Bradley O’Brien
Pronouns: he/him/his
Research Mentor(s): Anthony Marcum
Co-Presenter:
Research Mentor School/College/Department: Program in International and Comparative Studies / LSA
Presentation Date: April 20
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: Session 3 – 1:40pm – 2:30 pm
Room: League Ballroom
Authors:
Presenter: 2
Abstract
Despite the vast amount of publications on the long and storied history of military conflict, remarkably few printings have explored the role of the military occupation. In the post-conflict setting, the victors usually impose some semblance of a military occupation on the subjugated territory/government. The success of these occupations is never guaranteed, and once the fighting has officially ceased, there is still much more conflict between the two sides. The subject of why military occupations happen and how they fail and succeed is the subject of this research project, focusing on a specific conflict. The French-Mandingo War of 1885 was a bloody conflict between the French and native African inhabitants of the present day Republic of Côte d’Ivoire that resulted in a military occupation that was indicative of the colonialism of the time. This study utilizes a variety of military history sources, such as military encyclopedias, to recover some of the historical perspective of the military occupation and examine the methods and procedures utilized during the occupation. Using a combination of brutal subjugation of the native population and direct control over the local affairs, the French were able to have complete authority over the region. From this conclusion, additional research can be conducted into the effectiveness of additional occupations where violence was utilized as a control tactic. This project contributes to the overall studies on occupations, and future research can build upon the conclusions discussed here.
Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences
