d by tribal warrior-chieftains. Tribal feuds and external warfare were common.
The French conquered Chad in the 1890, but it remained for the rest of the colonial period a forlorn outpost. According to Collelo, "in the French scale of priorities, the colony of Chad ranked near the bottom" (11). The foreign legion established a fort at the site of the present capital, then called Fort Lamy, but most of Chad to the north and east was "never governed effectively," especially the desert regions of the north (11).
Governed largely from Bangui in today's Central African Republic to the south, the southern or soudanian region of Chad received most French attention and funds because its more humid climate and more fertile lands facilitated after 1928 the growing of cotton which is still today Chad's most important export. Although French rule was never popular in Chad, the southern black Sara peoples who have traditionally been sedentary, agricultural and predominantly non-Muslim (either Christian or animistic in belief) rece
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