fco_332864 - AFRIQUE FRANÇAISE - SÉNÉGAL 50 Centimes Chambre de Commerce Dakar 1920

FRENCH AFRICA - SENEGAL

Senegal has always been an important commercial milestone since the end of the 14th century with the development of maritime construction (caravelle), an obligatory passage point for coasters to reach the Gulf of Guinea before rounding the Cape of Good Hope or leaving for the conquest of South America. A French colony since 1626, the French founded Saint-Louis there in 1638 and settled on the island of Gorée and Casamance. The region was often disputed with England and during the 18th century and the Napoleonic wars, Senegal was occupied by the English. Returned definitively to France by the treaties of Paris of 1814 and 1815, the colony underwent rapid development and Dakar was founded in 1854. Faidherbe, governor of Senegal, pacified the region by fighting the Moors and expelling the Toutcouleurs (1854- 1865). The pacification lasted until 1898. After independence, Léopold Sedar Senghor became President of the Republic of Senegal between 1960 and 1980.