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)
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“A great proportion of the inhabitants of the Cape are always thus abroad about their teaming on some ocean highway or other, and the history of one of their ordinary trips would cast the Argonautic expedition into the shade.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)