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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2024
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chapotraphouse
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France colonized the Sahara. theres minerals and sometimes oil in the desert
did they colonize the sahara for the stuff in the sahara, or because to control the coasts (where people actually live), you had to control the interior, otherwise you'd have constant raids on your ports?
no you don't, nobody before the colonists bothered with direct administration of the desert folk because simply trading with them and some buffer defenses could keep the coast safe.
so what did they do it for? who can paint the biggest chunk of the map to their own color? resources the sahara might have? control of trade routes to subsaharan africa?
to extract the resources, and probably a bit of pride to paint the map & connect the north with subsaharan colonies. by the time the French were colonizing africa it was faster to use boats for trade though
At least in Algeria they have huge deposits of oil and gas in the desert
Also the french used the desert as a test site for nuclear bombs