Pierre Paul Francois Camille Savorgnan de Brazza
Hi friends in this article let us discuss about a French explorer and more than importan he has one of the longest name which you would have very rarely seen.
Pierre Paul Francois Camille Savorgnan de Brazza was a French explorer and he is the one who was responsible for finding and also for the early administration of the French Congo. This region was formerly a colonial possession of France in the west central Africa. The image of Bazza is shown below
At that time there was a Scramble for Africa as most of the European powers wanted to invade and also to claim African territory and this happeded during the late 19th century.
But however the French managed to retain Congo and credit goes to Brazza as he made several treaties that secured the French foothold in the Congo River region.The French Congo region is shown below
Brazza was born January 26, 1852.Even though Brazza was a French national his parents wre from Italy and he was also born in Rome, Italy. The reason how Bazza came to France was that his father,had connections in France and this helped him to get the Brazza’s entry into the French naval academy.
In 1874,Brazza was brought to French Gabon,which is a small coastal colony located north of the Congo River as a duty on a French warship.This was the turning point in his life and from here, he started to make trips up the Gabon Estuary and the Ogooue River.
When he returned to France again,he became a naturalized French citizen and also managed to win the support from the French Government for an expedition to explore further the inland and also to promote the French interests in the area.
As a result of this from 1875 to 1878,river system of present-day Gabon was expored by Brazza and he also discovered the source of the Ogooue river, but while he was about to find he was forced to retreat because the local Africans started to attack him.The image of the Ogooue river is shown below
But the problem started in 1879, when an Anglo-American explorer called Henry Morton Stanley started to begin the development in the lower Congo River region,and he also staked claims and he started the negotiating treaties in the name of Belgian king Leopold II.The image of the Henry Morton Stanley is shown below
And as a result of this the French Government ordered Brazza to go back to Africa so as to secure a French foothold in that area.Brazza assembled a team in 1880 and he headed back up the Ogooue river and he managed to built a station on its headwaters , and he also named the station as Franceville.
After these developments he and his troops started marching south to the Congo River,and they also beat Stanley on place called Stanley Pool (which is now known as Pool Malebo). After this victory Brazza signed treaties with a local ruler and and he also founded a settlement which later became the city of Brazzaville.
The treaties signed by Brazza treaties was very important as it provided the basis for France to control the larger part of Congo during the mid-1880s.In 1891, the French Congo, was declared a French protectorate and as a result of this in 1910, it became part of French Equatorial Africa and today this is occupied by both the Republic of the Congo and Gabon.
Highest position was given to Brazza as he was appointed as the commissioner-general of French Congo in 1886 but he was not efficient and he proved less successful as an administrator, as he was only a skilled explorer.
However in 1898, Brazza was replaced, when Leopold’s Congo Free State (which is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), located on the other side of the river was efficient enough in making money from rubber exports whereas Brazza couldn't do this.
In 1904 a report was issued to the French Government which describes the systematic use of forced labor and also the brutality on African workers in the Frenc Congo.
So Brazza was sent back to Congo in 1995 to investigate this problem and after he returned to Congo Brazza also found European rubber harvesters using the similarly shocking practices there.
However he couldn't report to France and he eventually died in the French colony of Senegal on September 14, 1905.
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