The French Congo (French: La colonie du Congo or Congo français) is a French colony which at one time comprises the present-day area of the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, and the Central African Republic.

It begins at Brazzaville on 10 September 1880 as a protectorate over the Bateke people along the north bank of the Congo River, is formally established as the French Congo on 30 November 1882, and is confirmed at the Congress of Berlin.

Its borders with Cabinda, Cameroons, and the Congo Free State are established by treaties over the next decade.

The plan to develop the colony is to grant massive concessions to some thirty French companies.

These are granted huge swaths of land on the promise they would be developed.

This development is limited and amounts mostly to the extraction of ivory, rubber, and timber.

These operations often involve great brutality and the near enslavement of the locals.Even with these measures most of the companies lose money.

Only about ten earn profits.

Many of the companies' vast holdings exist only on paper with virtually no presence on the ground in Africa.The French Congo is sometimes known as Gabon-Congo.

It formally adds Gabon on April 30, 1901, is officially renamed Middle Congo (French: Moyen-Congo) in 1903, is temporarily divorced from Gabon in 1906, and is then reunited as French Equatorial Africa in 1910 in an attempt to emulate the relative success of French West Africa.