For more than 2,000 years, the Chadian Basin has been inhabited by agricultural and sedentary people. The region became a crossroads of civilisations. The earliest of these was the legendary Sao, known from artifacts and oral histories. The Sao fell to the Kanem Empire,[16][17] the first and longest-lasting of the empires that developed in Chad's Sahelian strip by the end of the 1st millennium AD. Two other states in the region, Sultanate of Bagirmi and Wadai Empire, emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries. The power of Kanem and its successors was based on control of the trans-Saharan trade routes that passed through the region.[15] These states, at least tacitly Muslim, never extended their control to the southern grasslands except to raid for slaves.[18] In Kanem, about a third of the population were slaves.[19] French colonial period (1900–1960) Main article: French Chad French colonial expansion led to the creation of the Territoire Militaire des Pays et Protectorats du Tchad in 1900. By 1920, France had secured full control of the colony and incorporated it as part of French Equatorial Africa.[20] French rule in Chad was characterised by an absence of policies to unify the territory and sluggish modernisation compared to other French colonies.[21] The French primarily viewed the colony as an unimportant source of untrained labour and raw cotton; France introduced large-scale cotton production in 1929. The colonial administration in Chad was critically understaffed and had to rely on the dregs of the French civil service. Only the Sara of the south was governed effectively; French presence in the Islamic north and east was nominal. The educational system was affected by this neglect.[15][21] The French administration's focus on cotton led to the formation of a precarious underclass of poorly-paid rural workers, a decrease in food production and even to famines in some areas.[22] Tensions between farmers and elites culminated in the 1952 Bébalem massacre by colonial authorities.[23][24] A Chadian soldier fighting for Free France during World War II. The Free French Forces included 15,000 soldiers from Chad[25] After World War II, France granted Chad the status of overseas territory and its inhabitants the right to elect representatives to the National Assembly and a Chadian assembly. The largest political party was the Chadian Progressive Party (French: Parti Progressiste Tchadien, PPT), based in the southern half of the colony. Chad was granted independence on 11 August 1960 with the PPT's leader, François Tombalbaye, an ethnic Sara, as its first president.[15][26][27] Tombalbaye rule (1960–1979) Two years later, Tombalbaye banned opposition parties and established a one-party system. Tombalbaye's autocratic rule and insensitive mismanagement exacerbated inter-ethnic tensions. In 1965, Muslims in the north, led by the National Liberation Front of Chad (French: Front de libération nationale du Tchad, FRONILAT), began a civil war. Tombalbaye was overthrown and killed in 1975,[28] but the insurgency continued. In 1979 the rebel factions led by Hissène Habré took the capital, and all central authority in the country collapsed. Armed factions, many from the north's rebellion, contended for power.[29][30] Chad's first civil war (1979–1987) The disintegration of Chad caused the collapse of France's position in the country. Libya moved to fill the power vacuum and became involved in Chad's civil war.[31] Libya's adventure ended in disaster in 1987; the French-supported president, Hissène Habré, evoked a united response from Chadians of a kind never seen before[32] and forced the Libyan army off Chadian soil.[33] Dictatorship of Habré (1987–1990) Habré consolidated his dictatorship through a power system that relied on corruption and violence with thousands of people estimated to have been killed under his rule.[34][35] The president favoured his own Toubou ethnic group and discriminated against his former allies, the Zaghawa. His general, Idriss Déby, overthrew him in 1990.[36] Attempts to prosecute Habré led to his placement under house arrest in Senegal in 2005; in 2013, Habré was formally charged with war crimes committed during his rule.[37] In May 2016, he was found guilty of human-rights abuses, including rape, sexual slavery, and ordering the killing of 40,000 people, and sentenced to life in prison.[38] Déby lineage & democracy with second Civil War (1990–present) Despite internal political opposition, coup attempts, and a civil war, Idriss Déby continuously ruled Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021 Déby attempted to reconcile the rebel groups and reintroduced multiparty politics. Chadians approved a new constitution by referendum, and in 1996, Déby easily won a competitive presidential election. He won a second term five years later.[39] Oil exploitation began in Chad in 2003, bringing with it hopes that Chad would, at last, have some chances of peace and prosperity. Instead, internal dissent worsened, and a new civil war broke out. Déby unilaterally modified the constitution to remove the two-term limit on the presidency; this caused an uproar among the civil society and opposition parties.[40] In 2006 Déby won a third mandate in elections that the opposition boycotted. Ethnic violence in eastern Chad has increased; the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that a genocide like that in Darfur may yet occur in Chad.[41] In 2006 and in 2008 rebel forces attempted to take the capital by force, but failed on both occasions.[42] An agreement for the restoration of harmony between Chad and Sudan, signed 15 January 2010, marked the end of a five-year war.[43] The fix in relations led to the Chadian rebels from Sudan returning home, the opening of the border between the two countries after seven years of closure, and the deployment of a joint force to secure the border. In May 2013, security forces in Chad foiled a coup against President Idriss Déby that had been in preparation for several months.[44] Chad is one of the leading partners in a West African coalition in the fight against Boko Haram and other Islamist militants.[45] Chad's army announced the death of Déby on 20 April 2021, following an incursion in the northern region by the FACT group, during which the president was killed amid fighting on the front lines.[45] Déby's son, General Mahamat Idriss Déby, has been named interim president by a Transitional Council of military officers. That transitional council has replaced the Constitution with a new charter, granting Mahamat Déby the powers of the presidency and naming him head of the armed forces.[13] On 23 May 2024, Mahamat Idriss Déby was sworn in as President of Chad after the disputed 6 May election.[46] Geography Main article: Geography of Chad