Between the third and seventh centuries A.D., Berber and Arab migrants arrived in what is now present-day Mauritania and displaced the original inhabitants.
The Empire of Ghana had its capital anchored in what is now Southwest Mauritania during the ninth and 10th centuries A.D.
In 1076, Berber Almoravid warriors defeated the Empire of Ghana.
In the 1500s the first European traders and fishermen established settlements on Mauritania’s shores.
Arab warriors fought the Berbers for 30 years – from 1644 to 1674 and finally took control.
In 1898 France won the allegiance of the Moors after beginning to take control of Southern Mauritania starting the the 1850s.
In 1920 Mauritania became a part of French West Africa and it was administered from Senegal.
Following the end of World War I and the re-division of Africa to the Allies, Mauritania again became known as a French overseas territory.
In 1958 France turned control of Mauritania’s government over to its people and the country became self-governing.
Full independence from France came Nov. 28, 1960. That same year, Mauritania made territorial claims on neighboring Spanish Sahara, which had been controlled by Spain.
In 1873 Mauritania joined the Arab League.
Following the full departure of Spain, in 1976 Mauritania and Morocco divided up Spanish Sahara. Guerrillas fighters, however, had another aim and wanted to establish their own independent state. The result is that they fought the military in both countries.
From 1978 onward Mauritania experienced a succession of military coups with one leader after another deposed. All but one were more or less dictators. In August 2008, the military ousted President Sidi Mohamed Ould Cheikh Abdallahi — Mauritania’s first and only democratically elected leader.
Mauritania has a strong connection to al-Qaeda these days and the terror organization has been waging war in the country since late 2007 when four French tourists where murdered in an attack. Al-Qaeda took credit for it. This was not the last time foreigners were targeted by the terrorist group in Mauritania.
