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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Mauritania
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Country in NW Africa, bordered to the NE by
Algeria, E and S by Mali, SW by Senegal, W by
the Atlantic Ocean, and NW by Western Sahara.
government The 1961 constitution was
suspended 1978 after a coup, and was replaced
by a charter that gave executive and
legislative power to a Military Committee for
National Recovery (CMRN), which in 1979
became the Military Committee for National
Salvation (CMSN). The chair of the CMSN is
also president of the republic, prime
minister, and minister of defence. The only
political party, the Mauritanian People's
Party (PPM), was banned 1978 and some of its
exiled supporters now operate from Paris
through the Alliance for a Democratic
Mauritania (AMI), or from Dakar, in Senegal,
through the Organization of Nationalist
Mauritanians. history Mauritania was the name
of the Roman province of NW Africa, after the
Mauri, a Berber people who inhabited it.
Berbers occupied the region during the
1st-3rd centuries AD, and it came under the
control of the Ghana Empire in the 7th-11th
centuries. The Berbers were converted to
Islam from the 8th century, and Islamic
influence continued to dominate as the area
was controlled by the Almoravids and then the
Arabs. French influence began in the 17th
century, with the trade in gum arabic, and
developed into colonization by the mid-18th
century, when France gained control of S
Mauritania. In 1920 Mauritania became a
French colony as part of French West Africa.
It achieved internal self-government within
the French Community 1958 and full
independence 1960. Moktar Ould Daddah, leader
of the PPM, became president 1961. In 1975
Spain ceded Western Sahara to Mauritania and
Morocco, leaving them to decide how to share
it. Without consulting the Saharan people,
Mauritania occupied the southern area,
leaving the north to Morocco. A resistance
movement developed against this occupation,
the Popular Front for Liberation, or the
Polisario Front, with Algerian backing, and
Mauritania and Morocco found themselves
engaged in a guerrilla war, forcing the two
former rivals into a mutual defence pact. The
conflict weakened Mauritania's economy and in
1978 President Daddah was deposed in a
bloodless coup led by Col Mohamed Khouna Ould
Haidalla. Peace with the Polisario was
eventually agreed in Aug, allowing diplomatic
relations with Algeria to be restored. In Dec
1984, while Col Haidalla was attending a
Franco-African summit meeting in Burundi, Col
Moaouya Ould Sidi Ahmed Taya, a former prime
minister, led a bloodless coup to overthrow
him. Diplomatic relations with Morocco were
broken 1981 and the situation worsened 1984
when Mauritania formally recognized the
Polisario regime in Western Sahara. Normal
relations were restored 1985. During 1989
there were a number of clashes with
Senegalese in border areas and the presidents
of the two countries met to try to resolve
their differences.