[11] The penetration of the slave trade and the rising influence of Moroccan Orman forces in the Senegal river valley created widespread social upheaval that affected Gajaaga as much as its neighbors.

[13] While remaining nominally neutral in local conflicts, the French pressured rulers by increasing or decreasing custom payments and gifts, creating rivalries between factions and villages.

The two tunka of Gooy and Kamera competed for the Gajaaga throne from 1833 to 1841 with the French playing a prominent role as they tried to weaken the powerful state of Kaarta.

[16] The threat of El Hadj Omar Saidou Tall gave French governor Louis Faidherbe the excuse he needed to do as they requested.

The tunka was commander-in-chief of the army and administrator of justice and had the right to tax the population, although villages retained considerable autonomy at least until the arrival of Europeans.

One involved nobles, freemen, and slaves; another cleavages distinguished between natives and strangers, Muslims and animists, job groups, or degree of servitude and status of the master or patron in question.

The decline of the slave trade in the early 19th century took away Gajaaga's most important export, further weakening the state and paving the way for formal colonization.

[23] By the 17th century Gajaaga was the center of an extensive Soninke trading diaspora linking it with Diarra and Timbuktu to the east, southeast to Segou, and south to Tanda and Wuli on the upper Gambia river.

The trading season lasted a few months, at which point the merchants would return downriver and the local jula would begin stocking and preparing for the next year.

[25] Slaves, captives from the wars of the Bamana Empire and the Imamate of Fula Djallon or locals captured by raiders from the Sahara, were the most important trade item.