Editing History of Senegal (section)

=={{anchor|French period}}Modern colonialism==
{{Main|French conquest of Senegal}}
[[File:Gorée-MaisonEsclaves1.jpg|thumb|Monument near the [[Maison des Esclaves]] on [[Gorée]] Island]]
[[File:St.LouisSenegal.jpg|thumb|[[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]] in 1780]]
[[File:SenegalHunting.jpg|thumb|French West Africa in 1890]]

Various European powers&nbsp;– Portugal, the Netherlands, and England&nbsp;– competed for trade in the area from the 15th century onward, until in 1677, France ended up in possession of what had become a minor slave trade departure point—the infamous island of [[Gorée]] next to modern [[Dakar]].<ref name="h-net.org">[http://www.h-net.org/~africa/threads/goree.html "Goree and the Atlantic Slave Trade", Philip Curtin, History Net] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402084801/https://www.h-net.org/~africa/threads/goree.html |date=2 April 2016 }}, accessed 9 July 2008.</ref><ref>''Les Guides Bleus: Afrique de l'Ouest''(1958 ed.), p. 123.</ref> In 1758 the French settlement was [[Capture of Senegal|captured by a British expedition]] as part of the [[Great Britain in the Seven Years' War|Seven Years' War]], but was later returned to France. It was only in the 1850s that the French, under the governor, [[Louis Faidherbe]], began to expand their foothold onto the Senegalese mainland, at the expense of the native kingdoms.

The [[Four Communes]] of [[Saint-Louis, Senegal|Saint-Louis]], [[Dakar]], [[Gorée]], and [[Rufisque]] were the oldest colonial towns in [[French West Africa|French controlled west Africa]]. In 1848, the [[French Second Republic]] extended the rights of full French citizenship to their inhabitants.  While those who were born in these towns could technically enjoy all the rights of native French citizens, substantial legal and social barriers prevented the full exercise of these rights, especially by those seen by authorities as full blooded Africans.

Most of the African population of these towns were termed ''originaires'': those Africans born into the commune, but who retained recourse to African and/or Islamic law (the so-called "personal status").  Those few Africans from the four communes who were able to pursue higher education and were willing to renounce their legal protections could "rise" to be termed [[Évolué]] ("Evolved") and were nominally granted full French citizenship, including the vote.  Despite this legal framework, Évolués still faced substantial discrimination in Africa and the [[Metropole]] alike.

On 27 April 1848, following the February revolution in France, a law was passed in Paris enabling the Four Communes to elect a Deputy to the French Parliament for the first time. On 2 April 1852 the parliamentary seat for Senegal was abolished by [[Napoleon III]]. Following the downfall of the [[French Second Empire]], the Four Communes was again allowed a parliamentary seat which was granted by law on 1 February 1871. On 30 December 1875 this seat was again abolished, but only for a few years as it was reinstated on 8 April 1879, and remained the single parliamentary representation from sub-Saharan Africa anywhere in a European legislature until the fall of the third republic in 1940.

It was only in 1916 that ''originaires'' were granted full voting rights while maintaining legal protections.  [[Blaise Diagne]], who was the prime advocate behind the change, was in 1914 the first African deputy elected to the [[French National Assembly]].  From that time until independence in 1960, the deputies of the Four Communes were always African, and were at the forefront of the [[decolonisation]] struggle.

===List of deputies elected to the French Parliament===

'''The [[French Second Republic]]''':
*[[Barthélémy Durand Valantin]] 1848–1850 (Mixed race)
*Vacant 1850–1852
*Abolished 1852–1871
[[File:Blaise Diagne-Dakar-1918.jpg|thumb|Arrival of [[Blaise Diagne]], Deputy for Senegal, High Commissioner of the Government for the recruitment of black troops in [[Dakar]] in March 1918]]

'''The [[French Third Republic]]''':
*[[Jean-Baptiste Lafon de Fongauffier]] 1871–1876 (Mixed race)
*Abolished 1876–1879
*[[Alfred Gasconi]] 1879–1889 (Mixed race)
*[[Aristide Vallon]] 1889–1893
*[[Jules Couchard]] 1893–1898
*[[Hector D'Agoult]] 1898–1902
*[[François Carpot]] 1902–1914 (Mixed race)
*[[Blaise Diagne]] 1914–1934 (African)
*[[Galandou Diouf]] 1934–1940 (African)

[[File:Flag of Senegal (1958–1959).svg|thumb|Flag of French Senegal (1958–1959)]]

'''1945–1959''':
*[[Amadou Lamine-Guèye|Amadou Lamine Guèye]] 1945–1951<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=4314 "Amadou Lamine-Gueye"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110923091150/http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=4314 |date=23 September 2011 }}, Assemblée nationale.</ref> (African)
*[[Léopold Sedar Senghor]] 1945–1959<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=6385 "Léopold Sédar Senghor"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120119171523/http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=6385 |date=19 January 2012 }}, Assemblée nationale.</ref> (African)
*[[Abbas Guèye]] 1951–1955<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=3642 "Abbas Gueye"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920230451/http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=3642 |date=20 September 2011 }}, Assemblée nationale.</ref> (African)
*[[Mamadou Dia]] 1956–1959<ref>[http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=2495 "Mamadou Dia"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121013055003/http://www.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche.asp?num_dept=2495 |date=13 October 2012 }}, Assemblée nationale.</ref> (African)

Following the 1945 elections to the Constituent Assembly in France, which were held with a very limited franchise, the French authorities gradually extended the franchise until—in November 1955—the principle of [[universal suffrage]] was passed into law and implemented the following year.  The first electoral contests held under universal suffrage were the municipal elections of November 1956. The first national contest was the 31 March 1957 election of the Territorial Assembly.<ref>*Chafer, Tony. ''The End of Empire in French West Africa: France's Successful Decolonization'', Berg (2002), p. 145. {{ISBN|1-85973-557-6}}</ref>