Editing History of Mauritania (section)

==Independence, Ould Daddah era, and the Saharan War==
{{More citations needed|date=November 2024}}
{{main|History of Mauritania (1960–78)}}
As the country gained Independence on November 28, 1960, the [[capital city]], [[Nouakchott]], was founded at the site of a small village founded during the colonial period, the Ksar, while 90% of the population was still [[nomad]]ic. With independence, larger numbers of ethnic [[Sub-Saharan Africa]]ns ([[Toucouleur people|Haalpulaar]], [[Soninke people|Soninke]], and [[Wolof people|Wolof]]) entered Mauritania, moving into the area north of the [[Senegal River]]. As before independence, the sedentary lifestyle of these groups made them more receptive to and useful in state formation, and they quickly came to dominate state administration, even if the Moorish groups built up by the French remained in charge of the political process. Moors reacted to this change by increasing pressures for [[Arabization]], to Arabicize many aspects of Mauritanian life, such as law and language, and ethnic tension built up – helped by a common memory of [[war]]fare and [[History of slavery|slave raids]].{{citation needed|date=November 2024}} 

[[List of heads of state of Mauritania|President]] [[Moktar Ould Daddah]], originally assisted to the post by the French, rapidly reformed Mauritania into an [[Authoritarianism|authoritarian]] [[one-party state]] in 1964, with his new [[Constitution of Mauritania|Mauritanian constitution]]. Daddah's own [[Mauritanian People's Party|''Parti du Peuple Mauritanien'']] (PPM) became the ruling organization. The President justified this decision on the grounds that he considered Mauritania unready for western-style [[multi-party system|multi-party democracy]]. Under this one-party constitution, Daddah was reelected in uncontested elections in 1966, 1971 and 1976. 

To take advantage of the country's sizable [[Iron|iron ore]] deposits in [[Zouérat]], the new Government built a 675-km railway and a [[mining]] port. Production began in 1963. The mines were operated by a foreign owned consortium that paid its approximately 3,000 expatriate workers handsomely – their salaries accounted for two-thirds of the country's entire wages bill. When the Mauritanian miners went on a two-month [[Strike action|strike]] in the late 1960s the [[Armed Forces of Mauritania|army]] intervened and eight miners were killed. [[Left-wing politics|Left-wing]] opposition to the government mounted and some miners formed a clandestine [[Marxism|Marxist]] union in 1973. President Ould Daddah survived the challenge from left-wing opponents by nationalizing the company in 1974 and withdrawing from the [[CFA franc|franc]] zone, substituting the [[Mauritanian ouguiya|ouguiya]] for the CFA. 

In 1975, partly for [[Nationalism|nationalist]] reasons and partly for fear of [[Greater Morocco|Moroccan expansionism]], [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0123)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917101939/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0123) |date=2008-09-17 }} Mauritania invaded and [[annexation|annexed]] the southern third of the former [[Spanish Sahara]] (now [[Western Sahara]]) in 1975, renaming it [[Tiris al-Gharbiyya]]. However, after nearly three years of raids by the [[Sahrawis|Sahrawi]] [[Guerrilla warfare|guerrillas]] of the [[Polisario Front]], Mauritania's economic and political stability began to crumble. Despite [[Opération Lamantin|French and Moroccan military aid]][http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0135)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917103646/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID%20mr0135%29 |date=2008-09-17 }}, Polisario raids against the Zouerate railway and mines threatened to bring about economic collapse, and there were deep misgivings in the military about the Saharan adventure. Ethnic unrest contributed to the disarray. Black Africans from the south were [[conscription|conscripted]] as front-line soldiers, after the northern Sahrawi minorities and their Moorish kin had proven unreliable in the fight against Polisario, but many of the southerners rebelled against having to fight what they considered an inter-Arab war. After the government quarters in Nouakchott had twice been shelled by Polisario forces, unrest simmered, but Daddah's only response was to further tighten his hold on power.

On July 10, 1978, [[Colonel|Col.]] [[Mustafa Ould Salek]] led a bloodless [[coup d'état]] that ousted the President, who would later go into exile in France. Power passed to the military strongmen of the [[Military Committee for National Recovery]] (CMRN). Polisario immediately declared a [[Ceasefire|cease-fire]], and peace negotiations began under the sponsorship of Polisario's main backer, [[Algeria]]. With the CMRN's leader reluctant to break with France and Morocco, the country refused to give in to Polisario demands for a troop retreat, and Ould Salek's careless handling of the ethnic issue (massively discriminating against Black Africans in nominating for government posts [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+mr0036)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080917103856/http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd%2Fcstdy%3A%40field%28DOCID%20mr0036%29 |date=2008-09-17 }}) contributed to further unrest. In early 1979, he was pushed aside by another group of officers, who renamed the junta the [[Military Committee for National Salvation]] (CMSN). Col. [[Mohamed Khouna Ould Haidalla]] soon emerged as its main strongman.