Tuesday, October 27, 2015

History of Ivory Coast

1. Geography of Ivory Coast


Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire, is officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire. It is compared to be about the same size as Germany. [1] Ivory Coast’s capital is Yamoussoukro. Abidjan is the biggest city in Ivory Coast. [2] Abidjan has a population of 4,677,155. [3] Ivory Coast borders Liberia and Guinea to the west, Mali and Burkina Faso to the north, Ghana to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Ivory Coast lies between latitudes 4 and 11 degrees N, and longitudes 2 and 9 degrees W. [4] The typical climate of Ivory Coast is warm and humid. It has three seasons: warm and dry (November to March), hot and dry (March to May), and hot and wet (June to October). The average temperature is between 77 and 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit and range from 50 to 104 degrees Fahrenheit. [5] 

There are four major rivers that flow through Ivory Coast at some point. The Cavally River, the Sassandra River Basin, the Bandama River, and the Comoé. Some large dams were built in the 1960s and 1970s to control the flow of water in the major rivers to the south. [6] “Ivory Coast’s terrain can generally be described as a large plateau rising gradually from sea level in the south to almost 500 m elevation in the north.”[7] 

Ivory Coast also has some mountain ranges, lowland forests, and forest-savanna mosaic (forest, savanna and grassland habitats).[8] The large amount of forests allowed Ivory Coast to have a large timber industry.[9] The many rivers in the country would allow for transportation and ways to travel. Some negative features would be the heavy surf and lack of natural harbors; especially during the rainy season when flooding becomes a danger.[10] “Nine percent of the country is arable land. Ivory Coast is the world’s largest producer of cocoa, a major national cash crop.”[11] Disease and health wise, the HIV/AIDS rate was 19th-highest in the world, estimated in 2012 at 3.20% among adults aged 15-49 years.” [12]