The Obock Territory and Dependencies was an administrative colony belonging to the

Second French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas colonies, protectorates, and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "First French colonial empire", that ex ...

, between 1862 and 1896, located in the current republic of Djibouti.

History

On June 4, 1859, the former French consular agent in

Aden Aden () is a port city located in Yemen in the southern part of the Arabian peninsula, on the north coast of the Gulf of Aden, positioned near the eastern approach to the Red Sea. It is situated approximately 170 km (110 mi) east of ...

, Henri Lambert, was assassinated in the Gulf of Tadjourah. After an investigation by the French envoy Stanislas Russel, the commander of the naval station of the East Coast of Africa (based in

Réunion Island Réunion (; ; ; known as before 1848) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. Part of the Mascarene Islands, it is located approximately east of the island of Madagascar and southwest of the is ...

), Viscount Alphonse Fleuriot de Langle, was tasked with arresting the presumed culprits. They were handed over to the Ottoman authorities. On March 11, 1862, representatives of the sultan of Tadjourah ( Diny Ahmed Aboubekr, Mohammed Hammed, and Aboubekr Ibrahim Chahim), who had come to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

following this incident, concluded an agreement with

Édouard Thouvenel Édouard is both a French given name and a surname, equivalent to Edward in English. Notable people with the name include: * Édouard Balladur (born 1929), French politician * Édouard Boubat (1923–1999), French photographer * Édouard Colonne ...

, Foreign Minister of

Napoleon III Napoleon III (Charles-Louis Napoléon Bonaparte; 20 April 18089 January 1873) was President of France from 1848 to 1852 and then Emperor of the French from 1852 until his deposition in 1870. He was the first president, second emperor, and last ...

, by which they ceded to France “the ports, harbor, and anchorage of Obock located near Cape Ras Bir along with the plain extending from Ras Aly in the south to Ras Doumeira in the north”. France purchased this right for the sum of 10,000 thalers (55,000 gold francs), which were paid in May 1862. On this occasion, the official takeover of Obock was made by Frigate Captain Buret of the ''Curieux'', who noted in his report to the Minister of the Navy that he was convinced that if the inhabitants of this coast desired the French presence, However, the area remained unoccupied for almost twenty years. Only a few traders began settling there in 1881. It wasn't until late

1883 Events January * January 4 – ''Life'' magazine is founded in Los Angeles, California, United States. * January 10 – A fire at the Newhall Hotel in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States, kills 73 people. * January 16 – ...

that an official mission was sent to explore the territory under the command of Commander Conneau of the ''Infernet'', accompanied by

Léonce Lagarde Léonce Lagarde, Count de Rouffeyroux, Duke of Enttoto (1860 – 15 February 1936) was a French colonial governor of French Somaliland and ambassador. Biography In 1882, Lagarde was named secretary to the governor of Cochinchina. One year later ...

. Lagarde, who arrived in Obock on August 4, 1884, became the first “commander” of the territory. He began to expand the colony to encompass the entire

Gulf of Tadjoura The Gulf of Tadjoura (; ) is a gulf or basin of the Indian Ocean in the Horn of Africa. It lies south of the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb, or the entrance to the Red Sea, at . The gulf has many fishing grounds, extensive coral reefs, and abundant ...

, which became the “Territory of Obock and Dependencies.” Around

1895 Events January * January 5 – Dreyfus affair: French officer Alfred Dreyfus is stripped of his army rank and sentenced to life imprisonment on Devil's Island (off French Guiana) on what is much later admitted to be a false charge of tr ...

