Central African Republic

Through the ages

Rivals in history

The kingdoms, empires and states Central African Republic fought or stood against, from the first to today.

1. 🇹🇩 Wadai Empire1800 to 1900

   Raiders from the sultanate of Wadai, in today's Chad, push deep into the northern savannas for captives during the nineteenth century, emptying large areas of the north.

2. 🇸🇩 Sultanate of Darfur1800 to 1874

   Darfur's sultans send raiding expeditions into Dar Fertit, the lands to their south that include today's north east, taking captives for the trans-Saharan trade.

3. Rabih az-Zubayr1879 to 1900

   A slave trader turned warlord from Sudan, Rabih carves out a domain from the north of the country to Lake Chad in the 1880s and 1890s. French forces defeat and kill him at Kousseri in April 1900.

4. 🇫🇷 France1889 to 1960

   France founds Bangui in 1889 and conquers the territory, handing much of it to concession companies that force people to collect rubber. Revolts such as the Kongo Wara of 1928 to 1931 are crushed. Independence comes in 1960.

5. 🇩🇪 German Empire1911 to 1916

   After the Agadir crisis, a 1911 treaty hands Germany a strip of the south west, joining Kamerun to the Ubangi river. French troops retake it early in the First World War, and it returns to French rule.

6. Séléka and other armed groupsSince 2012Still open

   A coalition of mainly Muslim rebels from the north, the Séléka, seizes Bangui in March 2013, and anti-balaka militias strike back. Despite a 2019 peace deal, armed groups still control parts of the country.

Today

Central African Republic now

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a perennially weak state that sits at the crossroads of ethnic and linguistic groups in the center of the African continent. Among the last areas of Sub-Saharan Africa to be drawn into the world economy, its introduction into trade networks around the early 1700s fostered significant competition among its population. The local population sought to benefit from the lucrative Atlantic, trans-Saharan, and Indian Ocean trade in enslaved people and ivory.

Capital

Bangui

Government

presidential republic

Head of government

Félix Moloua

Head of state

Faustin-Archange Touadéra

Languages

Sango, French

Area

622,980 km²

Through time

Then and now

• Population5.2 million2023 · 1.4 million in 1950
• Life expectancy57.4 years2023 · 35.4 years in 1950
• GDP per person$5962022 · $1,307 in 1950
• Living in cities45%2025 · 16% in 1950
• Literacy42%2019 · 3% in 1950
• Political regimeElectoral autocracy2025 · Closed autocracy in 1950
• Military alliancesNone of these2024 · None of these in 1950
• Military spending2.3% of GDP2025
• War deaths6.3 per 100,0002025

Population: HYDE 3.3, Gapminder and UN WPP. GDP per capita: Maddison Project Database 2023. Urban share: UN WPP. Life expectancy: Riley, HMD, UN WPP. Literacy: OWID historical estimates, World Bank, UNESCO. Military spending: SIPRI. War deaths: UCDP. Political regime: V-Dem, Regimes of the World. All via Our World in Data (CC BY 4.0). Alliances and organization memberships: compiled by Atlas. Satellites in orbit: CelesTrak SATCAT. Modern borders, backcast.

Relations

Close partners and tensions

Summarised from World Bank and Wikipedia data, updated 23 October 2026.