Abstract
Between the 16th and 18th centuries, the Fang and other peoples in the region of present-day Gabon were part of a federation of chiefdoms. The country’s capital, Libreville, grew from a settlement of slaves who were rescued from captivity by the French in 1849. Colonized by France around this period, the territory was annexed to French Congo in 1888. There was resistance by the indigenous people between 1905 and 1911 to the depredations of colonial rule, but the country became a separate colony in 1910 as one of the four territories of French Equatorial Africa. Gabon became an autonomous republic within the French Community on 28 Nov. 1958 and achieved independence on 17 Aug. 1960.
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Further reading
Barnes, J. F. G., Gabon: Beyond the Colonial Legacy. 1992
Gardinier, David E., Historical Dictionary of Gabon. 3rd ed. 2006
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© 2012 Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited
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Turner, B. (2012). Gabon. In: Turner, B. (eds) The Statesman’s Yearbook. The Statesman’s Yearbook. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-59541-9_220
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-59541-9_220
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-0-230-36009-9
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-59541-9
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