Emirate of Trarza
Mauritania, 1640–1902. Draft, not yet reviewed
The Emirate of Trarza was a pre-colonial state in what is today southwest Mauritania. Trarza was one of three powerful emirates that controlled the northwest bank of the Senegal River from the 17th to the 19th centuries CE; the others were the emirates of Brakna, and the Tagant. In the 17th century, the French had established a trading post at the island Saint-Louis in the mouth of the Senegal River. In 1901, French administrator Xavier Coppolani began a plan of peaceful penetration into the territories of Trarza and its fellow emirates.
Seat of power: Mederdra
No rulers documented for this era yet.
Culture
- As the Atlantic Slave Trade was banned by Great Britain and the United States in 1808, Trarza and its neighbors' collected taxes on trade, especially acacia gum (Gum Arabic), which the French purchased in increasing quantities for its use in industrial fabric production.
- The French initiated the Franco-Trarzan War of 1825 with a large expeditionary force that crushed Muhammad's army. As a result, the French expanded their influence to the north of the Senegal River.
- Trarza and other emirates profited from their raids against non-Muslims to their south by the seizure of slaves for sale and by the taxes they levied on Muslim states of the area.
- By 1860, Faidherbe had built a series of inland forts up the Senegal River, to Médine just below the Félou waterfall. He forced Trarza and their neighbors to accept the Senegal river as a formal boundary to their influence.
Picture
The Emirate of Trarza has survived as a traditional confederation of semi-nomadic people to the present day.
Image: HetmanTheResearcher, CC BY 4.0, file
Sources
Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.