French Gabon

French Gabon was one of the territories of French Equatorial Africa, on the Atlantic coast of central Africa around the estuary of the Ogooué and the Gabon rivers. French interest began with treaties signed with Mpongwe chiefs in the 1830s and 1840s; Libreville was founded in 1849 for freed slaves, and Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza's expeditions in the 1870s opened the interior. Gabon was administered as part of French Congo and became a separate colony in 1906, then a constituent territory of French Equatorial Africa when that federation was created in 1910. Its economy rested on timber, above all okoumé for plywood, together with rubber and ivory collected under a concession system that relied on forced labour. During the Second World War Gabon alone among the AEF territories remained loyal to Vichy France until November 1940, when the Free French took Libreville after a short campaign. Under the Fourth Republic the territory was represented in the French parliament, and in the 1958 referendum it voted for autonomy within the French Community. Gabon became independent on 17 August 1960.