union.
In 1946, the native of the West Indies founded Gabriel Lisette (* 1919, † 2001; 1946-51 and 1956-59 deputy in the French National Assembly) the Parti progressiste Tchadien (PPT, German Chadian Progressive Party in 1973 dissolved) as a Chadian national association of national Rassemblement Democratique Africain. From the elections for the first Chadian National Assembly in 1958, the PPT, the v. a. had the goal of alleviating the ethnic, religious and social differences between the Islamic north and the black African south of Chad, emerged as the strongest parliamentary group. On November 28, 1958, Chad was granted autonomy within the French Community. Lisette became the first head of governmentwhich, however, had to give way to F. Tombalbaye in 1959.
On August 11, 1960, Chad received state independence; President of the republic was Tombalbaye, who took over the functions of the head of state and the head of government. From 1962 he switched to a dictatorial mode of government and in 1964 enshrined the sole rule of the PPT in the constitution. Domestically, Tombalbaye relied on the black African tribes of the south. a. on France.
From 1966, the Islamic opposition in the north gathered against President Tombalbaye in the Front de Liberation Nationale du Tchad (FROLINAT, German National Liberation Front of Chad). Supported by Algeria and Libya, the Islamic insurgency began an underground struggle against the government. Based on a Chadian-French assistance pact (1960), the French President G. Pompidou sent French troops to Chad to support the government troops. When the French government withdrew its troops under domestic political pressure, President Tombalbaye was lookingto maintain the mass base of his system of government through a campaign of Chadian “authenticity” (name changes, reintroduction of initiation rites); on April 13, 1975, however, he was overthrown and shot in a military coup. Félix Malloum (* 1932, † 2009) became president.
In the course of the rebellion against the Tombalbaye government and the Malloum government, the FROLINAT had split up into various groups under its own command, which fought among themselves and waged war against the government according to their own ideas. After President Malloum was expelled from the capital in the spring of 1979, the fighting focused on the rivalry between two troop leaders from the north, Libyan-backed Goukouni Oueddei (* 1944) and Hissène Habré (* 1942), who turned to conservative Arab states and – at times – based on France. In June 1982 the troops captured Habrés N’Djamena; Habré became president and formed a government. In 1983 the civil war flared up again and led to a direct confrontation between France and Libya. After Oueddei broke away from Libya in 1986, he and President Habré turned against Libya, which was occupying the northern part of Chad. In 1989 a peace treaty ended the fighting; The sovereignty of Chad over the part claimed by Libya (Aouzou strip, 114,000 km 2) was confirmed by the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 1994, and in early March 1994 Libya recognized the arbitration award and then vacated the area.
World Heritage Sites in Chad
World Heritage Sites (K) and World Natural Heritage (N)
- Lake landscape of Ounianga (N; 2012)
- Natural and cultural landscape of the Ennedi (N / C; 2016)
Cities in Chad
Moundou
Moundou [mun du], Mundu, city in the southwest of the Republic of Chad, on the left bank of the Mbéré, second largest (2009) 137 300 residents city in the country.
Administrative seat of the prefecture Logone West, catholic bishopric; Trading center of a cotton-growing area; Airport.
Abéché
Abéché [abe ʃ e], a town in eastern Chad, (2009) 98 000 residents.
At the crossroads of old trade routes; Administrative seat of the Wadai prefecture, market place of the nomads of the Wadai, slaughterhouse, airport.
Sarh
Sarh [sa ː r] until 1973 Fort Archambault [f ɔ RTAR ʃ ã bo], city in the Republic of Chad, 390 m above sea level, on the left bank of the upper Chari, (2009) 97,200 residents.
Administrative seat of the Moyen-Shari prefecture; catholic bishopric; international environmental education center (since 1999), telecommunications school; Trading center of a cotton-growing area; Textile industry; Airport.
