VI.

History

Remnants of Stone Age cultures have been found in northern Mauritania. Berber nomads moved into the area in the 1st millennium ad and subjugated the indigenous black population. The newcomers belonged to the Sanhaja Confederation that long dominated trade between the northern parts of Africa and the kingdom of Ghana, the capital of which, Kumbi Saleh (Koumbi Saleh), was in southeastern Mauritania. Under Almoravid leadership, the Sanhaja razed Kumbi Saleh in 1076, although Ghana survived until the early 13th century. The Berbers, in turn, were conquered by Arabs in the 16th century. The descendants of the Arabs became the upper stratum of Mauritanian society, and Arabic gradually displaced Berber dialects as the language of the country. French forces, moving up the Sénégal River, made the area a French protectorate by 1905 and a colony in 1920. In 1946 Mauritania became an overseas territory of the French Union. Under French occupation, slavery was legally abolished.

The Islamic Republic of Mauritania was proclaimed on November 28, 1958, under the constitution of the Fifth French Republic, and on November 28, 1960, it became fully independent. It joined the United Nations in 1961. That same year Moktar Ould Daddah was elected its first president; he was reelected in 1966, 1971, and 1976.

Mauritania was severely affected by a drought in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Nevertheless, its economy expanded as newly discovered iron and copper deposits were exploited. In 1976 it annexed the southern third of adjacent Spanish Sahara (see Western Sahara), which at that time was ceded by Spain; Morocco received the rest of the territory. A Saharan nationalist movement, the Polisario Front, seeking to make the Western Sahara an independent nation, weakened Mauritania with guerrilla warfare. In July 1978, President Daddah was ousted in a coup led by Lieutenant Colonel Mustafa Ould Salek. After he was replaced by another army officer, Mohamed Ould Louly, Mauritania agreed, in August 1979, to withdraw from the Western Sahara.

Another change of leadership occurred in 1980, when the prime minister, Mohamed Ould Haidalla, assumed the presidency. He subjected the nation to strict enforcement of Islamic law. Haidalla survived a coup in 1981 but was deposed by his chief of staff, Colonel Maaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, in 1984.

A.

Taya’s Years in Power

Tensions with Senegal in 1989 resulted in the repatriation of 100,000 Mauritanian nationals from Senegal and the repatriation or expulsion of 125,000 Senegalese nationals from Mauritania. Faced with rising domestic pressures and international criticism of his human rights record, Taya implemented a new constitution and legalized opposition parties in 1991. He was elected executive president in 1992. Opposition parties claimed the vote was rigged, charges that were repeated when Taya was reelected in 1997.

Starting in the mid-1990s, Taya sought to limit the influence of Islamist groups in Mauritania and improve relations with Israel and Western powers. Mauritania established full diplomatic relations with Israel in 1999, becoming one of only a few Arab states to do so. The 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (see U.S.-Iraq War) sparked widespread protests and popular unrest in Mauritania. The government responded by cracking down on pro-Iraqi and Islamist political groups. Taya survived a coup attempt in June 2003 and was reelected in a disputed election in November.

B.

Military Coup

A military coup in August 2005 ousted Taya while he was out of the country attending the funeral of Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd. Many Mauritanians welcomed the coup, which ended Taya’s repressive regime of 21 years. The Military Council for Justice and Democracy declared it would rule the country for a two-year transition period but promised to relinquish power following democratic elections. The leader of the coup and president of the military council, Colonel Ely Ould Mohamed Vall, had been the head of national security. Analysts said Taya had alienated many Islamic leaders in the country by establishing diplomatic relations with Israel and dealing harshly with his political opponents. Former president Mohamed Ould Haidalla, who had ruled Mauritania by strict Islamic law, was among 200 people who were put on trial in early 2005 for allegedly fomenting coup attempts against Taya.

C.

Democratic Elections

In June 2006 Mauritania held a referendum on amendments to the 1991 constitution. Mauritanians voted overwhelmingly to limit the president’s mandate to two five-year terms. (The constitution had allowed the president to serve an indefinite number of six-year terms.)

Mauritania held its first fully democratic elections since independence with voting in November and December 2006 for a new National Assembly. No single party or coalition won an absolute majority in the elections. The Coalition of Forces for Democratic Change, comprising the Rally of Democratic Forces and other parties that had formerly opposed Taya, won 41 of the 95 seats. Independent candidates won 39 seats, the Renewed Republican Democratic Party (formerly Taya’s ruling Democratic and Social Republican Party) won 7, and smaller parties won the remainder. Many Islamist candidates stood as independents because Islamist parties and movements were banned. Members of the military junta were also banned from contesting the elections.

Presidential elections followed in March 2007, as the final phase in the transition to civilian and democratic rule. The independent candidate, Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi, won the runoff election with 53 percent of the vote against Ahmed Ould Daddah, leader of the Rally of Democratic Forces. Abdallahi, a former minister in Taya’s government, was considered the favorite candidate of the military. An election observation mission of the European Union (EU) determined that Mauritania’s historic elections were free and fair.