Bingerville became the second colonial capital of French Côte d'Ivoire after authorities moved inland from Grand-Bassam amid yellow fever and sanitation concerns. The town was named for Louis-Gustave Binger, an explorer and colonial administrator. From 1900 it developed as a planned seat of government, with offices, residences, roads, schools, medical facilities, and spaces intended to display French authority.

The new capital did not occupy an empty landscape. Ébrié communities lived around the lagoon and experienced land appropriation, taxation, forced labor, military pressure, and economic change under colonial rule. African workers constructed and maintained the administrative town. Intermediaries, clerks, students, traders, soldiers, farmers, and domestic laborers made Bingerville function, even when colonial records centered European officials.

A botanical and experimental garden supported the study and transfer of tropical plants. Colonial science classified species and tested crops with commercial potential, linking botany to plantation agriculture and imperial markets. Rubber, coffee, cocoa, fruits, timber, and ornamental plants were evaluated within networks that moved specimens and knowledge among Africa, Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

Bingerville served as capital until 1934, when administration shifted to the rapidly expanding port city of Abidjan. Government buildings found new uses, and the town continued as an educational and residential center. Institutions such as the former William Ponty school site contributed to the training of African elites, while colonial-era structures and landscapes were absorbed into an independent Ivorian society after 1960.

The surviving garden and administrative heritage can illuminate both environmental history and colonial coercion. Conservation should document African labor, local ecological knowledge, plant introductions, and the social consequences of scientific agriculture rather than presenting the garden as neutral collection. Urban expansion, aging trees, redevelopment, and limited maintenance threaten the wider ensemble. Bingerville's history belongs equally to surrounding communities and to the former capital's official architecture. The capital's move to Abidjan illustrates how colonial infrastructure followed economic priorities, especially rail and port development. Bingerville did not simply freeze in 1934; schools, hospitals, residences, religious institutions, and local government continued to reshape it. The garden likewise contains living organisms whose age, origin, and condition need documentation alongside buildings. Some introduced plants may be historically significant yet ecologically invasive, requiring careful management rather than automatic retention. Interpretation can connect botanical experimentation with today's cocoa economy, land use, and biodiversity challenges. That approach makes the site relevant to present debates over agriculture and environment while confronting the unequal colonial system that produced its collections and plans.