Biographical Note
The fossil record indicates that Senegal has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Period by a number of empires. The first significant European settlement in Senegal was established around 1444 by Portuguese traders; their trading sites on Gorée Island and the coast were later dominated by the Dutch, and then the French in the 17th century.
Following the transfer to French control in 1677, Gorée and Saint-Louis became economic centers where French trading companies purchased enslaved people, gold, and gum arabic. This colonial economy was disrupted by two periods of British occupation before 1816, and in 1848 when the Second Republic outlawed slavery.
In 1854, the occupying French military clashed with al-Ḥājj ʿUmar Tal, the ruler of the Tukulor empire who had conquered numerous local states and kingdoms but had lost control of his homeland to the Europeans. A truce was reached in 1857, though the French continued to exploit regional politics after ʿUmar Tal’s death in 1864. By 1865, the territory of present-day Senegal was almost totally under French control and a highly profitable colony. The French government continued absorbing neighboring regions and colonies into its sphere of influence, building extensive railroads, granting certain colonies French citizenship, and establishing authoritative control over indigenous chiefs. In 1914, African electors sent Blaise Diagne as their deputy to the National Assembly in Paris, where he obtained full French citizenship for African soldiers who volunteered to fight in World War I. During World War II, these citizenships were revoked under the wartime Vichy government, then restored under the Fourth Republic in 1947.
After WWI, Senegalese citizens began agitating for independence and eventually claimed it in 1960. The early years of independence saw Senegal experience severe economic fluctuations and political instability.