HISTORY
From the 3rd to 7th centuries,
the migration of Berber tribes from North Africa displaced the
Bafours, the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania and
the ancestors of the Soninke. Continued Arab-Berber migration
drove indigenous black Africans south to the Senegal River or
enslaved them. By 1076, Islamic warrior monks (Almoravid or Al
Murabitun) completed the conquest of southern Mauritania, defeating
the ancient Ghana empire. Over the next 500 years, Arabs overcame
fierce Berber resistance to dominate Mauritania. The Mauritanian
Thirty-Year War (1644-74) was the unsuccessful final Berber effort
to repel the Maqil Arab invaders led by the Beni Hassan tribe.
The descendants of Beni Hassan warriors became the upper stratum
of Moorish society. Berbers retained influence by producing the
majority of the region's Marabouts--those who preserve and teach
Islamic tradition. Hassaniya, a mainly oral Berber-influenced
Arabic dialect which derives its name from the Beni Hassan tribe,
became the dominant language among the largely nomadic population.
Aristocrat and servant castes developed, yielding "white" (aristocracy)
and "black" Moors (the enslaved indigenous class).
French colonization at the
beginning of the 20th century brought legal prohibitions against
slavery and an end to interclan warfare. During the colonial period,
the population remained nomadic, but sedentary black Africans,
whose ancestors had been expelled centuries earlier by the Moors,
began to trickle back into southern Mauritania. As the country
gained independence in 1960, the capital city Nouakchott was founded
at the site of a small colonial village, the Ksar, and 90% of
the population was still nomadic. With independence, larger numbers
of ethnic Sub-Saharan Africans (Haalpulaar, Soninke, and Wolof)
entered Mauritania, moving into the area north of the Senegal
River. Educated in French language and customs, many of these
recent arrivals became clerks, soldiers, and administrators in
the new state.
Moors reacted to this change by trying to Arabicize much of Mauritanian life, such as law and language. A schism developed between those who considered Mauritania to be an Arab country (mainly Moors) and those who sought a dominant role for the Sub-Saharan peoples. The discord between these two conflicting visions of Mauritanian society was evident during intercommunal violence that broke out in April 1989 (the "1989 Events").
The country's first president, Moktar Ould Daddah, served from independence until ousted in a bloodless coup on July 10, 1978. Mauritania was under military rule from 1978 to 1992, when the country's first multi-party elections were held following the July 1991 approval by referendum of a constitution.
The Democratic and Social Republican Party (PRDS), led by President Maaouiya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, dominated Mauritanian politics from April 1992 until he was overthrown in August 2005. President Taya, who won elections in 1992 and 1997, first became chief of state through a December 12, 1984 bloodless coup which made him chairman of the committee of military officers that governed Mauritania from July 1978 to April 1992. A group of current and former Army officers launched a bloody but unsuccessful coup attempt on June 8, 2003.
On November 7, 2003, Mauritania's third presidential election since adopting the democratic process in 1992 took place. Incumbent President Taya was reelected. Several opposition groups alleged that the government had used fraudulent means to win the elections, but did not elect to pursue their grievances via available legal channels. The elections incorporated safeguards first adopted in 2001 municipal elections--published voter lists and hard-to-falsify voter identification cards.
On August 3, 2005, President Taya was deposed in a bloodless coup. Military commanders, led by Colonel Ely Ould Mohammed Fal (alternative spelling: Vall) seized power while President Taya was attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia's King Fahd. Colonel Fal established the ruling Military Council for Justice and Democracy to run the country. The council dissolved the Parliament and appointed a transitional government. The Transitional Government quickly established a timetable for the establishment of democratic rule within two years’ time that led to successful parliamentary elections in November 2006 and presidential elections in March 2007. A new democratically elected government under President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi was inaugurated on April 19, 2007.
