Senegal

Senegal stamps, available worldwide at Io Collezionista. In the pre colonial age Senegal was home to two important empires of West Africa, that of Ghana (700-1240) and that of the Jolof (1350-1549, to be read as the period of its greatest reach rather than the final date of its break up). From the 16th century the first trading exchanges began, later taking in natives deported to America: it was the French in particular, established on the island of Goree around 1677, who ran the local slave market, marginal though it was compared with other countries. The exploration of the interior, again by the French, took shape only in the middle of the 19th century and led to the occupation of much of the territory. Senegal gained independence in 1960, after some months in the Mali Federation, made up of Senegal and French Sudan, which took the name Mali on separation.