French Somaliland (,
lit. "French Coast of Somalis"; ; ,
ʾArḍ Aṣ-Ṣūmāl Al-Fransī) was a
French colony in the
Horn of Africa. It was established between 1883 and 1887, after the ruling
Somali and
Afar sultans signed the land away in various treaties with the French. The construction of the
Imperial Ethiopian Railway west into
Ethiopia turned the
port of Djibouti into a boomtown of 15,000 at a time when
Harar was the only city in Ethiopia to exceed that. Although the population fell after the completion of the line to
Dire Dawa and the original company failed and required a government bail-out, the rail link allowed the territory to quickly supersede the caravan-based trade carried on at
Zeila (then in the
British area of
Somaliland) and become the premier port for
coffee and other goods leaving southern Ethiopia and the
Ogaden through
Harar.