According to eQuzhou Countries, the Ivory Coast (322,463 km 2 ; 2,485,000 residents) has been an independent republic since 1958 and, more completely, since 1960. It is one of the most economically significant countries in West Africa. The capital Abidjan is the terminus of the railway that goes as far as Ouagadougou in the Upper Volta and a port of export of products from the Ivory Coast and Upper Volta. With the opening of the Vridi canal (1950) towards the Gulf of Guinea, the traffic of the port increased by 50% and the industrial district of the city and its surroundings (soap factory, paper mill, pulp factory, oil refinery, etc.) it has expanded. v. abidjan in this Appendix.
In agriculture, the most important product is now provided by coffee, which feeds 50% of exports. It is followed by cocoa, which feeds a third. Banana cultivation is in the hands of European farmers. The oil palm products are processed by modern factories in Dabou and Abidjan. Pineapple is also treated locally. Cotton with sisal and kapok constitutes the most important textile fiber. The products of the forest are important (mahogany, iroko, and to a lesser extent guarea, makoré, etc.). A paper mill was built in 1950 near Abidjan (Bimbesso). Among the minerals only the production of alluvial diamonds on the Bou river stands out: over 100 thousand carats per year. Almost all of the AOF coffee, cocoa and timber production comes from the Ivory Coast
History. – Among the eight constituent territories of French West Africa, the Ivory Coast represented the center of political action which resulted in the independence of these territories in 1958 even within the framework of a Franco-African Community. This is thanks above all to the personality of F. Houphouët-Boigny, who managed to become the most authoritative and listened interlocutor of the French government, of which he was also a member several times, and to create a political organization, the African Democratic Grouping, which dominated the political scene of almost all the territories of French black Africa. The moderate position of Houphouët-Boigny, however, was unable to control the African nationalist movement as it turned towards radical claims against France. The policy of the Ivory Coast failed to prevent Guinea from detaching itself to an independent life on the occasion of the constitutional referendum of September 1958; and, after the referendum, that the tendency towards a federal grouping among the various new states should be affirmed in the former French West Africa. In this second case, Houphouët-Boigny, who became head of the state of the Ivory Coast, could only block the extension of the Federation of Mali, causing the withdrawal, with widespread pressure, the accession that the Dahomey and the Upper Volta had initially given to it. With these two states and with Niger, after the Assembly of Abidjan approved the new constitution of the Ivory Coast on March 26, 1959, a Council of Understanding for close political and economic collaboration was concluded on April 4 (Sahel-Benin Union). On 11 July 1960 the Costa d’A. – together with the Dahomey al Niger and the Upper Volta – he concluded an agreement in Paris obtaining full independence, proclaimed at midnight from 6 to 7 August. The republic of Ivory Coast was admitted to the UN on 20 September 1960. on 4 April, a Council of Understanding for close political and economic collaboration (Union of Sahel-Benin). On 11 July 1960 the Costa d’A. – together with the Dahomey al Niger and the Upper Volta – he concluded an agreement in Paris obtaining full independence, proclaimed at midnight from 6 to 7 August. The republic of Ivory Coast was admitted to the UN on 20 September 1960. on 4 April, a Council of Understanding for close political and economic collaboration (Union of Sahel-Benin). On 11 July 1960 the Costa d’A. – together with the Dahomey al Niger and the Upper Volta – he concluded an agreement in Paris obtaining full independence, proclaimed at midnight from 6 to 7 August. The republic of Ivory Coast was admitted to the UN on 20 September 1960.
