Ivory Coast was creating its own currency when France launched its 2011 assault

Evidence

The heart of this device – based on recognising the former colonies’ formal rights that they were prevented from enjoying in practice – was the currency. … The economic and monetary agreement collectively signed by the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo and the Republic of Chad, for example, stated: ‘The states of equatorial Africa confirm their membership of the monetary union of which they are members within the franc zone.’ Article 16 established that ‘all the revenue and expenditure operations of the states of equatorial Africa will be made via the transfer or purchase of foreign currency on the Paris foreign exchange market’. This meant, as explained in the following chapter, that these countries were obliged to deposit their foreign currency in a special account at the French Treasury and to pass through the Paris foreign exchange market in order to carry out their transactions with foreign countries. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 87 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

‘France is the only country in the world to have succeeded in the extraordinary feat of circulating its currency, and only its currency, in politically free countries’, the Cameroonian economist Joseph Tchundjang Pouemi observed in 1980. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 130 (#qualifies, via linked claim)

The objective was realised in stages. To begin with, the French government cajoled the BCEAO, of which Ouattara had been governor between 1988 and 1990, into preventing the Ivorian government from accessing its accounts at the BCEAO and closing down the Ivorian branches of the BCEAO. However, the government managed to reopen them through a measure of staff requisition; at that point, the BCEAO activated software to block their operations. The bank’s administrators also forced its governor, Philippe-Henri Dacoury-Tabley, to resign, accusing him of being too complacent with the Ivorian authorities. Then, in February 2011, faced with Gbagbo’s refusal to give in to international pressure, the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance asked the French banks operating in the country – BICICI, a branch of BNP Paribas, and SGBCI, a branch of Société Générale – to cease their activities in the country. — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 269 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Euro pegging diverts trade toward France and blocks local industrialization.; France uniquely maintained its currency in politically independent countries — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 130; France used the BCEAO Central Bank to paralyze a targeted African government — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 269 (+2 more)

Related

• France used military force to prevent the Ivory Coast from leaving the franc zone. (similarity 0.85)
• Ivory Coast and Senegal rejected monetary reform proposals flat-out (similarity 0.84)
• France used the BCEAO Central Bank to paralyze a targeted African government (similarity 0.83)
• France ran nearly 40 military interventions across Africa between 1960 and 1991 (similarity 0.82)
• The currency was the core mechanism of French control despite formal sovereignty. (similarity 0.82)
• France uniquely maintained its currency in politically independent countries (similarity 0.82)
• Bokassa weaponized the currency question to extract aid from France, which capitulated. (similarity 0.81)
• No franc-zone state dared request monetary independence, leaving France’s influence intact (similarity 0.79)
• France granted African states nominal monetary rights while denying them in practice (similarity 0.79)
• France alone preserved its monetary empire after its African colonies gained independence (similarity 0.79)
• Bokassa feigned a currency break to extract extra French development aid. (similarity 0.78)
• France treated monetary and military pressure as interchangeable weapons. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• The currency was the core mechanism of French control despite formal sovereignty. #exemplifies (0.65) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 87
• France uniquely maintained its currency in politically independent countries #qualifies (0.60) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 130
• France used the BCEAO Central Bank to paralyze a targeted African government #expands (0.55) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 269
• Ivory Coast and Senegal rejected monetary reform proposals flat-out #contradicts (0.50) — Fanny Pigeaud_ Ndongo Samba Sylla, Africa’s Last Colonial Currency, 172