By: Julianna Witt

COUNTRY	POPULATION	SIZE (square miles)	POPULATION DENSITY (# of people per square mile)
USA	301,139,947	3,539,225	85
SENEGAL	12,521,851	74,131	169

 A BRIEF HISTORY OF SENEGAL

            In 1617, The French made their first permanent colony.  The French did not enslave the Senegalese, although they were viewed as non-valuable people when France declared Senegal as their own in 1840. From then until 1848, the French tried to educate the Africans in the French language, arts, and culture, trying to eventually convert the colony into a regular French society.  However, this didn’t go over without resistance from Muslim leaders. Since this country is over 80% Muslim, that’s bad.

            Then, in 1852, a man named Louis Faidherbe eliminated resistance towards the French rule, extended French land, created a French newspaper, and founded the Bank of Senegal. Faidherbe was a big influence in turning Senegal into a proper French speaking colony. In 1889, Britain gained control of the Gambia River Valley, and by 1900, the French territory extended to Niger.

            In 1959, Senegal decided to become part of French Sudan to form the Federation of Mali. This was an independence of a sort, but two months later, the Federation broke apart and Senegal declared its own independence as the Republic of Senegal. After they gained that independence, not everyone was happy. Many violent protests took place, but eventually, they were controlled.

            Further problems arose, mostly involving farmers. In the 1970s, farmers didn’t plant groundnuts because of drought (lack of water) and the value of groundnuts going down tremendously. Farmers also avoided fixed prices that were paid for by Senegal’s government in 1984 and they were exporting products in a way that was breaking the law. Right now, Senegal is having trouble with their current president. President Wade apparently promised so many problems would be gone—he promised that years ago, and very few problems have been fixed. If Senegal hadn’t been colonized by the French, it would probably be behind in technology, and might not have as good a government. Over all, French colonization was an important and useful thing that happened to Senegal.