The French colonies of Senegal and the French Sudan were merged in 1959 and granted their independence as the Mali Federation in 1960. The union broke up after only a few months. Senegal joined with The Gambia to form the nominal confederation of Senegambia in 1982. The envisaged integration of the two countries was never carried out, and the union was dissolved in 1989. The Movement of Democratic Forces in the Casamance (MFDC) has led a low-level separatist insurgency in southern Senegal since the 1980s, and several peace deals have failed to resolve the conflict. Nevertheless, Senegal remains one of the most stable democracies in Africa. Senegal was ruled by a Socialist Party for 40 years until current President Abdoulaye Wade was elected in 2000. He was reelected in February 2007 and has amended Senegal's constitution over a dozen times to increase executive power and to weaken the opposition, part of the President's increasingly autocratic governing style. Senegal has a long history of participating in international peacekeeping and regional mediation.
The fossil record tells us that Senegal has been continuously inhabited for more than 150 000 years. Paleolithic and Neolithic axes and arrows have been found near Dakar, and stone circles, as well as copper and iron objects, have been found in the Sine-Saloum region.
The first political structure to be established on the northern bank of the Senegal River is believed to be the Soninke kingdom of Ghana/Wagadu from the 4th century. The Tukolor settled in the Senegal River valley in the 9th century, and from the 10th to 14th century their strong state of Tekrur dominated the valley. The Tukolor were converted to Islam in the mid-11th century. A group of them participated in establishing the Almoravid state, centered in Morocco. In the 14th century. The Mali empire expanded westward from the region of the upper Niger River and conquered Tekrur. In the 15th century the Wolof established the Jolof empire in the region between the Senegal and the Siné rivers. Jolof was made up of a number of states including Wolof, Cayor, Baol, and Walo. In the 17th century internal rivalries led to its breakup.
From the mid-15th century, the development of the Atlantic trade placed new opportunities (horses, firearms, better terms of trade) into the hands of coastal peoples who emancipated themselves from the dominant inland empires. For example, at the beginning of the 16th century Waalo, Baol, Cayor and Fuuta Tooro broke ties with Jolof and became independent. English, French, Dutch and Curlanders followed Portuguese sailors and traders in a fierce competition for slaves, hides, cotton fabrics, gold and ivory. The forts and ports of Goree, Saint-Louis, Albreda and Saint-James were the main centers of the transactions. Such competition prevailed also between Senegambian kings. Slave raiding and trading were the major source of revenue, leading to a militarization process which promoted widespread violence in the region. The Muslim leader attempted to fight against this, but were unsuccessful, They faced opposition from the traditional animist religions and rampant colonial domination.
For a vessel sailing down the west coast of Africa, the mouth of the Senegal river offers the first refreshing welcome after the parched territory of the western Sahara. Further south, round the difficult promontory of Cape Verde, is the even more enticing estuary of the Gambia. Here the channel is sufficiently broad and deep to carry even modern ocean-going vessels as far as 150 miles inland.
From the moment when Europeans begin exploring these regions, in the 15th century, these two great rivers attracted their attention. For a century and more the Portuguese virtually had them to themselves. They reached the Senegal in 1444 and the Gambia in 1455.
In the 17th century the French and the British, by now imperial rivals, developed an interest in the two rivers. The French established a trading station at the mouth of the Senegal in 1638. In 1659 they moved it to St Louis, a more secure island. In 1677 they seized (from the Dutch) the island of Gorée, little more than a large rock off Cape Verde but of great value as a defensible trading station at this pivotal point on the coast.
Meanwhile the British were concentrating their efforts on the Gambia. In 1661 Fort James was built on an island some seventeen miles upstream.
In the 1680s the French sent a detachment from Gorée to establish a distinctly provocative settlement at Albreda on the north bank of the river opposite Fort James.
France and Britain were at this time on the verge of a century and a half of almost continuous warfare against each other. The fortified settlements in Africa changed hands between the two nations again and again during the 18th century. The end result, by the mid-19th century, was that Britain was the established European power on the Gambia, with the valuable addition of Bathurst (now known as Banjul). This island in the mouth of the river was used from 1816 as a base against the slave trade.
Balancing this, France had the Senegal and the important outpost of Gorée between the two rivers. Moreover, the French were much more ambitious than the British in pressing inland. They established a station at Médine, far up the Senegal, in the 1850s. In 1883 a French expedition reached Bamako on the Niger. They effectively outflanked the British, who restricted their interests to the banks of the Gambia.
As a result, when the Scramble for Africa began in 1884, the British were at a disadvantage. When boundaries were agreed upon between the two nations, in 1889, Britain secured only a narrow strip along each bank of the Gambia. This territory is (still) entirely surrounded by French Senegal.
Nothing signifies the colonial designs of the European powers like the Scramble for Africa. It was also known as the Race for Africa, and was a process of invasion, attack, occupation, and annexation of African territory by European powers between 1881 and World War I in 1914.
As a result of the heightened tension between European states in the last quarter of the 19th century, the partitioning of Africa may be seen as a way for the Europeans to eliminate the threat of a Europe-wide war over Africa. Europe had a historical model to work from: the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 and the Treaty of Zaragoza of 1529 both divided the New World between two colonial powers, thereby sparing those nations the expense of a prolonged fight.
The last half of the nineteenth century saw European interest in Africa transition from the "informal imperialism" of control through military influence and economic dominance to that of direct rule. Attempts to mediate imperial competition, such as the Berlin Conference (1884-1885), failed to establish definitively the competing powers' claims.
