|RConstitution:|N Republic. Military rules by decree.
|RNational holiday:|N Independence Day, November 28.
|RNature and climate:|N Low plains of billowing sand-dunes. Small area around the Senegal River in the south is fertile and forested.
Average temperature between 19 and 22°C in January and between 23 and 35°C in July.
Percipitation about 50 mm in the north and in the interior and about 200 mm in the south.
|RPeople:|N 40% mixed Moor/black, 30% Moor and 30% black.
|REconomy:|N 47% of the labour force is occupied in agriculture, 29% in services and 14% in industry and trade.
Before the severe droughts in the 1970:s and 1980:s most Mauritanians were nomads or subsistence farmers. Today most people are forced into towns.
Most important crops are gum arabic, cereals, vegetables and dates.
Traditionally stockraizing is important but increasing desertification makes the herds smaller.
The sea off the coast is very rich on fish. The fishindustry has been developed in the last decades.
Mauritania have iron ore, copper, phosphate and gypsum.
Manufacturing is almost negligible.
|RHistory:|N Formerly northern Mauritania belonged to Morocco and the southern parts belonged to the realms of Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
In the Tidra islands, off the northern Mauritanian coast, a puritanical Muslim sect arouse in the 11th century. Between 1054 and 1086 they conquered Ghana, Morocco, Western Algeria and Spain, but were in turn, overthrown in the next century.
Portuguese traders visited the coast from the early 15th century and about 1600 British, French and Dutch began to contest the Portuguese.
In 1903 Mauritania was made a French protectorate and in 1920 a French colony.
In 1958 Mauritania became a self-governing part of France and received full independence in 1960.
When Spain in 1976 left Spanish (Western) Sahara, Mauritania annexed the southern part of the area.
After years of fighting against the Polisario liberation front in Sahara, Mauritania in 1979 relinquished its claims.
In 1978 the president was ousted in a military coup, but in 1986 regional and local elections were held as a first step towards democracy.
In 1989 there were border incidents between Mauritania and Senegal and 40000 Senegaleze workers were expelled by Mauritania. On the whole, racial and religious strife has always been a hard burden for Mauritania.
