African countries: Cote d'Ivoire

In medieval times, the region, now called Côte d'Ivoire, was at the center of several major African trade routes, linking the empires that then existed in Ghana and Mali. European traders had been in that region since the 15th century, but it was not until the 19th century that the French made decisive inroads into the territory.

The territory later became part of French West Africa until it was granted independence in August 1960. The capital of Côte d'Ivoire, Yamoussoukro, has about 245,000 inhabitants. And the main city and economic capital of the country is the city of Abidjan, which has about 3 million people.

Côte d'Ivoire was known as the most prosperous and most stable country in the West African region. It was also home to the largest French-speaking community of any French-speaking country in Africa. In the 1980s, the country and the capital of Côte d'Ivoire was shaken by the economic downturn when the prices of raw materials for the main export commodities, cocoa and coffee, fell.

After the death of the country's leader Houphouët-Boigny in 1993, the former speaker of the National Assembly, Henri Konan Bedié, came to power. The careful ethnic and regional balance that Houphouët-Boigny had cultivated in the country was soon upset. Bédié introduced the concept of "Ivoirisme" (Côte d'Ivoire nationalism), which quickly led to xenophobia. The events that followed robbed the country of its long history of stability and prosperity.

An armed uprising in 2002 split the nation in two, and the capital of Côte d'Ivoire did not become the site of a peace agreement until 2007.

Кот-д’Ивуар граничит с Либерией, Гвинеей, Мали, Буркина-Фасо и Ганой и берегами Гвинейского залива (Атлантический океан). Южная и западная части страны покрыты лесами. Саванная равнина простирается на севере и горы – на западной границе. Три реки, Сассандра, Бандама и Комоэ текут с севера на юг.