Market Overview

I Country history and economic development

4TH CENTURY A.D. The first centralized state in what becomes the Senegal region, the Tekrur kingdom, develops in the Senegal River valley.

1040. Zenaga Berbers from the north establish an Islamic monastery, probably along the Senegal River. The monastery subsequently became the base of the Almoravids, who converted many of the region's people to Islam.

13TH CENTURY. The Tekrur kingdom falls under the dominance of the Mali Empire, which is centered to the east. During the same period, the Jolof kingdom arises on the northwestern savanna, conquering the Wolof inhabitants. Thereafter, various Muslim states and kingdoms rise and fall in the northern grasslands and central savannas of present-day Senegal, contributing to a tradition of centralized states and rigid social hierarchies.

1444. Portuguese navigators become the first Europeans known to visit the area of present-day Senegal and Gambia. Until the end of the 16th century, the Senegambian region is the most important source of slaves for the transatlantic slave trade.

1659. The French establish a slave-trading post on the island of Saint-Louis at the mouth of the Senegal River, while the British establish a base around the Gambia River. These divisions later result in the independent nations of English-speaking Gambia and French-speaking Senegal.

1840s. Peanuts become the major trade commodity of interest for the French operating in Senegambia. In the coming decades France conquers the Wolof and Serer states in order to exert greater control over the peanut trade.

1886. With the decisive conquest of Cayor State, the French more or less control all of present-day Senegal, with the exception of the Casamance, which was not fully subjugated until the 1920s.

1890-1919. Beginning in the 1890s, a Senegalese urban elite that identifies with French culture and customs develops. In 1914, these elites are given the vote, and the urban