The area that is Chad today was once inhabited by politically disconnected groups and tribes. Humanoid skulls and cave paintings of great antiquity have been found there. Relatively weak local kingdoms which developed gradually in the region were later overtaken by the larger and more powerful Kanem-Bornu Empire. From the Middle Ages onwards, Chad was a crossroads for trans-Saharan trade and East-West migration.
In 1900, after the battle of Kousséri, Chad became a part of France's colonial system; the French mostly exploiting the south, inhabited predominantly by animists, where they promoted cotton farming and introduced Christianity, while governing the Muslim north through indirect rule.
After WWII a process of decolonization began, in which the southern-dominated Chadian Progressive Party prevailed. Its leader, François Tombalbaye, became the country's first president when independence was proclaimed on August 11, 1960.
In 1965, Muslim dissatisfaction with Tombalbaye, who was perceived as discriminating against them in favour of southerners, erupted in civil war, beginning a conflict that was to continue without interruption until 1993. This, combined with a severe drought, undermined Tombalbaye's rule and led to the 1975 coup in which the President was killed and replaced by a military junta headed by the southerner Felix Malloum. After a failure to reach an accord with the insurgents, the rebels conquered the capital in 1979 and the state crumbled, leading to the most anarchic phase of the Chadian Civil War.
As a further complication, Libya, under Muammar al-Qaddafi, invaded Chad in 1980 to support the pro-Libyan President Goukouni Oueddei against his former ally Hissène Habré and to promote an expansionist policy that sought to unify Libya and Chad politically. France and the United States responded, in an attempt to contain Libya's regional ambitions, by aiding Habré, who, in 1982, conquered the capital, ousted Oueddei, and assumed overall control of the country.
Despite this victory, Habré's government was weak, accused of brutality and corruption, and seemingly disliked by a majority of Chadians. He was deposed by another Libyan-supported rebel leader Idriss Déby on December 1, 1990. Threatened by constant insurgent activity and several failed coups, Déby attempted national reconciliation, and most rebel groups disbanded. A constitution was approved in 1995, and a year later, Déby won the first multi-party elections in Chad's history. He won a second term five years later.
The security situation worsened in 1998, when a new armed insurgency began in the north, led by President Déby's former defence minister, Youssouf Togoïmi, who posed a serious threat to Déby. Weakening of the regime brought coup attempts in 2004 and March 2006, and then, in April, the rebels attacked N'Djamena and were repulsed only after a pitched battle in the streets of the capital. The government also faces widespread opposition following the decision to amend the constitution, so that Déby could run for a third term. In response, all main opposition parties boycotted the May 2006 elections.
There is a major risk that the Darfur conflict in Sudan will spread into Chad, with both governments accusing each other of supporting the other's rebels. On December 23, 2005, Chad announced that it was in a "state of war" with Sudan; but a peace agreement has been signed at Dakar in July 2006, paving the way for the normalization of Chadian-Sudanese relations. In October 2006, rebel activity once again increased in eastern Chad, with rebels claiming to have seized the town of Am Timan in southeastern Chad on October 23, 2006. Amidst fears of another attack on the capital, the Chadian military has increased its presence in N'Djamena. Once again, the Chadian government has claimed that the rebels are supported by Sudan, a claim the Khartoum government denies.
On November 25, 2006, rebels captured the eastern town of Abeche, capital of Ouaddaï Department and center for humanitarian aid to the Darfur region in Sudan. On the same day, a separate rebel group Rally of Democratic Forces had captured Biltine. On November 26, 2006, the Chadian government claimed to have recaptured both towns, although rebels still claimed control of Biltine. Government buildings and humanitarian aid offices in Abeche were said to have been looted. The Chadian government denied a warning issued by the French Embassy in N'Djamena that a group of rebels were making its way through Batha prefecture in central Chad.
