Senegal (country)

F

Defence

Senegal has a total armed force of 13,620 (2004), which is politically neutral; there have been no military coups in the country. France provides protection and maintains a naval base at Dakar.

G

International Organizations

Senegal is a member of the United Nations (UN), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union, and the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA).

VI

History

Remains of Palaeolithic and Neolithic civilizations have been discovered by archaeologists in the region now occupied by Senegal. About ad 500 Wolof and Serer peoples arrived from the north-east. In the 9th century the Tukolor settled in the River Sénégal valley, and the powerful Tekrur state of the Tukolor dominated eastern Senegal from the 11th to the 14th century. By the 15th century a pattern of Wolof and Serer states was well established there. Until far into the 18th century the decentralized Wolof empire near the coast retained nominal suzerainty over the other Wolof states, including those of Baol, Wale, and Cayor.

A

European Rivalry

Modern trade links with Europe were forged after the Portuguese reached the mouth of the Senegal and the Cape Vert peninsula in ad 1444-1445. The Portuguese traded cloth and metal goods in return for gold dust, gum arabic, and ivory.

Shortly after 1600 the Portuguese were displaced by the Dutch and French, and by 1700 the French dominated commerce along the coast. Despite Anglo-French rivalry and conflicts in the area during the late 17th and 18th centuries, French influence was extended far into the interior. The Europeans’ vulnerability to tropical disease meant most Franco-African trade continued to be handled by African middlemen, who brought goods to the French settlements on the coast. The growth of the Fulani state of Futa Toro along the lower Senegal in the 18th century, however, undermined French activity, and during the Seven Years’ War the British captured the French trading stations; they were returned later in the century. European influence at this time was economic rather than political.

B

French Rule

Under Captain Louis Faidherbe, and his successors after the mid-19th century, French control of the Wolof, Serer, and Tukolor states was forcefully extended and consolidated. In 1895 Senegal was officially made a French colony, administered from St-Louis. In 1902 the government headquarters were moved to Dakar, which was also the capital of French West Africa. The French developed Senegal’s economy around the cultivation of peanuts for export.

Along with French residents, the black Africans of St-Louis and Gorée (an island near Dakar) had elected a deputy to the French National Assembly during 1848-1852 and again after 1871, when they were joined by the inhabitants of Dakar and Rufisque. In 1914 the first black African, Blaise Diagne, was elected to the French Parliament, and he served until 1934. After World War II, a territorial assembly was established in Senegal, and citizens of the entire colony were enfranchised (1946). Local politics were dominated by Lamine Guèye and Léopold Sédar Senghor, the deputies to the French Parliament.