History:

Tens of thousands of years ago, the Sahara regions were verdant and filled with game. Archeological evidence suggests that caucasoid Berber and negroid Mauritanians lived beside one another before the spread of the desert drove them southward. Migration increased in the third and fourth centuries AD, when Berber groups arrived, seeking pasture for their herds, and safety from war in the north. The use of the camel allowed Berbers to travel widely across the expanding desert. This mobility led to the development of a caravan trade system which promoted the Berbers' loose Sanhadja confederation. Gold, slaves, and ivory going north were traded for salt, copper, cloth, and other items going south to Timbuktu (in present-day Mali) and beyond. Important trading towns were established, and Islam spread along the trade routes.

In the 10th century, conquests by warriors of the Sudanese Kingdom of Ghana broke up the confederation, which had become weakened by internal strife, and the Ghanaians became the dominant force in the eastern and southern regions.

In the 11th century, the conquest of the western Sahara regions by the Almoravids, a Berber tribe which later spread into North Africa and Spain, destroyed the Ghanaian Kingdom and firmly established Islam throughout Mauritania. These people were defeated by Arab invaders led by the Beni Hassan in the 16th century.

Descendants of the Arab warriors became the upper stratum of Moorish society, and Arabic generally displaced Berber dialects as the language of the country. Beneath the Hassan tribes, but often effectively their social equals, were the Marabout tribes, whose leading figures served as the repositories and teachers of Islamic tradition. Some of the more important Marabouts (holy men) founded religious brotherhoods whose influence extended well beyond their tribe. A few of these brotherhoods still have considerable followings as far as Senegal, Guinea, Mali, and the Maghreb (North Africa).

French military penetration of Mauritania began early in the 20th century - the French proclaimed a protectorate over "the Moorish country" in 1903 and declared it a colony in 1920 - but the area was not brought fully under French control until about 1934. Until independence, the French governed the country largely by relying on the authority of the tribal chiefs, some of whom, such as the Emirs of Trarza and Adrar, had considerable authority.

The colony's area was increased substantially in 1945, when the Hodh region of French Sudan (now Mali) was administratively transferred to Mauritania. Certain parts of this territory were ceded back to Mali in territorial adjustments in 1964.

The colonial period had enormous consequences for relations between and among Mauritania's various ethnic groups. Under French occupation, slavery was legally abolished, and the payment of tribute was reduced or eliminated. But Mauritanian society continued to accept the notion of a servile class even after independence. Although slavery was again abolished in 1980, the social status and economic situation of freed slaves has improved very little, if at all. The legacy of slavery continues to be manifest in the legal system and other institutions. For example, land and inheritance disputes between Haratins and their former masters are still common. In short, many residual social and economic problems inherited from the slavery system remain.

The French occupation also led to a return of sedentary negroid people across the Senegal River into southern Mauritania, an area from which they had been expelled gradually in earlier years by the warlike Maure nomads. To this day, conflict between Moor and non-Moor ethnic groups, centering on language, land tenure, and other issues, continues to be the dominant challenge to national unity.

In 1989, for example, a land dispute between Moors and black Africans along the Senegal River quickly escalated, and rioting ensued both in Nouakchott and in Dakar, the capital or Senegal. Hundreds of people were killed in both countries, and the two governments expelled tens of thousands of each other's citizens before breaking diplomatic relations.

As a member of the French West African Federation, Mauritania participated in the postwar social and political progress of the French colonies. Its elected officials gained wide authority early in 1957 as a result of the Overseas Reform Act (Loi Cadre), and Mauritania entered the French Community as an autonomous but not fully sovereign state after the French constitutional referendum in September 1958.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was proclaimed in November 1958. Shortly thereafter, the process of transferring Mauritania's administrative services from Saint-Louis, Senegal, to the new capital of Nouakchott was begun. Mauritania became independent in 1960. It withdrew from the French Community in 1966.

From independence until 1978, Mauritania's first civilian president was Moktar Ould Daddah, a white Moor lawyer from the Boutilimit region. Ould Daddah achieved some international stature as one of the first generation of leaders of independent African states. He emphasized Mauritania's Arab heritage and moved the country toward a nonaligned stance in international affairs. In 1973, foreign interests (primarily French) in Mauritania's iron mining industry were nationalized, and Mauritania withdrew from the franc zone to create its own currency, the Ouguiya (non-convertible outside the country). Ould Daddah's single- party regime fell from power in July 1978 as a result of Mauritania's military setbacks in the Western Sahara conflict.

The bloodless coup that ended the Ould Daddah regime ushered in a succession of military governments. Mauritania's constitution was suspended, and the National Assembly and Daddah's party were dissolved. After several "palace coups" in 1979, a military committee under Lt. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla was established. As drought and economic problems mounted in the early 1980s, the military regime became increasingly ineffectual, repressive, and corrupt. Haidalla's policy of friendship with the Polisario guerrillas, culminating in official Mauritanian recognition of the Saharan Democratic Arab Republic in early 1984, also elicited strong opposition.

On December 12, 1984, Chief of Staff Lt. Col. Maayouia Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya ousted Haidalla in a bloodless coup. Taya's first actions as President raised the hopes of many Mauritanians. He moved to a neutral position on the Western Sahara conflict, inaugurated elections for municipal councils, and normalized relations with Morocco. But ethnic tensions were becoming more pronounced; in the second half of 1986, for example, the regime dealt harshly with Toucouleur dissidents, sentencing about 35 to long prison terms. Nor did the Taya regime restrict its human rights abuses to the black community; in 1988 it imprisoned and tortured Maure supporters of the pro-Iraqi Ba'ath party.

The bloody events of 1989 along the Senegal River, the subsequent breaking of relations between Mauritania and Senegal, and the mass killings and deportations of tens of thousands of black Africans symbolized an ethnic crisis that was out of control. Furthermore, black Africans objected to what they perceived as a growing "Arabization" of the country. Their fears were exacerbated by the Taya's regime close relations with Iraq prior to and during the Gulf war, and by the military's involvement in significant human rights abuses against the black community. The Moors, for their part, expressed fears that black Africans had become too radical and were about to launch a civil war against them.

Faced with internal crisis and a cut-off of military and development assistance from abroad, in the spring of 1991, Taya implemented some democratic reforms, including the legalization of political parties and a free press. He announced that presidential and legislative elections would follow, culminating in a transition to civilian rule in the spring of 1992.

A new constitution was adopted in a controversial referendum in July 1991. The opposition parties disputed the government's claims that 85% of the population went to the polls and that 96% of those voting favored adoption of the document. The parties also demanded that Taya step down in favor of a neutral transition government. He did not and was elected President by a wide margin in January 1992. Charging that the administration had manipulated the vote, the opposition denounced the results and boycotted legislative and senate elections.

On April 18, 1992, the Mauritanian Second Republic was declared, and the ruling military committee was disbanded. The civilian regime took office, despite lack of participation by opposition parties in the parliament. That same month, diplomatic relations were formally restored with Senegal, but questions remained as to the fate of tens of thousands of Mauritanian refugees still living in camps on the Senegalese side of the river. Other outstanding issues between the two countries included the resolution of land and property claims.