ABSTRACT
Djibouti was occupied by France in the late nineteenth century and was known as French Somaliland by the beginning of the twentieth century. While much of France’s African empire became independent in the early 1960s, the people of Djibouti voted in 1958 and 1967 to remain a French colony. In 1967 the country was named the Territory of Afars and Issas. As France moved to grant independence to Djibouti in the mid-1970s, there were fears that the two ethnic groups in the country would become pawns of their larger neighbors in the strategic Horn of Africa region. Ethiopia (backed by the Soviet Union) and Somalia (backed by the United States) were at war over the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, which was claimed by both countries. In fact, Djibouti’s leaders proved adept at keeping their country out of the conflict and, in 1988, hosted a peace conference that resulted in a series of accords ending tense relations between Somalia and Ethiopia.
