Senegal History

HISTORY: FROM ITS ORIGINS TO 1960

It is problematic to say whether the coasts of Senegal were reached in ancient times: the circumnavigation carried out by the Phoenicians by order of the pharaoh Nekao around 600 BC. C. and the expedition of Annone the Carthaginian in the sec. It goes. C. do not find valid historical confirmations. By internal means it seems instead that two groups of getuli converted to Christianity in the century. III and identifiable in the zenagas and zenāta, would have emigrated towards Adrar and the Touat. The Zenagas would have even reached the banks of the river later designated with the name of Senegal, deformation of the term Zenaga or Çanaga. In later times it was Islam that infiltrated and established itself in the Senegal valley, first with Tarsina, head of the Lamtūna Berbers, and then with Yaḥyā ibn Ibrāhīm. The latter making use of the preaching of ʽAbd Allāh ibn Yāsīn made the Senegal river the cradle of the rising Almoravid dynasty that in 1076 conquered the African empire of Ghana. Later various ethnic soninke groupsthey went, perhaps due to Almoravid pressure, to settle in various points of Senegal: the serèr founded the realms of Baol, Sine, Saloum; the Fulbe constituted very vital states in middle Senegal; the Wolofs settled in the coastal regions of Cayor and Walo. As for the Europeans, the first historically ascertained sails, which reached the coasts of Senegal, were the Portuguese ones: in 1444 Dinis Dias rounded Cape Verde, throwing anchor on the islet of Gorée; in 1455/56 Alvise Ca ‘da Mosto and Antoniotto Usodimare they sailed up the Senegal and Gambia rivers with their ships. In the second half of the century. XVI and in the first decades of the following, the Senegal coast became a destination for the English, Dutch and French interested in trade and the slave trade. The Dutch built the forts of Nassau and Orange on the island of Gorée. In 1659 the French founded on the islet of N’Dar, at the mouth of Senegal, the city of Saint-Louis, lost during the Seven Years War, but destined a few decades later (1779) to become the capital of the Colonie du Sénégal et outbuildings.

In the period 1809-17 the possession of Senegal returned to British control as a result of the Napoleonic wars, and then became a French possession definitively. General Faidherbe, appointed governor of Senegal in 1854, was the organizer and animator of the colony, founding the new center of Dakar and leading a series of campaigns against the Tekrur leader, al-Hagi Omar, who was subdued in 1863. At the same time, the queen of Walo and the leaders of Sine and Saloum demanded the protection of France. In the following years the colony of Senegal further expanded with the annexation of the areas of Toro and Cayor. Senegal constituted the most significant experiment in the assimilationist politics of France, expressing a native elite destined to make a positive contribution to the political life of the metropolis itself. Blaise Diagne was elected to the French National Assembly in 1914 and Undersecretary of the Colonies in 1919; Lamine Gueye,, Mamadou Dia played a decisive role in the various stages of French colonial political evolution: from the Brazzaville Conference of 1944 to the formation of the French Union in 1946, to the Loi Cadre in 1956 and finally to the French Community in 1958. In the constitutional referendum of 28 September 1958, Senegal opted for entry into the Community with the status of an autonomous Republic and gave itself its own government and its own Constitution. In January 1959 it formed, together with Western Sudan, the Federation of Mali which in 1960 gained full independence without prejudice to the bonds of association with the Community.

HISTORY: INDEPENDENCE

On August 20, 1960, with the dissolution of the Federation, as a country located in western Africa according to COUNTRYAAH.COM, Senegal decided to remain within the Community as an independent and sovereign Republic and launched a new Constitution. Léopold Sédar Senghor was elected president. In December 1962, after a failed coup attempt by Prime Minister Mamadou Dia, President Senghor moved towards an authoritarian presidential regime, sanctioned by the Constitution of March 1963. In 1964 the opposition parties and the political life was concentrated in the Senegalese Progressive Union (UPS) founded by Senghor. Only ten years later, a process of liberalization of political life began and, in 1976, some parties were restored, which were however heavily defeated by the 1978 elections. won by Senghor’s party (renamed the Socialist Party, PS in 1976). The latter left the office of President of Senegal on December 31, 1980, which was assumed on January 1 by Abdou Diouf. In the following months a multi-party regime was definitively established, so much so that the elections of February 1983 saw eight parties competing out of the 14 active in the country. The same elections confirmed the very large majority of the PS and the presidency of Abdou Diouf. In foreign policy, after the military intervention in The Gambia (July-August 1981), Senegal established with this state the Confederation of In the following months a multi-party regime was definitively established, so much so that the elections of February 1983 saw eight parties competing out of the 14 active in the country. The same elections confirmed the very large majority of the PS and the presidency of Abdou Diouf. In foreign policy, after the military intervention in The Gambia (July-August 1981), Senegal established with this state the Confederation of In the following months a multi-party regime was definitively established, so much so that the elections of February 1983 saw eight parties competing out of the 14 active in the country.

The same elections confirmed the very large majority of the PS and the presidency of Abdou Diouf. In foreign policy, after the military intervention in The Gambia (July-August 1981), Senegal established with this state the Confederation of Senegambia However, an experience that ended in failure in 1989. Between the mid-eighties and the early nineties the internal situation of Senegal progressively deteriorated, due to the economic crisis and the independence activists of Casamance. In 1991 Diouf accepted the entry into the government of a part of the opposition forces, while he managed to stipulate a ceasefire with the separatist guerrillas. In 1992, relations with Mauritania improved, after the tensions that had occurred since 1989, but the armed initiatives of the Casamance separatists resumed. Meanwhile, Diouf was re-elected (February 1993) to the presidency of a Senegal in the throes of an economic crisis, also due to the emergence of a vast and tumultuous social opposition. In March 2000, after approx. twenty years, the President Diouf’s hegemony came to an end with the election of a new head of state, his democratic opponent Abdoulaye Wade. The latter, as promised in the electoral campaign, as the first act of his government limited the powers of the President of the Republic, proposing a new Constitution which was approved by the Senegalese in a referendum in January 2001. In the same year, when Parliament was dissolved, Wade induced new legislative elections, which saw the victory of the ruling coalition led by his party, the Liberal Democratic Party (PDS). Over the next 4 years, the president replaced 6 governments. In Casamance, in October 2003, while the political wing of the separatists decided a truce, the military wing continued the guerrilla actions: a new peace agreement was signed (after those of 2000-2001) between the government and separatists in December 2004. Wade was reconfirmed in the presidential elections held in February 2007. In June, the elections were held that were won by the coalition Sopi, which included the PDS. In March 2012, the former premier Macky Sall was elected president with 65.80% of the preferences of the second round. In September 2013 Aminata Touré was appointed premier, but replaced in 2014 with Mohamed Dionne.

Senegal History