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Mauritania
Index
In 1901 the French government adopted a plan of "peaceful
penetration" for the administrative organization of areas then
under Maure suzerainty. The plan's author was Xavier Coppolani, a
Corsican brought up in Algeria, who was sent to Mauritania as a
delegate from the French government. Coppolani set up a policy
not only to divide, weaken, and pacify the Maures but also to
protect them. Although he served in Mauritania for only four
years (1901-05), the French called Coppolani the father of the
French colony of Mauritania, and the Maures knew him as the
"Pacific Conqueror" of the territory.
During this period, there were three
marabouts (see Glossary)
of great influence in Mauritania: Shaykh Sidiya Baba, whose
authority was strongest in Trarza, Brakna, and Tagant; Shaykh
Saad Bu, whose importance extended to Tagant and Senegal; and
Shaykh Ma al Aynin, who exerted leadership in Adrar and the
north, as well as in Spanish Sahara and southern Morocco. By
enlisting the support of Shaykh Sidiya and Shaykh Saad against
the depredations of the warrior clans and in favor of a Pax
Gallica, Coppolani was able to exploit the fundamental conflicts
in Maure society. His task was made difficult by opposition from
the administration in Senegal, which saw no value in the
wastelands north of the Senegal River, and by the Saint Louis
commercial companies, to whom pacification meant the end of the
lucrative arms trade. Nevertheless, by 1904 Coppolani had
peacefully subdued Trarza, Brakna, and Tagant and had established
French military posts across the central region of southern
Mauritania.
As Faidherbe had suggested fifty years earlier, the key to
the pacification of Mauritania lay in the Adrar. There, Shaykh Ma
al Aynin had begun a campaign to counteract the influence of his
two rivals--the southern marabouts, Shaykh Sidiya and Shaykh
Saad--and to stop the advance of the French. Because Shaykh Ma al
Aynin enjoyed military as well as moral support from Morocco, the
policy of peaceful pacification gave way to active conquest. In
return for support, Shaykh Ma al Aynin recognized the Moroccan
sultan's claims to sovereignty over Mauritania, which formed the
basis for much of Morocco's claim to Mauritania in the late
twentieth century. In May 1905, before the French column could
set out for Adrar, Coppolani was killed in Tidjikdja.
With the death of Coppolani, the tide turned in favor of
Shaykh Ma al Aynin, who was able to rally many of the Maures with
promises of Moroccan help. The French government hesitated for
three years while Shaykh Ma al Aynin urged a jihad to drive the
French back across the Senegal. In 1908 a Colonel Gouraud, who
had defeated a resistance movement in the French Sudan (presentday Mali), took command of French forces as the government
commissioner of the new Civil Territory of Mauritania (created in
1904), captured Atar, and received the submission of all the
Adrar peoples the following year. By 1912 all resistance in Adrar
and southern Mauritania had been put down. As a result of the
conquest of Adrar, the fighting ability of the French was
established, and the ascendancy of the French-supported marabouts
over the warrior clans within Maure society was assured.
The fighting took a large toll on the animal herds of the
nomadic Maures, who sought to replenish their herds in the
traditional manner--by raiding other camps. From 1912 to 1934,
French security forces repeatedly thwarted such raids. The last
raid of the particularly troublesome and far-ranging northern
nomads, the Reguibat, occurred in 1934, covered a distance of
6,000 kilometers, and netted 800 head of cattle, 270 camels, and
10 slaves. Yet, except for minor raids and occasional attacks--
Port-Etienne (present-day Nouadhibou) was attacked in 1924 and
1927--the Maures generally acquiesced to French authority. With
pacification, the French acquired responsibility for governing
the vast territory of Mauritania.
Data as of June 1988
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