Foreign explorers and French expansion project in the Desert 1858 – 1911

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Abstract

We acknowledged that these colonial projects may have given us a huge amount of information on the major African desert. And this led to an increase in the willingness of the French government in the occupation of desert areas and facilitates the task of military expansion by the followers of the specific ways and means for the success of the operation.
Also that the railway project had provided a boost to the French in the Sahara Desert under many pretexts of this on one hand, On the other hand the lines that were completed have contributed greatly to the exploitation and plundering of natural wealth in the Sahara Desert.
In this study, a descriptive approach has been adopted, besides analyzing accounts. Notable among the results of this study are the following:
• The Libyan Desert cities have played a significant role in the prosperity of commerce, urban development and population in some big cities as Ghyrams Ghat city which has become one of the most important cities. And has been the delegation of many of the traders and scientists.
• This was accompanied by the flow of Commerce to become centers of Libyan Desert link, and the centers of major economic relations of the desert, as the trade has become the lifeblood of these cities that have become dependent on them entirely in their economic life, and thus markets have become the accepted trade destination for caravans.
• The function of many members of those cities in the trades and crafts as accompany commercial convoys and breeding and sale of camels and rentals, but it is not free, Some of them were bandits and many of them lived in looting and collect royalties for passage through their lands safely.
• Formed a network of roads connecting urban centers in the desert with each other, and it was these roads is often a cause of conflict between them due to disagreement on sharing of royalties.
Based on its findings, I recommend the following:
1-   Search for documents and Arabic manuscripts relating to the history of those cities of the desert reflected into existence, to take advantage of them in the study of the history of the region, and work to find the type of scientific cooperation between the scientific Centre in Libya and African countries.

2- Work on strengthen the links between the people of the  African continent in general, and strengthen links with the Libyan desert with the other cities elsewhere in the Sahara, to support political ties, economic, cultural, social and coordinate efforts to deal with attacks of colonialism and religious extremism.

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