Somaliland or French Somalia (French: Côte française des Somalis, Somali: Xeebta Soomaaliyeed ee Faransiiska, French Coast of the Somalis) was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. It existed from 1884 to 1967, at which point it became the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. The Republic of Djibouti is its legal successor state.
History
French Somalia was formally established in 1896 after the Issa and the Afar each signed a treaty with the French, but iterations of what would eventually become French Somalia existed for several decades before its official formation.
On March 11, 1862, a treaty signed by the Afar Sultan Raieta Dini Ahmet in Paris ceded the territory of Obock for 10,000 thalers, approximately 55,000 francs. Later, that treaty was used by Captain Alphonse Fleuriot de Langle to colonize the southern Gulf of Tadjoura. On March 26, 1885, the French signed another treaty with the Issa, making the latter a protectorate under the French. No money was paid, and the Somalis did not relinquish any of their rights to the territory; the agreement was intended to protect their land from outsiders with French assistance. However, after the French sailors on the ship Le Pingouin were mysteriously killed in Ambado in 1886, the French first blamed the British and then the Somalis, using the incident to claim the entire southern territory. An attempt by Russian adventurer Nikolay Ivanovich Achinov to establish a settlement at Sagallo in 1889 was quickly thwarted by French forces after only a month.
Imperial Ethiopian Railway
The construction of the Imperial Ethiopian Railway westward into Ethiopia turned the port of Djibouti into a boomtown of 15,000 inhabitants at a time when Harar was the only city in Ethiopia with a larger population. Although the city's population fell after the completion of the line to Dire Dawa and the bankruptcy (and subsequent government bailout) of the original company, the rail link allowed Djibouti to quickly surpass the caravan-based trade from Zeila (then in British Somaliland) and become the main port for coffee and other goods leaving southern Ethiopia and the Ogaden via Harar.
The railway continued to operate after the Italian conquest of Ethiopia, but after World War II, the area became an overseas territory in 1946. In 1967, French Somaliland was renamed the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas, and in 1977, it became the independent country of Djibouti.
Bird stamps from French Somali Coast.
Face value | Family number | English name | Scientific name
1960.01
24.10.1960
Definitives
10f
35
Greater Flamingo Phoenicopterus roseus
15f
93
Little Bee-eater Merops pusillus
30f
69
African Sacred Ibis Threskiornis aethiopicus
75f
73
Pink-backed Pelican Pelecanus rufescens
1960.02
15.12.1960
Definitives
200f
23
Great Bustard Otis tarda
1962.01
24.03.1962
Definitives
40f
78
Griffon Vulture Gyps fulvus
Philately has been considered as an "auxiliary science of history" because it is based on the general principles of other sciences, which in turn contribute to enrich it. It acquires knowledge of the sciences, of the arts, of languages and opens an immense road of social relations through all countries. This science broadens broad horizons of culture, discovers artistic temperaments and offers the interest of the new and the unknown, while performing a positive therapeutic wor.
