Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
History
Before the Sahara started swallowing Niger around 2500 BC, it supported verdant grass-
lands, abundant wildlife and populations thriving on hunting and herding. Long after the
desert pushed those populations southward, Niger became a fixture on the trans- Saharan
trade route. Between the 10th and 18th centuries, West African empires, such as the
Kanem-Borno, Mali and Songhaï, flourished in Niger, trafficking gold, salt and slaves.
The French strolled in late in the 1800s, meeting stronger-than-expected resistance. De-
cidedly unamused, they dispatched the punitive Voulet-Chanoîne expedition, destroying
much of southern Niger in 1898-99. Although Tuareg revolts continued, culminating in
Agadez's siege in 1916-17, the French had control.
French rule wasn't kind. They cultivated the power of traditional chiefs, whose abuses
were encouraged as a means of control, and the enforced shift from subsistence farming to
high-density cash crops compounded the Sahara's ongoing migration.
In 1958 France offered its West African colonies self-government in a French union or
immediate independence. Countless votes disappeared, enabling France to claim that Ni-
ger wished to remain within its sphere of influence.
Maintaining close French ties, Niger's first president, Hamani Diori, ran a repressive
one-party state. After surviving several coups, he was overthrown by Lieutenant Colonel
Seyni Kountché after food stocks were discovered in ministerial homes during the Sahel
drought of 1968-74. Kountché established a military ruling council.
Kountché hit the jackpot in 1968 when uranium was discovered near the town of Arlit.
Mining incomes soon ballooned, leading to ambitious projects, including the 'uranium
highway' between Agadez and Arlit. Yet not everyone was smiling: inflation skyrocketed
and the poorest suffered more than ever.
The 1980s were unkind to all: uranium prices collapsed, the great 1983 drought killed
thousands, and one-party politics hindered democracy. By the 1990s, Nigeriens were
aware of political changes sweeping West Africa and mass demonstrations erupted, even-
tually forcing the government into multiparty elections in 1993. However, a military junta
overthrew the elected president, Mahamane Ousmane, in 1996.
In 1999, during widespread strikes and economic stagnation, president Mainassara (a
1996 coup leader) was assassinated and democracy re-established. Peaceful elections in
1999 and 2004 witnessed victory for Mamadou Tandja.
In 2009 Mamadou Tandja won a referendum allowing him to change the constitution to
allow him to run for a third term. In the presidential elections that year Tandja won by a
large margin, though Ecowas did not accept the result and suspended Niger's member-
