The history of Burkina Faso includes the history of various kingdoms within the country, such as the Mossi kingdoms, as well as the later French colonisation of the territory and its independence as the Republic of Upper Volta in 1960. Ancient and medieval history Iron production occurred in regions near Douroula at least as far back as the 8th century BCE and was widely practiced across the region by the 5th century BCE. Furnaces, mines, and surrounding dwellings dating from this time period are found across the country.
Recent archeological discoveries at Bura in southwest Niger and in adjacent southwest Burkina Faso have documented the existence of the iron-age Bura culture from the 3rd century to the 13th century. The Bura-Asinda system of settlements apparently covered the lower Niger River valley, including the Boura region of Burkina Faso. Further research is needed to understand the role this early culture played in the ancient and medieval history of West Africa.
Loropéni is an ancient stone ruin which was linked to the gold trade between the 14th and 17th centuries. It is a World Heritage Site.
From medieval times until the end of the 19th century, the central region of present-day Burkina Faso was ruled by the Mossi people, descendants of warriors of the Dagomba people of present-day Ghana, who mixed with Mandé and other local peoples in the 11th century. During this time, the Mossi Kingdoms successfully defended their territory, religious beliefs and social structure against forcible attempts at conquest and conversion by their Muslim neighbors to the northwest.
20th Century history
French Upper Volta
The French arrived and claimed the area in 1896, but Mossi resistance ended only with the capture of their capital Ouagadougou in 1901. In 1919, certain provinces from Ivory Coast were united into French Upper Volta in the French West Africa federation. In 1932, the new colony was split up for economic reasons; it was reconstituted in 1937 as an administrative division called the Upper Coast. After World War II, the Mossi actively pressured the French for separate territorial status, and on 4 September 1947, Upper Volta became a French West African territory again in its own right.
A revision in the organization of French Overseas Territories began with the passage of the Basic Law () of 23 July 1956. This act was followed by reorganizational measures approved by the French parliament early in 1957, which ensured a large degree of self-government for individual territories. Upper Volta became an autonomous republic in the French community on 11 December 1958. On 11 July 1960, France agreed to Upper Volta becoming fully independent.
Republic of Upper Volta The Republic of Upper Volta declared independence on 5 August 1960. The first president, Maurice Yaméogo, was the leader of the Voltaic Democratic Union (UDV). The 1960 constitution provided for election by universal suffrage of a president and a national assembly for 5-year terms. Soon after coming to power, Yaméogo banned all political parties other than the UDV. Yaméogo's government was viewed as corrupt and said to perpetuate neo-colonialism by favoring French political and economic interests, which had allowed politicians to enrich themselves but not the nation's peasants or small class of urban workers.Benin, The Congo, Burkina Faso, Politics, Economics and Society, 1989, Joan Baxter and Keith Somerville, Pinter Publishers, London and New York, (Book)
The government lasted until 1966, when—after much unrest, including mass demonstrations and strikes by students, labor unions, and civil servants—the military intervened and deposed Yaméogo in the 1966 Upper Voltan coup d'état. The coup leaders suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly, and placed Lieutenant Colonel Sangoulé Lamizana at the head of a government of senior army officers; the army remained in power for 4 years. On 14 June 1970, the Voltans ratified a new constitution that established a 4-year transition period toward complete civilian rule. Lamizana remained in power throughout the 1970s as president of military or mixed civil-military governments. He faced a major crisis in the form of the Sahel drought and was sent in 1973 to the United Nations and the United States to secure aid.File:Nixon, Upper Volta President Lamizana - October 15, 1973(Gerald Ford Library)(1552621).pdf After conflict over the 1970 constitution, a new constitution was written and approved in 1977, and Lamizana was reelected by open elections in 1978.
Lamizana's government faced problems with the country's traditionally powerful trade unions, and on 25 November 1980, Colonel Saye Zerbo overthrew President Lamizana in a bloodless coup. Colonel Zerbo established the Military Committee of Recovery for National Progress as the supreme governmental authority, thus eradicating the 1977 constitution. Colonel Zerbo also encountered resistance from trade unions and was overthrown two years later on 7 November 1982, by Major Dr. Jean-Baptiste Ouédraogo and the Council of Popular Salvation (CSP).
The CSP banned political parties and organizations, yet promised a transition to civilian rule and a new constitution. Infighting developed between the right and left factions of the CSP. The leader of the leftists, Captain Thomas Sankara, was appointed prime minister in January 1983, but was subsequently arrested. Efforts to free him, directed by Captain Blaise Compaoré, resulted in a military coup d'état on 4 August 1983.
