# National Geographic Magazine/Volume 16/Number 2/French Conquest of the Sahara

FRENCH CONQUEST OF THE SAHARA
By Charles Rabot
Editorial Secretary of "La Geographie," Member of the Council of Societe de Geographie de Paris
TO traverse the Sahara from north to south, to join Algeria to the Sudan through the great desert of North Africa, and to subjugate the nomads who wander through that immense region has been one of the principal aims of France in recent years, and one which she has at length attained at the price of long and persevering effort. The hostility of the Touaregs was for a long time an obstacle. Established in the oases scattered over the Sahara, these Berber fanatics and brigands were accustomed to scan the whole desert, and ​as soon as they spied a caravan to fall upon it to rob and massacre. Often, too, they were wont to attack the tribes of the extreme south of Algeria, who had already submitted to French influences.
After the disaster to the Flatters mission in 1881 and several other outrages committed by the Touaregs, the French military authorities had postponed for a while all further desire to penetrate into the Sahara and remained simply on the defensive.
During this period of official inaction, M. Foureau accomplished a series of very fruitful expeditions in the desert regions south of Algeria. From 1883 to 1897 ne traveled no less than 13,200 miles, of which 9,600 were in regions entirely unknown.
Not only did M. Foureau notably augment our geographic knowledge by this journey, but he inaugurated a mode of traveling which has been very fruitful for the exploration of the Sahara. Instead of being accompanied by a heavy caravan, like preceding missions, this traveler adopted the mode of life and transport of the natives, taking with him only a few faithful Arabs. His little troop was mounted on "meharis," used by the Touaregs—rapid camels, which are to the ordinary camels of the caravan what race-horses are to cart horses. Thanks to the mobility of his caravan, M. Foureau could perform long raids without being attacked by the Touaregs. Meanwhile, from 1890 to 1892, a French officer, Colonel Monteil, accomplished the crossing of the Sahara from Tchad to Tripoli by the caravan route.
The French, however, had never abandoned the idea of a junction of Algeria to the Sudan. In 1896 a member of the Geographical Society, M. Renoust des Orgeries, encouraged this idea by giving the society $50,000 to organize an expedition to carry out this program, and in 1899 M. Foureau received permission to traverse the Sahara and to make his way through the desert to the French possessions in Central Africa. To ensure the safety of his caravan and to compel a respect for the French flag from the brigands of the Sahara, the government gave M. Foureau a numerous military escort, commanded by Major Lamy.
This Foureau expedition started from Ouargla (in South Algeria) at the end of October, 1898, and a year later (November 2, 1899) arrived at Zinder, at the northeast extremity of French Sudan. In the April following, after having gone round Lake Tchad by the north and east, the expedition had effected a junction with the French troops upon the Chari, the principal affluent of the Tchad.
The march of the expedition was very slow and painful in consequence of the enormous caravan track behind it. Part of its camels soon succumbed to the fatigues of the journey, and it was im- possible to purchase new beasts of burden from the nomads. The Touaregs, confident of their strength, threw themselves at various times against the little troop ; but, having learned in these encounters that they could not be victorious, they abandoned active hostilities and limited themselves to creating a complete dearth of supplies around the explorers. It was only through the energies of M. Foureau and of the military chiefs that the expedition was able to get along at all.
The slowness of this journey has had very favorable results from the scientific point of view. It has permitted M. Foureau to acquire a very complete knowledge of the country and to collect a very rich harvest of observations of interest to all fields of geography. A great work setting forth these scientific observations is in course of publication and is being offered to all important geographic societies.
The Foureau mission opens a new era in the French penetration of the Sahara. ​At the moment when this expedition was setting out the French government gave up the defensive attitude, and, abandoning the merely defensive policy observed since the Flatters mission in 1881, decided to extend further southward the zone of French influence, which then did not pass 30º latitude north. On the 28th of December, 1899, M. Flamand, a naturalist, was instructed to make a study of the region which it was proposed to annex, and was attacked at In-Sala. Immediately the French troops advanced on their "meharis," commanded by Captains Germain and Pein, two brilliant Sahara officers. Some months later the French occupied the chain of oases of Gourara, Touat, and Tidikelt, more than 300 kilometers in length, which runs along the subterranean courses of rivers descending from the high plateaus of Morocco and Algeria. In this way the French had advanced nearly half the distance from the Mediterranean to the northern curve of the Niger at Timbuctoo.
Scenes on Lake Tchad
This military advance has had interesting results from the point of view of geography. An excellent map on the scale of 1:250,000 has been made by Lieutenant Nieger of the whole region of Touat and Tidikelt, hitherto imperfectly known. Moreover, M. Flamand has published interesting notes on the morphology and geology of this part of the desert. To ensure protection of the oases thus acquired against the incursions of the Touaregs, the military authorities recognized the necessity of abandoning the old mistake of simply remaining on the defensive. In order to assure the tranquillity of the country, it was necessary at the first attack from the brigand tribes to pursue them vigorously through the desert, and not to give up until a sharp lesson had been inflicted.
