History
Historical affiliations French Somaliland 1896-1967
British Occupation 1942-1943
French Territory of the Afars and the Issas 1967-1977
Republic of Djibouti 1977–present
From 1862 until 1894, the land to the north of the Gulf of Tadjoura was called Obock and was ruled by Issa Somali and Afar Sultans, local authorities with whom France signed various treaties between 1883 and 1887 to first gain a foothold in the region.
The French subsequently founded Djibouti city in 1888, with the area at the time uninhabited. A few years later, in 1896, the French made the town the capital of French Somaliland.
When Nazi Germany invaded France in 1940, Djibouti became the Vichy French control. In response, the United Kingdom closed the port, but it could not prevent local French to provide information on the passing ship convoys. In December 1942, British invasion of French Somaliland about 4,000 British troops occupied the town.
Since independence in 1977, the city has served as the administrative and commercial capital of the Republic of Djibouti.
| Historical population | ||
|---|---|---|
| Year | Pop. | ±% |
| 1915 | 14,120 | — |
| 1922 | 21,023 | +48.9% |
| 1931 | 34,300 | +63.2% |
| 1945 | 49,345 | +43.9% |
| 1951 | 58,789 | +19.1% |
| 1964 | 70,600 | +20.1% |
| 1975 | 79,973 | +13.3% |
| 1979 | 85,932 | +7.5% |
| 1983 | 90,385 | +5.2% |
| 1989 | 130,345 | +44.2% |
| 1994 | 167,896 | +28.8% |
| 1999 | 201,142 | +19.8% |
| 2005 | 400,120 | +98.9% |
| 2012 | 604,013 | +51.0% |
Read more about this topic: Djibouti (city)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of literature—take the net result of Tiraboshi, Warton, or Schlegel,—is a sum of a very few ideas, and of very few original tales,—all the rest being variation of these.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In history the great moment is, when the savage is just ceasing to be a savage, with all his hairy Pelasgic strength directed on his opening sense of beauty;—and you have Pericles and Phidias,—and not yet passed over into the Corinthian civility. Everything good in nature and in the world is in that moment of transition, when the swarthy juices still flow plentifully from nature, but their astrigency or acridity is got out by ethics and humanity.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)