Editing Obock (section)

===French Somaliland===
[[File:Obock panorama 1882.jpg|thumb|left|Panorama of Obock in 1882 with first French factory on the left]]
During the [[Scramble for Africa]], growing French interest in the area took place against a backdrop of British activity in [[Egypt]] and the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869. Between 1883 and 1887, France signed various treaties with the then ruling [[Somali people|Somali]] and [[Afar people|Afar]] [[Sultan]]s, which allowed it to expand the protectorate to include the [[Gulf of Tadjoura]].<ref name="Uwechue">Raph Uwechue, ''Africa year book and who's who'', (Africa Journal Ltd.: 1977), p. 209.</ref> Obock was originally significant as the site of the first [[France|French]] colony in the region, established by treaty with the local [[Afar people|Afar]] rulers on March 11, 1862.<ref name="Scott's monthly stamp journal">{{cite book|title=Scott's monthly stamp journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FpguAAAAIAAJ|access-date=29 May 2011|date=1 January 1982|page=5}}</ref> The French were interested in having a [[coaling station]] for [[steamship]]s, which would become especially important upon the opening of the [[Suez Canal]] in 1869. (Up to that time French ships had to buy coal at the British [[port]] of [[Aden]] across the gulf, an unwise dependency in case of war.) 
[[File:Obock coal depot mid-1880s.png|thumb|right|240px|The French traders settlement and the coal depot in the mid 1880s.]]
The site was not the subject of any occupation, just visited by the ships of the [[naval]] divisions assigned to the [[Indian Ocean]], until the installation of trader Pierre Arnoux in 1881, followed by [[Paul Soleillet]]. Obock became a true colony in 1884 with the arrival in August of [[Léonce Lagarde]], who established an administration and extended French possession in the [[Gulf of Tadjoura]], forming the Territory of Obock and outbuildings, with Obock as its capital. By 1885, Obock had 800 inhabitants and a [[school]]. However, the anchorage was more exposed than the site of [[Djibouti (city)|Djibouti]] on the south side of the [[Gulf of Tadjoura]], and the colonial administration moved there in 1894. The population of Obock subsequently declined.<ref>"{{cite EB1911|wstitle=Obok |volume=19 |page=593}}</ref> 
[[File:Obock(rés Lagarde).jpg|thumb|right|240px|Panorama of Obock in 1920.]] However, until the French occupation of Tadjoura in 1927, Obock remained the only place on the northern coast of the Gulf of Tadjoura with a colonial administrative office. It became the capital of the Dankali District in 1914, then an administrative position from 1927 which was subsumed into the "Circle of Adaels" in 1929. During [[World War II]], [[Italy]]'s declaration of war on [[France]] and [[Great Britain]] came on 10 June 1940, with them undertaking some offensive actions beginning on 18 June.{{sfn|Thompson|Adloff|1968|p=16}} From [[Harrar Governorate]], troops under General Guglielmo Nasi to attack French Somaliland, there was some skirmishes. When the government on 10 July learned that the armistice was not yet put into effect in [[French Somaliland]], President [[Philippe Pétain]] a collaborationist [[Vichy France|government at Vichy]] sent General Gaëtan Germain as his personal representative to correct the situation. Negotiations at [[Dewele]], [[Italian East Africa]] on the local implementation of the armistice were only finally completed on 8 August.{{sfn|Rovighi|1995|p=109}} By that time, the British offensive against the Italians had tightened the [[blockade]] of [[French Somaliland]]. [[Famine]] set in malnutrition-related diseases took many lives, 70% of them women and children and many townsfolk left for the [[hinterland]]. The locals named the blockade the carmii, a word for a type of sorghum usually reserved for [[cattle]], but used as human food at the height of the famine. Obock became the capital of a circle responsible for resupplying the colony during the Allied blockade from 1941 to 1943. Only a few Arab dhows (boutres) managed to run the blockade to [[Djibouti city|Djibouti]] and Obock and only two French [[ship]]s from [[Madagascar]] managed to run it. The [[Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire|Japanese declaration of war]] (7 December 1941) gave the colony some respite, since the British were forced to withdraw all but two ships from the [[blockade]] for use in the [[Far East]]. The [[East Africa Command|Commander-in-Chief, East Africa]], [[William Platt]], codenamed the negotiations for the [[surrender (military)|surrender]] of [[French Somaliland]] "Pentagon", because there were five sides: himself, the Vichy governor, the [[Free French]], the British minister at Addis Ababa and the [[United States]]. [[Christian Raimond Dupont]] surrendered and Colonel Raynal's troops crossed back into French Somaliland on 26 December 1942, completing its liberation. The official handover took place at 10:00&nbsp;p.m. on 28 December.{{sfn|Imbert-Vier|2008|p=172}} The first governor appointed under the [[Free French]] was [[André Bayardelle]]. A local battalion from French Somaliland participated in the [[Liberation of Paris]] in 1944. In 1963, Obock's circle was created by division of that of Tadjourah region.