This result could only be obtained by ​a very mobile and acclimatized troop. It was decided therefore to undertake the creation of troops mounted on "meharis" and composed of natives under the command of French officers. This organization was inspired from that of the famous "dromedary companies" instituted by Bonaparte in Egypt, and by that of the "camel corps" recently adopted in the Sudan by the British army.
Since that time the French troops have been on an equality of speed and mobility with the Touaregs, while their superiority of arms ensures victory even against superior numbers.
These Saharan troops once organ- ized, the officers commanding the ex- treme southern posts upon the Algerian frontier undertook long raids into the Sahara, traversing and surveying vast unknown regions and at the same time acting as a vigilant police. On March 26, 1 901, the Touaregs having come to rob the people of Tidikelt, Lieutenant Cottenest started with 130 native troops and reached the mountain mass of the Hoggar and inflicted a severe lesson upon the brigands, returning to In- Sala after having traveled 1,000 miles in 62 days in a country entirely hostile. The same year, from the 16th of May to the 15th of June, Major Laperrine explored the Mouydir, a plateau sur- rounded by valleys from 200 to 300 meters deep and containing an abun- dance of water, wood, and excellent pasture.
Some time later, in 1902, Lieuten- ant Guilho-Lohan returned to the Hog- gar plateau and pushed south to 22 0 latitude north. In 1903 Lieutenant Besset effected a raid of 750 miles in the south, and some months later Major Laperrine, accompanied by Professor Gautier, directed a new reconnaissance in the Mouydir and the Ahnet. At the same time Captain Pein effected a raid round the Temassinine in the region situated farther east.
These different expeditions have com- pleted and transformed the situation of the Sahara. The Touaregs, finding themselves chastised for the smallest act of rapine and always overtaken in their haunts, have now given their submis- sion to Captain Metois, commanding at In-Sala. Only the tribe of Azguers, which wanders in the eastern Sahara, has as yet refused to accept French domination.
Accordingly a new and decisive oper- ation was undertaken. At the com- mencement of February, 1904, Major Laperrine, quitting In-Sala at the head of a troop of 1 ' meharistes ' ' and taking his route south, succeeded in travers- ing the Sahara and meeting a second troop of ' ' meharistes ' ' which had set out from Timbuctoo. In this way was effected the junction of Algeria with the Niger, previously accomplished by M. Foureau, but now by a more eastern route.
In this expedition Major Laperrine was accompanied by an astronomer, M. Villate. From a geographical point of view these raids have had very im- portant results. The officers who have commanded them have brought back precise methods and numerous obser- vations of interest. As a result of the reconnaissance in which he took part in 1903, Professor Gautier has made a geological map of Mouydir and Ahnet, in the very center of the Sahara.
The junction of the parties from In- Sala and Timbuctoo took place on April 18, at the well of Tioniaoune by 20 0 10' north latitude. The party from Algeria, under Commandant Laperrine, had come through Inzize and Timissao. After he succeeded in joining hands with the southern party, the commandant pushed a little farther south, as far as the well of Tin Zaouatem by 19 0 57' north latitude, but soon resumed the journey northward to In-Sala, follow- ing a fresh itinerary. Scarcity of water and the heat (it was in May) made the ​homeward journey very trying, part of the men having to travel as far as 320 kilometers with hardly any water. News received from this expedition points to the extension southward of the volcanic formations discovered by M. Gautier in Mouydir.
Thanks to M. Foureau and to the officers commanding the posts of the extreme south of Algeria, considerable progress has been accomplished by the new method of exploring the Sahara by the employment of "mehara" (singular of " mehari "). This camel can bear, besides his rider and his arms and accoutrements, 30 days' victuals and two skins of water. With this load he can march from 3 to 3¼ miles an hour and amble at a pace of 5 miles. In the raid executed in 1903 by Commandant Laperrine and Professor Gautier 69 miles were traversed in 29 hours.
One has no need for anxiety as to feeding the mehari; the desert flora suffices for its food, and in summer it can endure 5 days without drinking, while when plants are green it can go without water for 18 or 20 days.
By this method of penetration in the Sahara, M. Foureau and these French officers have there accomplished progress as important as that effected by Nansen in his Arctic exploration. By adopting the means of locomotion and of existence of the Polar peoples, the Norwegian explorer gained a memorable victory. In the same way, by borrowing from the inhabitants of the Sahara their mode of life and locomotion, the French have triumphed over the obstacles which the nature of the soil and of the inhabitants had set against the exploration of the great desert of northern Africa.