MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Ivory Coast

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Ivory Coast, on the map of history

What was Ivory Coast before it was Ivory Coast? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Ivory Coast · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Ivory Coast · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Côte d’Ivoire · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Côte d’Ivoire won independence from France in 1960 under Félix Houphouët-Boigny, a loi-cadre alumnus who governed as a French minister before he governed his own country. He built the closest, most prosperous relationship with Paris of any former colony — the heart of “Françafrique” — trading political independence for cocoa-and-coffee wealth and French protection. A model of dependence disguised as partnership.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →