The territory was returned after Germany's defeat in World War I, while most of Cameroon proper became a French League of Nations mandate not integrated into the AEF.

Writer André Gide traveled to Ubangi-Shari and was told by inhabitants about atrocities including mutilations, dismemberments, executions, the burning of children, and villagers being forcibly bound to large beams and made to walk until dropping from exhaustion and thirst.

[4] Gide's book Travels in the Congo, published in 1927, was fiercely critical of the system of the concession companies in French Equatorial Africa.

A separate administrative structure was established under the auspices of Free French Africa grouping both AEF and Cameroun.

Therefore, France granted private companies contracts for the exploitation of natural resources like ivory and rubber, rather than sustainable investment.

Private companies implemented heavy taxation with little to no pay and cruel treatment towards workers and the local communities.

"[15] However, the difference in numbers between administrators and the local populace made it difficult for the French to exercise power outside of their headquarters without voluntary or involuntary indigenous cooperation.

"Most important legislation is enacted in Paris," wrote the authors of the 1942 British naval intelligence handbook for the colony, "whilst the governor-general fills in minor details and penalties.

"[15] The governor-general was assisted by a consultative council of administration (Conseil d'Administration) composed of important local officials and some members, both African and European, elected indirectly.

[17] Under the unified colony, three of the constituent territories, Chad, Gabon, and Ubangi-Shari, were administered by a governor, while Moyen-Congo was under the purview of the governor-general.

The vegetation was affected by these differences: in the north, the virtual absence of rain made it nearly impossible for vegetation to develop, apart from a few thorny shrubs;[17] in the center lay the domain of the savannahs, where millet, peanuts and cassava were grown; finally to the south were the humid tropical forests, from which various species such as ebony and okoumé were taken.