Early history As a political unit, Senegambia was created by duelling
French and
English colonial forces in the region. Competition between the French and English started in the late 16th century when merchants from both nations started to establish trading centres in the region. Although there was some overlap in their areas of influence, French trade centred on the
Senegal River and the
Cap-Vert region and English trade on the
Gambia River. As European trading activities in the region intensified, Senegambia quickly became a major African center of the Atlantic
triangular trade, with merchants from Europe bringing manufactured goods to trade for
gold,
ivory and
slaves. During various periods of conflict between the British and the French in the 18th century, the trading posts of both nations in Senegambia quickly became military targets. During the
Seven Years' War, American merchant
Thomas Cumming convinced
Southern Secretary William Pitt to dispatch a British expeditionary force to
capture French trading posts in Senegal; after the expedition was successful, the region under British occupation was transformed into the
crown colony of Senegambia. Although the areas were ruled by separate, competing powers, they did not determine an official border between the French and British Senegambian colonies until 1889. At the time, France agreed to accept the current border between the two countries and remove its border trading posts.
Prelude of the confederation For each country, the "lock and key" border situation has posed unique problems for international relations, especially in trade and control of regions surrounding The Gambia–Senegal border. The
black market also attracted an export drain into the Gambia. The Senegalese government began to institute a delayed payment system with its groundnut (
peanut) farms. When farmers sold their harvest to the Senegalese government, they would get a voucher, known as a chit, which they could turn into cash after a three-month waiting period. Not wanting to wait for the Senegalese marketing system to pay them, more farmers began to smuggle their goods to
Banjul, where the Gambian government paid in cash. An even greater issue for both countries was the ease with which violence could spread through the region. With shared ethnic communities on both sides of the border, a successful coup in one country could lead to a group of sympathizers in the other, bringing danger to the democratic regimes of both countries. This fear was realized during the
1981 coup attempt to oust President
Dawda Jawara of the Gambia. Though the coup attempt was not well organized and quickly fell apart, it resulted in a prolonged period of instability and violence in the Gambia, as the rebels released many criminals from prisons and armed them in hopes that they would support the uprising. Per an existing defense agreement, Jawara requested Senegal to help him in defeating the coup. The Senegalese government responded vigorously, sending hundreds or even thousands of soldiers and put down the insurrection. This strong reaction was probably motivated by Senegal's own security concerns; its pro-Western stance caused tensions with other African states, and it was feared that neighbouring countries might use the Gambia, secessionists in the
Casamance region (the region of Senegal south of the Gambian border), or other dissident groups to destabilize the Senegalese government. Specific threats came from
Moussa Traoré's
Mali,
Ahmed Sékou Touré's
Guinea,
João Bernardo Vieira's
Guinea-Bissau, and
Muammar al-Gaddafi's
Libya. While the Senegalese government speculated about some dangers, in the late 1980s it had border skirmishes with Mauritania. After the coup attempt in the Gambia, its government realized that its security forces were not adequate to stop or prevent political upheaval. Security of the region was becoming more and more difficult to maintain. Senghor's belief in Negritude informed the possibility of unification between Senegal and the Gambia, and fostered the belief that unification would happen as an organic process. In fact, Senegal and the Gambia had already commissioned a
United Nations report to study the possible plans and benefits of unification between the two countries in the 1960s. ==Period of the Confederation==