Timeline: Mauritania

A chronology of key events:

3rd-7th centuries AD - Berber and Arab migrants displace the original inhabitants of present-day Mauritania.

ROAD TO DEMOCRACY? Mauritania sets new course after years of authoritarian rule 2005 - Iron-fisted Ould Taya is ousted 2005 - Military maps out reform 2006 - Voters opt for new constitution 2007 - Presidential polls mark return to civilian rule 2008 - Military ousts first democratically-elected president 2009 - Leader of 2008 coup elected president First steps to democracy Mauritania takes coup in its stride

9-10th centuries - Empire of Ghana has its capital in present-day south-west Mauritania.

1076 - Berber Almoravid warriors defeat the Empire of Ghana.

1500s - European mariners and traders establish settlements.

1644-74 - Mauritanian Thirty-Year War: Berbers unsuccessful in repelling Arab warriors.

1850s-60s - French forces gain control of southern Mauritania. In 1898 France wins the allegiance of Moors in the region.

1904 - France establishes Mauritania as a colonial territory.

1920 - Mauritania becomes part of French West Africa, and is administered from Senegal.

1946 - Becomes a French overseas territory.

1957 - Nouakchott established as the capital.

Independence

1958 - Mauritania becomes self-governing.

1960 28 November - Mauritania becomes independent.

1960 - Mauritania makes territorial claims to neighbouring Spanish Sahara.

1973 - Mauritania joins the Arab League.

1976 - Mauritania and Morocco divide up Spanish Sahara, now known as Western Sahara, after Spain pulls out. Guerrillas of the Polisario front, aiming to establish an independent state in the territory, fight the forces of both countries.

Military coup

The Sahara desert occupies most of Mauritania

1978 - First post-independence president, Moktar Daddah, is deposed in a military coup. The coup is prompted partly by the struggle against Polisario guerrillas and resulting financial strains.

1979 - Mauritania signs a peace agreement with the Polisario front and renounces its claim to Western Sahara. Morocco annexes Mauritania's former share of the territory.

1981 - Attempted coup; Moroccan involvement is alleged and Mauritania breaks ties with the country.

1984 - Coup brings Colonel Maaouiya Ould Sid Ahmed Taya to power.

1989 - Race riots erupt in Mauritania and Senegal after a border dispute. Tens of thousands of black Mauritanians are driven out of the country into Senegal. Others become the targets of attacks and land seizures. Hundreds of people are killed.

Mohamed Haidallah: Ex-president was accused of coup plot 2003: Mauritanian ex-president sentenced 2003: Election tension in Mauritania

1992 - Taya elected president.

1993 - US ends development aid over Mauritania's treatment of its black population and its support for Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War.

1997 - President Taya re-elected in a poll boycotted by the main opposition parties.

2001 September - Morocco's King Mohammed visits - a turning point in the often-strained relations between the two countries.

2002 January - Opposition party Action for Change, which campaigns for greater rights for blacks and descendants of slaves, is banned.

2002 June - Country granted $1.1bn (£740m) in debt relief.

Coup plots

2003 June - Attempted coup: Troops loyal to President Maaouiya Ould Taya regain control of the capital after heavy fighting with rebel soldiers.

Locusts devoured crops in 2004, prompting UN call for food aid 2004: Locusts invade Mauritania capital

2003 October - First post-independence president, Moktar Ould Daddah, dies in Paris.

2003 November - President Taya re-elected with 67% of vote in first round of elections. Opposition alleges fraud.

2003 December - Former President Haidallah is fined and given suspended prison sentence for plotting coup.

2004 August - Army officers arrested in wake of alleged coup plot.

2004 September - Government says it has foiled a coup plot - the third in 15 months. In October President Taya accuses Libya and Burkina Faso of financing recent coup attempts.

2005 January - UN calls for food aid in the wake of locust invasions in 2004. Mauritania was the African country worst hit, with its crop production obliterated.

2005 June - Attack on an army base in the Sahara kills 15 soldiers. The government blames insurgents from Algeria.

In search of a better life Enlarge Image

2005 3 August - With President Taya out of the country, troops seize government buildings and a group of officers announces the overthrow of the president and the formation of a military council.

2006 February - Offshore oil production begins.

2006 June - Voters in a referendum approve constitutional changes which will limit the president to two five-year terms in office.

Abdallahi elected president

2007 March - Presidential elections won by Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

2007 April - Mauritania is readmitted to the African Union, having been suspended after the 2005 coup.

2007 August - Parliament outlaws slavery, a practise still widespread in spite of a 1981 ban.

In 2008, the army ousted elected President Abdallahi Mauritania takes coup in its stride

2008 January - The 2008 Dakar Rally is cancelled following the murder of four French tourists in Mauritania in December, allegedly by attackers linked to al-Qaeda.

2008 February - Gunmen fire at the Israeli embassy in the capital, Nouakchott. Seven people detained over attack released for lack of evidence.

2008 April - Eight al-Qaeda suspects alleged to have been involved in killing of French tourists and attack on Israeli embassy are arrested.

2008 May - Members of moderate Islamist opposition party join government for first time.

Abdallahi toppled

2008 August - The military overthrows President Abdallahi - the country's first democratically elected leader - and forms a state council to rule the country. The move came after the president tried to dismiss several senior army commanders.

2008 September - Twelve soldiers killed in ambush claimed by al-Qaeda, which had called on Mauritanians to rise up against the coup leaders.

2009 January - Military government promises to hold elections by June, along with a constitutional referendum.

2009 March - Israel closes embassy at government request, days before visit by Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Relations with Israel suspended in January in protest at Gaza military operation.

2009 July - Gen Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz - leader of the August 2008 military coup - wins presidential elections with 52%. Foreign observers say the poll was largely honest, but the main opposition candidates allege fraud. The head of the Electoral Commission, Sid'Ahmed Ould Deye, quits over his own doubts.