Trarza, founded in the midst of the final wars between the local Berber Bedouins and the Arab conquerors of the Maghreb, was organized as a semi-nomadic state led by a Muslim Prince, or Emir.

The zawiya tribes were protected by Hassane overlords in exchange for their religious services and payment of the horma, a tributary tax of cattle or goods.

Under both these groups, but still part of the Western Sahara society, were the znaga tribes, people who worked in lower caste occupations, such as fishermen (cf.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the French used tensions within this system to overthrow the rulers of Trarza and its neighbors and establish colonial administration.

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.

[3] Trarza's collection of taxes and its threat to bypass Saint-Louis by sending gum to the British traders at Portendick, eventually brought the Emirate into direct conflict with the French.

"The Plan of 1854" was a series of interior ministerial orders given to Governor Protet; it was developed after petitions from the powerful Bordeaux-based Maurel and Prom company, the largest shipping interest in St. Louis.

It required the construction of forts upriver in order to command more territory and end African control of the acacia gum trade from the interior.

During the next thirty years, Trarza fell into internecine conflict with neighboring states over control of the Chemama, the area of agricultural settlements just north of the river.

Traders in Saint-Louis profited by buying goods from Mauritania and selling the various Moorish forces weapons, and the French rarely interfered.

In 1901, French administrator Xavier Coppolani began a plan of "peaceful penetration" into the territories of Trarza and its fellow emirates.

This consisted of a divide-and-conquer strategy in which the French promised the Zawiya tribes and, by extension the Haratin, greater independence and protection from the Hassane.

In the space of four years (1901–1905), Coppolani traveled the area signing protectorates over much of what is now Mauritania, and beginning the expansion of French forces.

By enlisting the support of Shaykhs Sidiya and Saad against the depredations of the warrior clans and in favor of a Pax Gallica, Coppolani was able to exploit the fundamental conflicts in Maure society.

But, by 1904 Coppolani had peacefully subdued Trarza, Brakna, and Tagant; he also had established French military posts across the central region of southern Mauritania.

Because Shaykh Ma al Aynin enjoyed military as well as moral support from Morocco, the French policy of peaceful pacification gave way to active conquest.

[5] With the death of Coppolani, the tide turned in favor of Shaykh Ma al Aynin, who rallied many of the Maures with promises of Moroccan help.

As a result of the conquest of Adrar, the French established their military ability and assured the ascendancy of the French-supported marabouts over the warrior clans within Maure society.