Christian de Bonchamps
Encyclopedia
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
explorer in Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
and a colonial
Colonialism
Colonialism is the establishment, maintenance, acquisition and expansion of colonies in one territory by people from another territory. It is a process whereby the metropole claims sovereignty over the colony and the social structure, government, and economics of the colony are changed by...
officer in the French Empire
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
during the late 19th- early 20th century epoch known as the "Scramble for Africa
Scramble for Africa
The Scramble for Africa, also known as the Race for Africa or Partition of Africa was a process of invasion, occupation, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers during the New Imperialism period, between 1881 and World War I in 1914...
", who played an important role in two of the more notorious incidents of the period.
The Stairs Expedition
Bonchamps served as a cavalryCavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
officer in France and then spent several seasons in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
, hunting in the Rocky Mountains
Rocky Mountains
The Rocky Mountains are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States...
. In 1891 he was appointed third officer of the Stairs Expedition which aimed to take possession of Katanga
Katanga Province
Katanga Province is one of the provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Between 1971 and 1997, its official name was Shaba Province. Under the new constitution, the province was to be replaced by four smaller provinces by February 2009; this did not actually take place.Katanga's regional...
in Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
for the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
King Leopold II
Leopold II of Belgium
Leopold II was the second king of the Belgians. Born in Brussels the second son of Leopold I and Louise-Marie of Orléans, he succeeded his father to the throne on 17 December 1865 and remained king until his death.Leopold is chiefly remembered as the founder and sole owner of the Congo Free...
, with or without the consent of its king, Msiri.
When treaty negotiations with Msiri reached a stalemate, Bonchamps proposed capturing Msiri and holding him hostage. Msiri typically had 300 armed warriors at his stockade
Stockade
A stockade is an enclosure of palisades and tall walls made of logs placed side by side vertically with the tops sharpened to provide security.-Stockade as a security fence:...
, but Bonchamps had discovered that every night, he would leave with just a handful of guards to visit his favourite wife, Maria de Fonseca
Maria de Fonseca
Maria de Fonseca was the favourite wife of Msiri, the powerful warrior-king of Katanga, at the time when the Stairs Expedition arrived in 1891 to take possession of the territory for the Belgian King Leopold II, with or without Msiri's consent....
, at her compound
Compound (enclosure)
Compound when applied to a human habitat refers to a cluster of buildings in an enclosure, having a shared or associated purpose, such as the houses of an extended family...
nearly a kilometre away.
Captain Stairs
William Grant Stairs
William Grant Stairs was a Canadian-British explorer, soldier, and adventurer who had a leading role in two of the most controversial expeditions in the history of the colonisation of Africa.-Education:...
rejected the idea of the ambush in favour of an ultimatum
Ultimatum
An ultimatum is a demand whose fulfillment is requested in a specified period of time and which is backed up by a threat to be followed through in case of noncompliance. An ultimatum is generally the final demand in a series of requests...
, and this led to a confrontation in which Captain Omer Bodson
Omer Bodson
Omer Bodson was the Belgian officer who shot and killed Msiri, King of Garanganze on 20 December 1891 at Bunkeya in what is now DR Congo. Bodson was then killed by one of Msiri's men.-Military career:...
shot Msiri dead. Bonchamps was the first of the other officers to reach the scene of the shooting, and it fell to him to restore order in the chaos and to evacuate the wounded, including the dying Bodson after he had been shot in turn by one of Msiri's men.
In the aftermath, Bonchamps and most of the expedition was incapacitated by disease and starvation. Once relieved by another expedition, they suffered hardships and starvation on the return journey to Zanzibar
Zanzibar
Zanzibar ,Persian: زنگبار, from suffix bār: "coast" and Zangi: "bruin" ; is a semi-autonomous part of Tanzania, in East Africa. It comprises the Zanzibar Archipelago in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of the mainland, and consists of numerous small islands and two large ones: Unguja , and Pemba...
. Bonchamps was in command of the expedition when Stairs was ill and after he died on the Zambezi
Zambezi
The Zambezi is the fourth-longest river in Africa, and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. The area of its basin is , slightly less than half that of the Nile...
. Only half of the expedition's total of 405 men survived.
