Mauritnia Project

COLONIZATION OF MAURITANIA

The French only bagan colonizing Mauritania in 1902 when Xavier Coppolani directed the French forces into Mauritania. This was done by pushing back all Mauritanian resistance. Coppolani took total control over the southern part of Mauritania. In 1903 the areas under his control were officially colonized by the French. This was done by befriending the dominate tribes of the area and temporarily allied with the tribal chiefs. Colonel Henri Gouraud followed Coppolani’s ideas closely until Coppolani’s assassination in 1905 then he continues Coppolani’s work further north and east of the already colonized areas. The colony was indirectly ruled by France through the Arabic chiefs and tribal chiefs of the area.

During the colonization most of the population remained nomadic but slowly the blacks began to return to southern Mauritania where there ancestors had orginally been expelled.

HISTORICAL SUMMARY

The French only became interested in Mauritania in the last half of the 16th century when French traders located in what is now Senegal traded with Arabic gum in southern Mauritania. The natives to the country paid little attention to the French because they did not affect them directly. At the start of the 20th century Cappolani directed French forces into Mauritania through force and Arab chiefs. The French allowed the colony to be directed by the already existing Arabic institutions. This continued until the 1940s when France implemented changes to standardize all the French West Africa.

In May of 1957 Mauritania developed its first government and chose its capital as Nouakchott. The capital was chosen due to its geographic location, almost exactly between the Senegal River Valley and Adar. These two regions were both in competing for the capital until a compromise was made. This was a great set-up for the future prime minister Daddah’s approach to political conflicts: compromise and conciliation for the sake of national unity.

On November 28th, 1960 Mauritania became independent from France. The country remained divided by the blacks who despised the Maure domination of the government. This led to the imposition of Arabic as the language of instruction in the country’s schools.

In 1975 Mauritania allied with Morocco against the Western Sahara army, the Polisario, in a war over the southern third of Western Sahara’s land called the Tiris al-Gharbia. After realizing the desert land was of no real use to them and Polisario’s attacks on Mauritania’s iron ore mines and the capital, the government continued the fight to the delight of the Maures. The blacks however opposed the war because they saw how it affected the agriculture in the south due to money spent on a hopeless fight and because the Maures used their higher ranking in the military as a way into the government creating further imbalances. After a change in prime minister the war ended with the signing of a peace treaty with Polisario and the country withdrawing from Tiris al-Gharbia

Slavery is abolished in 1980 with Lieutenant Colonel Haidalla as head of the government. Although this official, slavery is still practiced in small rural towns and areas with low population.
In 1986 the Forces de Liberation Africaine de Mauritanie (FLAM) published the Manifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanian. It accuses the white (minority) population of suppressing the black population. The government reaction to this rebuttal was the arrest of thirty FLAM members, charging them with “sowing hatred and confusion” which was “undermining the values and foundations of society”. Three were found guilty of attempting to over-through the government and were executed on December 3, 1987.

In 1989 the tension between Mauritania and Senegal over land grew. 200 Senegalese were killed by Mauritanian border guards. After which all Senegalese where expelled from the country with 50 000 black Mauritanians. Senegal then expelled 240 000 white Mauritanians from their country after looting and riots began in the border towns and cities of Senegal.

THE GAIN OF INDEPENDENCE

In 1958 the French Fifth Republic was established and required France to create a new constitution which included becoming an independent member of the French Community. At the same time the people of Mauritania adopted the same idea. The idea of this quickly lost its appeal when a nationalistic movement swept across the whole African continent. When the Islamic Republic of Mauritania was created in October 1958, the Territorial Assembly changed its name to the Constituent Assembly and began to work on a draft of a national constitution immediately. The draft was unanimously approved by the Constituent Assembly and on November 28, 1960 Mauritania became its own country.

In August 1961 elections where held and Daddah won and became the new head of government. In accordance to the new government’s objectives, Daddah was to include two blacks in his cabinet. The National Assembly was head by black and was comprised of ten blacks and twenty Maures. This was in attempt to bring the two groups together in unity.

GOVERNMENT

Zeine Ould Zeidane is the current prime minister of Mauritania. He was elected on April 20, 2007. He is the youngest person to campaign for prime minister in Mauritania. Being a new prime minister he has not made any changes to the country presently.

Before Zeidane, Sidi Mohamed Ould Boubacar was the prime minister from August 7, 2005 until April 20, 2007. Boubacar was part of the Parti Republicain Democratique et Renouvellement (PRDR). This party was originally in support of former president Taya and his pro-Israeli stance but the party has changed opinions on the stance since the mid 2006 military campaign in Lebanon. In legislative elections in October 2001 that party won 64 out of 81 seats. These elections were deemed injustice and not free.


ECONOMIC RESOURCES AND CHALLENGES

The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in $345 but it is believed to be higher due to extensive smuggling in and out of the country. The total GDP of the country is $1 billion. Half of the population in Mauritania is below the poverty level and the unemployment rate is 21%.

Mauritania largely depends on agriculture and the raising of livestock as a resource. Through 1970 and 1980 Mauritania had recurrent droughts causing the farmers to move to the cities in hopes of finding a better way of life. Almost 50 percent of the country exports are made up of iron ore which is found in great quantity but the demands for this is declining and cut backs are made to production. Mines have also been built in the inside of the country for gold and copper because of the rise in metal prices. The country’s coastal waters are some of the riches fishing areas in the world. Sadly this great revenue is being threatened by the overexploitation by foreigners. Countries like Korean and Japan have exploited the country's fish exports by paying less than a proper price. The country opened its first deep water port in 1986 near the capital of Nouakchott. In the more recent history, drought and mismanagement of the country's economics has caused the country's $1.6 billion in foreign debt. In an attempt to fix this, the government has signed an agreement with the World Bank to better the country's economic structure.

DEMOGRAPHIC STATISTICS


Capital: Nouakchott

Official Languages: Standard Arabic
Hassaniya
French

Currency Ouguiya

Area: 1 030 700 km

Water 0.03% of area

Population: 3 069 000 (2005)
1 864 236 (1988)

Density: 3 people per kilometer

Male life expectancy: 50.5 years

Female life expectancy: 55 years

Independence date: November 28, 1960