Many African polities, states and rulers (such as the Ashanti, the Abyssinians, the Moroccans and the Dervishes) sought to resist this wave of European aggression. However, the industrial revolution had provided the European armies with advanced weapons such as machine guns, which African armies found difficult to resist. Also, unlike their European counterparts, African rulers, states and people did not at first form a continental united front although within a few years, a Pan-African movement did emerge.
The establishment of Senegal as a French colony was merely one part of the French colonial effort in west Africa during the 1880s and 1890s. By 1895 there were no fewer than six French colonies in the region, covering a vast unbroken stretch of the continent. In that year they were grouped together as French West Africa.
Among them Senegal was the colony with the strongest French presence. Dakar, founded by the French in 1857 on the mainland opposite the island of Gorée, became the capital of the territory in 1902 (succeeding St Louis in this role). Senegal therefore remained at the center of France's west African empire, until all the separate colonies won their independence in 1960.
The first president of independent Senegal, after the dissolution of French West Africa, was an experienced and distinguished politician within the French system. Léopold Senghor has been a socialist deputy for Senegal in the national assembly in Paris since 1946, and had played a part in drafting de Gaulle's new constitution of 1958.
In 1963 he provided Senegal with a constitution, modelled to some extent on de Gaulle's, with executive powers in the hands of the president. Senghor himself remained in office until resigning at the end of 1980. He was succeeded as president by Abdou Diouf (who remained in power until 2000).
In 1966 the Senegalese Progressive Union (UPS), headed by Senghor, became the country's only political party, and he was reelected overwhelmingly in 1968 and 1973. From mid-1960s, however, there was considerable unrest in the country, caused by dissatisfaction with the growing concentration of power in Senghor's hands and by a declining economic situation resulting from lower world prices for peanuts and reduced aid from France. The economic situation was worsened by a long-term drought in the Sahel region of North Senegal that lasted from the late 1960s into the mid-1970s. Major demonstrations and strikes became an almost annual occurrence and were particularly disruptive in 1968, 1971, and 1973.
Senghor was a leading force in establishing (1974) the West African Economic Community, which linked six former French territories. Throughout the 1970s, Senghor continued to consolidate power in the presidency and strengthened relations with the country's Muslim leadership. In 1978, the government mandated a three-party system based on official ideological categories; a fourth party was legalized in 1979. Despite the institution of a system that effectively banned Senghor's opponents from the political process, opposition from unofficial political organizations grew steadily.
In 1976 Senghor authorized the formation of two opposition parties, and in 1978 the first multiparty elections were held. However, the opposition party is always in a weak position, and can mount no real challenges to Senghor's ruling party.
In 1981, Senghor, who remained head of the Socialist party (SP), yielded the presidency to Abdou Diouf. Senghor's political legacy was mixed. He provided the nation with a level of peace, political stability, tolerance, and freedom of expression that was rare in Africa. Unlike most African leaders, he knew when and how to give up power. However, by establishing a de facto one-party system, he contributed to the decline of his party's dynamism and thwarted the development of an opposition that could openly challenge national policies that had failed to stem economic decline.
After a successful Senegalese intervention in a coup attempt in The Gambia, both countries officially proclaimed their union in a Senegambian confederation. Each nation was to maintain its sovereignty while consolidating their defense, economies, and foreign relations. In response to mounting criticism of his regime, Diouf abolished government limits on the number of political parties. Deteriorating economic conditions led the government to adopt unpopular austerity measures, causing unrest in both rural and urban areas. The government subsequently strengthened the police force and restored some restrictions on political activity.
The elections of 1988, in which Diouf was reelected amid charges of fraud, took a violent turn, leading the regime to ban all public meetings. Two diplomatic crises arose in 1989: a maritime border dispute with Guinea-Bissau (later resolved by the International Court of Justice in favor of Senegal) and a violent dispute with Mauritania that evolved from a conflict over grazing rights in S Mauritania. In the same year, the confederation with The Gambia was dissolved.
Diouf was again elected in 1993. Legislative elections held in 1998 were won by the SP, as were elections for the newly created senate in 1999. Opposition parties boycotted the senate election. In the presidential elections in early 2000, however, Abdoulaye Wade of the Senegalese Democratic party defeated Diouf after a runoff; Wade's election ended nearly 40 years of Socialist rule in Senegal.
In January 2001, a new constitution was adopted, establishing a unicameral parliament and reducing the president's term to five years.
Casamance, an undeveloped region south of Gambia and centered on the Casamance River, has been the scene of a violent separatist movement. An agreement with the rebels was signed in March 2001, but the accord failed to end the fighting. In April, a coalition supporting President Wade won a majority in the national assembly. On December 30, 2004 President Abdoulaye Wade announced that he would sign a peace treaty with the separatist group in the Casamance region. This was supposed to end West Africa's longest-running civil war, but not all rebel factions supported the pact. An unofficial cease-fire has remained largely in effect since 2012.
Wade was reelected in 2007 and during his two terms amended Senegal's constitution over a dozen times to increase executive power and weaken the opposition. His decision to run for a third presidential term sparked a large public backlash that led to his defeat in a March 2012 runoff with Macky Sall, whose term runs until 2019. A 2016 constitutional referendum reduced the term to five years with a maximum of two consecutive terms for future presidents.