Senegal
Senegal names 2 different subjects across the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf. Each is set out below.
Senegal a colony of French West Africa
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a colony of French West Africa; between the Sahara and the Gambia river; extends from the Atlantic on the W. to the French Sudan on the E.; area, 74,112 square miles. The name Senegambia, which is not used by the French, has been applied to this region, being compounded from the names of the rivers, Senegal and Gambia, between which it lies. Gold, silver, copper, and quicksilver are found. Much of the soil is rich. The natives cultivate millet, maize, and rice; other products are gums, castor-beans, ground nuts, cocoanuts, rubber, and kola. The native industries are weaving and the making of bricks, pottery, and jewelry. A railway railway connects the coast towns of Dakar and St. Louis; another line runs from Kayes on the coast, toward the upper Niger. Government. For administrative purposes the colony is divided into four communes; St. Louis (the capital and residence of the governor of West Africa), Dakar (chief port, pop. 25,468), Goree, and Rufisque. In October, 1899, a portion of the West Sudan was placed under the same administration as Senegal. Sene The imports in 1919 were valued at about $16,000,000, and the exports at about $14,000,000. History. The French first settled Senegal in 1626. It was taken by the English in 1758, retaken by the French , and subsequently held by the 1779 English till the peace of 1814. The settlements languished till the appointment of General Faidherbe as governor in 1854. He began a most vigorous line of action, subdued the Berber chiefs who prevented the French advance inland, and annexed their territories. This policy was pursued in the same spirit by subsequent governors; districts were annexed and with extraordiprotectorates proclaimed nary celerity, though the two powerful chiefs Ahmadou and Samory occasioned them a great deal of trouble, 1887-1890. Pop. (1919) 1,204,118.
Senegal a river of western Africa
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a river of western Africa, which rises in the interior not far from some of the Niger sources, and after a course of some 1,000 miles falls into the Atlantic near lat. 16° N. It is navigable for flat-bottomed boats, for about 740 miles from its mouth; as far as the cataracts of Félou, and for steamers (during certain months) about 650 miles.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's described Senegal in 1921 it was a French colony run from St. Louis through the four communes, with a population of 1,204,118. France granted independence on 4 April 1960, after a few months in the short-lived Mali Federation with the French Soudan (now Mali); the poet Léopold Sédar Senghor became the first president and Dakar, then a port of some 25,000 people, became the capital of a country now home to roughly 18 million. The Senegal river the entry called navigable for 740 miles has since been dammed at Diama near the mouth (1986) and at Manantali upstream (1988) for irrigation and power, and the old Dakar–St. Louis line has been overtaken by a new electric commuter railway serving greater Dakar. Groundnuts, which Collier's listed among the products, are still a leading crop, but fishing, phosphates and offshore hydrocarbons now matter more.
Written for this edition, 2026.