made contact with the coastal kingdoms, which was to last through the 16th century. They were displaced by the British, French and Dutch, who hoped to gain control of St-Louis and Gore Island, strategic points where slaves bound for the Americas could be collected. St-Louis was finally secured by the French in 1659. By the end of the 19th century, France controlled all of Senegal, and Dakar was built as the administrative centre. Senegal sent a deputy to the French parliament as early as 1848, but it wasn't until 1914 that the first African deputy, Blaise Diagne, was elected. He was followed by a new generation of black politicians led by Lamine Gueye and Leopold Senghor. In the run-up to independence, Senegal joined French Sudan to form the Federation of Mali. The federation gained independence in 1960 but broke up two months later. Senegal became a republic under the presidency of Leopold Senghor. At the end of 1980, Senghor stepped down as president. His place was taken by Abdou Diouf, whose first major crisis occurred in 1984, when it was discovered that an estimated 700,000 tonnes of groundnuts (about three times the official exported amount) had been smuggled into neighbouring countries by peasants unhappy with the fixed payments they received from the government. In 1989, a minor incident on the Senegal-Mauritania border led to serious riots in both countries in which many people died. Both countries deported thousands of the other's nationals (killing hundreds in the process), the border was closed and diplomatic relations were broken off until April 1992. In the early 1990s, there were serious clashes in the Casamance region between the army and separatist rebels. Quite apart from the suffering caused to the local people, the fighting severely affected Senegal's tourist industry. This compounded Senegal's already desperate financial situation. More violence occurred in Casamance and elsewhere in early 1993, following elections...
