Abidjan

History

Abidjan was originally a small fishing village. In 1896, following a series of deadly yellow fever epidemics, the French colonists who first settled in Bassam decided to move to a safer place. They located in the current location of Abidjan in 1898, and in 1903 it received town status. Their movement was followed by the colonial government created in 1899, although nearby Bingerville became capital of the French colony from 1900 until 1934.

The future Abidjan, situated on the edge of the lagoon ndoupe ("the lagoon in hot water, "future "Ebrie Lagoon"), offered more space and greater opportunities for trade expansion. The wharf in Petit Bassam (now Port-Bouet) south of the town, quickly overtook in importance the wharf of Grand-Bassam, hitherto the main economic access to the colony. In 1904, the rail terminus was located in the Port-Bouet area of Abidjan. From 1904, when Bingerville was not yet complete, Abidjan became the main economic hub of the colony of Ivory Coast and a prime channel for distributing products to the European hinterland, particularly through the Lebanese community which was increasingly important.

Henri Terrasson de Fougeres became governor of French Sudan in 1924, and remained the governor until his death in 1931. One of the main streets of Abidjan still bears his name.

In 1931, Plateau and what became Treichville were connected approximately at the position of the bridge Houphouet Boigny by a floating bridge. That year, it was first addressed as the streets of Abidjan. It temporarily held the name in 1964, under the leadership of Mayor Konan Kanga, completed by the Americans in 1993.

Abidjan became the third capital of Ivory Coast, after Grand-Bassam and Bingerville in 1934. Several villages in Tchaman were then deserted. It is particularly Adjame ("center" in Tchaman), located at the north of the Plateau, which is still the leader of the Tchaman community.

South of the Plateau district (the current central district of the city of Abidjan), the village of Dugbeo was moved across the lagoon to Anoumabo, "the forest of fruit bats", which became the neighborhood of Treichville (now Commikro). This area was thus renamed in 1934 in honour of Marcel Treich-Laplenie (1860–1890), the first explorer of Ivory Coast and its first colonial administrator, considered its founder. Instead of Dugbeyo, is the current Treich Laplenie Avenue, the bus station and water lagoon buses in Plateau, and the Avenue Charles de Gaulle (commonly called Rue du Commerce).

The city was laid out like the usual colonial towns as a grid plan. Le Plateau ("mbrato" in Tchaman) was inhabited by settlers. In the north, the city was inhabited by the colonized. The two zones were separated by the Gallieni Military Barracks, instead of the current courthouse.

Near the port and along a petanque, originally named Boulevard de Marseille, facetious settlers who had "borrowed" a street sign of a famous street of Marseille renamed the street Canebiere, a sand track. This is the legend behind the first Blohorn oil mills, in Cocody. A racetrack was built in the south of the city that never stops growing.

Le Plateau in the 1940s, the hotel grew and became Bardon Park Hotel, the first air-conditioned hotel working in francophone Africa.

Abidjans lagoon became connected to the sea once the 15m deep Vridi Canal was completed in 1950. Soon Abidjan would become the financial center of West Africa. In 1958, the first bridge to connect Petit-Bassam Island with the mainland was completed.