History of Mauritania

Early history

Mauritania’s contributions to the prehistory of western Africa are still being researched, but the discovery of numerous Lower Paleolithic (Acheulean) and Neolithic remains in the north points to a rich potential for archaeological discoveries.

In historical times Mauritania was settled by sub-Saharan peoples and by the Ṣanhājah Imazighen (Berbers). The region was the cradle of the Amazigh (singular of Imazighen) Almoravids, a puritanical 11th-century Islamic reform movement that spread an austere form of Islam from the Sahara through to North Africa. The main commercial routes that connected subsequent empires in Morocco with the south passed through Mauritania, carrying Saharan salt and Mediterranean luxury products such as fine cloth, brocades, and paper in exchange for gold. In the central desert, Chingueṭṭi, the fabled seventh great city of Islam, was one of the major caravansaries along these routes; another was Oualâta, situated to the south and east of Chingueṭṭi and renowned for the elaborately painted walls of the homes there.

It was along these routes that the Ḥassānī Arab tribes entered the western Sahara, and gradually an amalgamation of Arab-Amazigh, or Moorish, culture emerged. The Ḥassānī and Arabized Amazigh nomadic tribes formed several powerful regional confederations that claimed their origin in Amazigh or Arab ancestry and characterized themselves as pacific, religiously minded zawāyā (such as the Idaw ʿAish, said to be the original descendants of the Lamtunah tribe, and the Reguibat, who claim descent from the Prophet Muhammad) or the raiding, warrior Ḥassānī tribes (such as the Trarza and Brakna), respectively. The outcome of a famous conflict (or possibly a series of conflicts) between them in the mid-17th century, known today as Shurr Bubba (“the War of Bubba”), became a reference point for deciding political and social status in the southern Sahara.

European intervention

In 1442 Portuguese mariners rounded Cape Blanco (Cape Nouâdhibou) and six years later founded the fort of Arguin, whence they derived gold, gum arabic, and slaves. These same commodities later drew Spanish, then Dutch trade to the coast in the 17th century when gum arabic was found to be useful in textile manufacture. The French competed for access to this trade, first with the Dutch and, in the 18th century, with the English, and it was to the French that much of the Saharan coast was ceded in European treaties early in the 19th century. French claims to sovereignty over the hinterland were regularly disputed by the leaders (referred to as “amirs” or “commanders” by the French) of the regions of Trarza and, to the east, Brakna—named for the two Ḥassānī lineages that dominated the Sénégal River valley—who claimed territory on both sides of the Sénégal River. The French governor of the region, Col. Louis Faidherbe, entered into treaty relations with the amirs in 1858, but France made little effort to exert control over southern Mauritania until the opening years of the 20th century. The “pacification” of Mauritania, as it was styled by the French military, continued until 1912, and the final battle to subdue a Reguibat band took place in 1934. The French nickname for the colony was “Le Grand Vide” (“the great void”); so long as the population was quiet, there was little evidence of a French presence. Moorish lineages were engaged on both sides of the colonial occupation, some assisting the French and others opposing their presence. Some who benefited from the French presence were well positioned to take on prominent political roles in 1958 when the first elected government under Moktar Ould Daddah negotiated membership in the French Community. The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was declared an independent state on November 28, 1960; it became a member of the United Nations in October 1961.

Struggle for postindependence stability

The small political elite that guided the independence movement was divided over whether the country should be oriented toward Senegal and Black, French-speaking Africa or toward nearby Arab Morocco and the rest of the Arab world. This was complicated by the fact that Morocco, under King Hassan II, waged an irredentist campaign—including temporary occupation of parts of the Mauritania—during the 1960s. The political direction under Ould Daddah was one of cautious balance between the country’s African and Arab roots; independence came with close ties to France and full participation in the Organization of African Unity (later the African Union [AU]) but also with membership in the Arab League in 1973. The political conflict of those early years continued to manifest itself decades later.

As Mauritania’s first postindependence president, Ould Daddah appeared securely established in spite of occasional strikes by miners and demonstrations by students, because his policies seemed attuned to a population that was largely tribal and engaged in agriculture or pastoralism. In 1969 Morocco’s King Hassan II had reversed his policy and recognized Mauritanian independence as part of his plan to gain control of what was then Spanish Sahara (now Western Sahara), and Morocco and Mauritania divided that country in 1976. The difficulties of suppressing the Saharawi independence movement led by the Polisario Front guerrillas in Mauritania’s portion of Western Sahara contributed to Ould Daddah’s downfall. In July 1978 he was deposed and exiled in a military coup led by the chief of staff, Col. Mustapha Ould Salek.

Ould Salek resigned his position in June 1979, and under his successor, Lieut. Col. Mohamed Mahmoud Ould Louly, Mauritania signed a treaty with the Polisario Front in August in an effort to disentangle itself from Western Sahara. This worsened relations with Morocco. Ould Louly was in turn replaced in January 1980 by the prime minister, Lieut. Col. Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla.