French Chad

French Chad was the period of colonial rule in Chad, which lasted from 1900 to 1960. Colonial administration began when the Military Territory of Chad was established in 1900, after French forces under Emile Gentil defeated the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr at the Battle of Kousseri. From 1905 Chad was linked with the French possessions in Middle Africa, which from 1910 were organised as French Equatorial Africa under a governor-general at Brazzaville. The territory passed to civilian administration in 1920 but remained the poorest and most neglected part of the federation, valued mainly as a source of raw cotton and labour; even basic law and order were often absent outside the capital, Fort-Lamy. France conquered the last independent polities in Chad in 1917 and suppressed the last major insurgencies by 1920. In 1940, under Governor Felix Eboue, Chad became the first French colony to rally to Free France. After the Second World War the colony gained limited representation, and the Chadian Progressive Party of Francois Tombalbaye won the political contest that led to independence on 11 August 1960.