The coup brought Sankara to power, and his government began to implement a series of revolutionary programs which included mass-vaccinations, infrastructure improvements, the expansion of women's rights, encouragement of domestic agricultural consumption, and anti-desertification projects.Thomas Sankara: The Upright Man by California Newsreel
Burkina Faso On 2 August 1984, on President Sankara's initiative, the country's name was changed from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso (land of the upright/honest people).Kingfisher Geography Encyclopedia. . Page 170The name is an amalgam of More burkina ("honest", "upright", or "incorruptible men") and Jula faso ("homeland"; literally "father's house"). The "-be" suffix in the name for the people – Burkinabe – comes from the Fula plural suffix for people, -ɓe. The presidential decree was confirmed by the National Assembly on 4 August.
Sankara's government formed the National Council for the Revolution (CNR), with Sankara as its president, and established popular Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs). The Pioneers of the Revolution youth programme was also established.
Sankara launched an ambitious socioeconomic programme for change, one of the largest ever undertaken on the African continent. His foreign policies were centred on anti-imperialism, with his government denying all foreign aid, pushing for odious debt reduction, nationalising all land and mineral wealth, and averting the power and influence of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. His domestic policies included a nationwide literacy campaign, land redistribution to peasants, railway and road construction, and the outlawing of female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy.Commemorating Thomas Sankara by Farid Omar, Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa (GRILA), November 28, 2007
Sankara pushed for agrarian self-sufficiency and promoted public health by vaccinating 2,500,000 children against meningitis, yellow fever, and measles. His national agenda also included planting over 10,000,000 trees to halt the growing desertification of the Sahel. Sankara called on every village to build a medical dispensary and had over 350 communities build schools with their own labour.
Five-day War with Mali
On 25 December (Christmas Day) 1985, tensions with Mali over the mineral-rich Agacher Strip erupted in a war that lasted five days and killed about 100 people. The conflict ended after mediation by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of Ivory Coast. The conflict is known as the "Christmas war" in Burkina Faso.
Rule of Blaise Compaoré The CDRs, which were formed as popular mass organizations, deteriorated in some areas into gangs of armed thugs and clashed with several trade unions. Tensions over the repressive tactics of the government and its overall direction mounted steadily. On 15 October 1987, Sankara was assassinated in a coup which brought Captain Blaise Compaoré to power.
Compaoré, Captain Henri Zongo, and Major Jean-Baptiste Boukary Lengani formed the Popular Front (FP), which pledged to continue and pursue the goals of the revolution and to "rectify" Sankara's "deviations" from the original aims. The new government, in aims of bourgeois support, tacitly moderated many of Sankara's policies. As part of a much-discussed political "opening" process, several political organizations, three of them non-Marxist, were accepted under an umbrella political organization created in June 1989 by the FP.
Some members of the leftist Organization for Popular Democracy (, ODP/MT) were against the admission of non-Marxist groups in the front. On 18 September 1989, while Compaoré was returning from a two-week trip to Asia, Lengani and Zongo were accused of plotting to overthrow the Popular Front. They were arrested and executed in the same night. Compaoré reorganized the government, appointed several new ministers, and assumed the portfolio of Minister of Defense and Security. On 23 December 1989, a presidential security detail arrested about 30 civilians and military personnel accused of plotting a coup in collaboration with the Burkinabe external opposition.
Burkina Faso adopted a new constitution on 2 June 1991.
In 2005, Compaoré was elected to his third term. In November 2010, President Compaoré was re–elected for a fourth straight term. He won 80.2% of the vote, while Hama Arba Diallo came a distant second with 8.2%.
In February 2011, the death of a schoolboy provoked an uprising in the entire country, lasting through April 2011, which was coupled with a military mutiny and with a strike of the magistrates (see ).
Overthrow of Compaoré
In June 2014, Compaoré's ruling party, the CDP, called on him to organise a referendum that would allow him to alter the constitution in order to seek re-election in 2015; otherwise he would be forced to step down due to term limits.
On 30 October 2014, the National Assembly was scheduled to debate an amendment to the constitution which would have enabled Compaoré to stand for re-election as president in 2015. Opponents protested this by storming the parliament building in Ouagadougou, starting fires inside it, and looting offices; billowing smoke was reported to be coming from the building by the BBC."Burkina Faso parliament set ablaze". BBC News. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014. Opposition spokesman Pargui Emile Paré, of the People's Movement for Socialism / Federal Party, described the protests as "Burkina Faso’s black spring, like the Arab spring"."Protesters storm Burkina Faso's parliament". The Guardian. 30 October 2014. Retrieved 30 October 2014.