, Lagarde moved the colonial administration center from

Obock Obock (also Obok, , ) is a small port town in Djibouti. It is located on the Northern shore of the Gulf of Tadjoura, where it opens out into the Gulf of Aden. The town is home to an airstrip and has ferries to Djibouti City. The French form Ob ...

to the city of Djibouti, on the other side of the gulf. The

Messageries Maritimes ''Messageries Maritimes'' was a French ship transport, merchant shipping company. It was originally created in 1851 as ''Messageries nationales'', later called ''Messageries impériales'', and from 1871, ''Compagnie des messageries maritimes'', ca ...

also moved their stopover there in November 1895. The territories were administratively merged into the

French Somaliland French Somaliland (; ; ) was a French colony in the Horn of Africa. It existed between 1884 and 1967, at which became the French Territory of the Afars and the Issas. The Republic of Djibouti is its legal successor state. History French Somalil ...

on May 20, 1896.

Philately

Until 1892, the colony of Obock used postage stamps from the

French colonial empire The French colonial empire () comprised the overseas Colony, colonies, protectorates, and League of Nations mandate, mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. A distinction is generally made between the "Firs ...

featuring the Alphée Dubois type of 1881. In 1892, these stamps were surcharged with the word "OBOCK". Later that year, some of these stamps were additionally surcharged with values ranging from 1 centime to 5 francs, and stamps of the Group type were also issued.According to "Côte des Somalis" and "Obock" in the ''Yvert and Tellier Catalogue'', volume 2, 1st partie, ''French-speaking countries and overseas territories'', 1997. The stamps issued in

1893 Events January * January 2 – Webb C. Ball introduces railroad chronometers, which become the general railroad timepiece standards in North America. * January 6 – The Washington National Cathedral is chartered by Congress; th ...

and

1894 Events January * January 4 – A military alliance is established between the French Third Republic and the Russian Empire. * January 7 – William Kennedy Dickson receives a patent for motion picture film in the United States. * Ja ...

stand out: they are a series of imperforate stamps with a serrated line printed between them, imitating

perforation A perforation is a small hole in a thin material or web. There is usually more than one perforation in an organized fashion, where all of the holes collectively are called a ''perforation''. The process of creating perforations is called perfor ...

. Additionally, the 2-franc and higher-value stamps were in the shape of an

equilateral triangle An equilateral triangle is a triangle in which all three sides have the same length, and all three angles are equal. Because of these properties, the equilateral triangle is a regular polygon, occasionally known as the regular triangle. It is the ...

featuring a depiction of a

méhariste ''Méhariste'' is a French word that roughly translates to camel cavalry. The word is most commonly used as a designation of military units. French camel corps Origins France created a corps of ''méhariste'' camel companies (''Compagnies Méh ...

(camel rider), while some stamps were also shaped like diamonds, signed by Sauniers. The word "Obock" was inscribed in Latin, Arabic, and Ge'ez scripts. Due to the closure of the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letter (message), letters and parcel (package), parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post o ...

in Obock in 1894, the remaining stock of stamps was used until depleted in

Djibouti Djibouti, officially the Republic of Djibouti, is a country in the Horn of Africa, bordered by Somalia to the south, Ethiopia to the southwest, Eritrea in the north, and the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden to the east. The country has an area ...

. Some stamps were bisected to create lower denominations. In 1902, part of the stock was sold with small values surcharged.Jacques Delafosse, ''Dictionnaire des émissions philatéliques'', ed. Timbropresse, 2004, , page 110. It was the Obock stamps surcharged with "DJ" or "Djibouti" that served as the first stamps of the French protectorate in

. The stamps used afterward in

were those of the

region, like those used in Djibouti. Obock

References

Bibliography

* L. Faurot, ''Dans l'île de Kamarane: observations ethnographiques; Sur les Danakils du golfe de Tadjoura: observations ethnographiques; Note sur les tumuli du territoire d'Obock'', Paris: E. Leroux, 1887. {{OCLC, 21434083 Somaliland, French

Somaliland Somaliland, officially the Republic of Somaliland, is an List of states with limited recognition, unrecognised country in the Horn of Africa. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden and bordered by Djibouti to the northwest, E ...

Territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, belonging or connected to a particular country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually a geographic area which has not been granted the powers of self-government, ...

1862 establishments in Africa 1897 disestablishments in Africa Djibouti–France relations Second French Empire Political history of Djibouti