After returning to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Bonchamps gave his journal to writer Léon Delmas who, using the pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
René du Pont-Jest, published in the 1892-93 issues of the magazine Tour du Monde (World Tour), an account of the events, entitled L'Expédition du Katanga. In this magazine narrative, Bonchamps revealed that the expedition had cut off Msiri's head and hoisted it on a pole in plain view as a "barbaric lesson" to his people, a fact which the English account by Joseph Moloney
Joseph Moloney
Joseph Moloney was the Irish-born British medical officer on the 1891-92 Stairs Expedition which seized Katanga in Central Africa for the Belgian King Leopold II, killing its ruler, Msiri, in the process...
omitted.
The Fashoda Incident
In 1897 Bonchamps was appointed to lead a mission from DjiboutiDjibouti
Djibouti , officially the Republic of Djibouti , is a country in the Horn of Africa. It is bordered by Eritrea in the north, Ethiopia in the west and south, and Somalia in the southeast. The remainder of the border is formed by the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden at the east...
across Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
to the River Nile at Fashoda in southern Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, to converge with the expedition of Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand
Jean-Baptiste Marchand
Major Jean-Baptiste Marchand was a French military officer and explorer in Africa. Marchand is best known for commanding the French expeditionary force during the Fashoda Incident...
coming from Brazzaville
Brazzaville
-Transport:The city is home to Maya-Maya Airport and a railway station on the Congo-Ocean Railway. It is also an important river port, with ferries sailing to Kinshasa and to Bangui via Impfondo...
with orders to secure the area around Fashoda as a French protectorate
Protectorate
In history, the term protectorate has two different meanings. In its earliest inception, which has been adopted by modern international law, it is an autonomous territory that is protected diplomatically or militarily against third parties by a stronger state or entity...
. The ultimate objective was an ambitious plan on the part of French government to establish an axis of French colonies across the continent from east to west, Dakar
Dakar
Dakar is the capital city and largest city of Senegal. It is located on the Cap-Vert Peninsula on the Atlantic coast and is the westernmost city on the African mainland...
to Djibouti, in competition with the British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
's Cape to Cairo vision of British colonies across the continent from north to south. Ethiopia, one of only two independent nations on the continent at that time, stood in the way of a French route, but its ruler Menelik II was friendly towards the French and they understood he would grant them passage.
The Ethiopian Highlands
Ethiopian Highlands
The Ethiopian Highlands are a rugged mass of mountains in Ethiopia, Eritrea , and northern Somalia in the Horn of Africa...
were too great an obstacle, however, and the Bonchamps Expedition suffered accidents and attacks from hostile tribesmen. In addition, although Menelik II was helpful up to a point, he ordered a halt to the expedition in December 1897. The Marchand Expedition reached Fashoda in July 1898, but the Bonchamps Expedition was unable to complete the journey. In September, the Marchand Expedition was confronted by a British flotilla on the Nile leading to the Fashoda Incident
Fashoda Incident
The Fashoda Incident was the climax of imperial territorial disputes between Britain and France in Eastern Africa. A French expedition to Fashoda on the White Nile sought to gain control of the Nile River and thereby force Britain out of Egypt. The British held firm as Britain and France were on...
, which eventually resulted in a diplomatic defeat for France and the withdrawal of the Marchand Expedition.
In 1892, upon returning from the Stairs Expedition which achieved its objectives for the Belgian king, Bonchamps said he regretted that his suffering had not been for France. Five years later, provided with a similar opportunity, but different circumstances to serve his country, his mission was ultimately unsuccessful.
Lack of documentation of Bonchamps' life
Despite his public prominence in the 1890s, there is remarkably little reliable documentation detailing the relevant details of the life of MarquisMarquis
Marquis is a French and Scottish title of nobility. The English equivalent is Marquess, while in German, it is Markgraf.It may also refer to:Persons:...
Christian de Bonchamps. Neither the listing of his hereditary aristocratic title nor contemporary sources provide specifics regarding the year and place of his birth or the year and circumstances of his death.
The 1971 reissue of the 1893 "René de Pont-Jest" text gave 1860 as the year of Bonchamps' birth and stated that he died in 1919, at the age of 58 or 59. There was no indication as to what role, if any, he may have played in the just-concluded World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
.