History of Gabon

Rainforest hunter-gatherers (often termed Pygmy groups, including the Babongo) are attested since the Upper Pleistocene (roughly 43,000-13,000 BC). Bantu-speaking communities were established in present-day Gabon by the Early Iron Age, at least by the 3rd-2nd centuries BC, with further expansion during the first millennium AD. Portuguese explorers and traders arrived in the area in the late 15th century. The coast subsequently became a centre of the transatlantic slave trade with European slave traders arriving to the region in the 16th century. In 1839 and 1841, France established a protectorate over the coast. In 1849, captives released from a captured slave ship founded Libreville. In 1862–1887, France expanded its control including the interior of the state, and took full sovereignty. In 1910 Gabon became part of French Equatorial Africa and in 1960, Gabon became independent.

At the time of Gabon's independence, two principal political parties existed: the Gabonese Democratic Bloc (BDG), led by Léon M'Ba, and the Gabonese Democratic and Social Union (UDSG), led by Jean-Hilaire Aubame. In the first post-independence election, held under a parliamentary system, neither party was able to win a majority; the leaders subsequently agreed against a two-party system and ran with a single list of candidates. In the February 1961 election, held under the new presidential system, M'Ba became president and Aubame became foreign minister. The single-party solution disintegrated in 1963, and there was a single-day bloodless coup in 1964. In March 1967, Leon M'Ba and Omar Bongo were elected president and vice president. M'Ba died later that year. Bongo declared Gabon a one-party state, dissolved the BDG and established the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG). Sweeping political reforms in 1990 led to a new constitution, and the PDG garnered a large majority in the country's first multi-party elections in 30 years. Despite discontent from opposition parties, Bongo remained president until his death in 2009.

Late Stone Age, Neolithic, and Early/Late Iron Age sequences are documented in the Lope–Okanda–Ogooue region and on the coast.

Rainforest hunter-gatherers (often called Pygmy groups, including the Babongo, Baka, and Bakoya) are the earliest known inhabitants of the area, their presence has been attested since the Upper Pleistocene (roughly 43,000-13,000 BC). Archaeology in the Ogooue valley shows Late Stone Age sites long before farming, and genetics points to deep splits between foragers and farmers. Bantu-speaking communities appear by the Early Iron Age, at least the 3rd–2nd centuries BC, and expand through the first millennium AD.

The Bantu expansion is found in the middle Ogooue valley, where Late Stone Age occupations were replaced by Early Iron Age communities around 2400–2300 BP (c. 400–300 BC), notably at Lalara and Otoumbi. Paleoenvironmental studies identify a late Holocene episode of rainforest fragmentation around 2500–2000 BP (c. 550–50 BC) across Central Africa, including Gabon, which created savanna–forest mosaics conducive to such settlements. This timing and geography are consistent with broader models of Bantu expansion that emphasize movement along habitat corridors and slower spread through dense rainforest.

Early Iron Age metallurgy in Gabon is documented by smelting furnaces and slag at sites such as Oveng (Estuaire Province), confirming local iron production and its role in the west-Central African spread of Bantu speakers. Prior to coastal contact, lineage-based communities and flexible chiefly authority embedded in riverine exchange networks structured social and political life in equatorial Africa, a framework widely applied to precolonial Gabon, especially along the Ogooue corridor.

Portuguese navigators reached the Gabon estuary in 1472 (Lopo Gonçalves and Rui de Sequeira) and labeled it the "Gabon River" from gabão, a hooded cloak whose shape the Komo River was thought to resemble. At this time, the southern coast was controlled by the Kingdom of Loango. The Portuguese settled on the offshore islands of São Tomé, Príncipe, and Fernando Pó, but were regular visitors to the coast.

Trade ran through African brokers under the ma Loango. Goods exchanged included ivory, copper, salt, raffia cloth, and, as the Atlantic trade expanded, captives. The Vili, merchants of the Kingdom of Loango, controlled access to ports and markets on the Loango Coast and set tolls and prices. Raffia cloth (libongo) functioned as currency and a key source of power. The Portuguese were integrated into these circuits, alongside Dutch, English, and French traders from the 17th century.