History, French Rule

Under Captain Louis Faidherbe, and his successors after the mid-19th century, French control of the Wolof, Serer, and Tukolor states was forcefully extended and consolidated. In 1895 Senegal officially was made a French colony, administered from Saint-Louis. In 1902 government headquarters was shifted to Dakar, which was also the capital of French West Africa. The French developed Senegal’s economy around the cultivation of peanuts for export.

Along with French residents, the black Africans of Saint-Louis and Goree (an island near Dakar) had elected a deputy to the French National Assembly during the period from 1848 to 1852 and again after 1871, when they were joined by the inhabitants of Dakar and Rufisque. In 1914 the first black African, Blaise Diagne, was elected to the French Parliament, and he served until 1934. After World War II (1939-1945) a territorial assembly was established in Senegal, and citizens of the entire colony were enfranchised. Local politics were dominated by Lamine Gueye and Leopold Sedar Senghor, the deputies to the French Parliament.