| | Explores the way the colonial exploitation conditioned the political, social and economic life of rural and urban Mauritania. socio-economic; Western Sahara; French; colonialism; history; AOF (French Federation of West Africa); SFIO (French Socialist Party); UPM (L'union Progressiste Mauritanienne); AJM (L'Association de la Jeunesse Mauritanienne); MIFERMA (Societe Anonyme des Mines de Fer de Mauritanie); BMFOM (Bureau Minier de la France d'Outre Mer); SOMIMA (Societe Miniere de Mauritanie); UTM (Mauritanian Worker's Union) This article explores the way that colonial exploitation conditioned the political, social and economic life of the Mauritanian rural and urban communities. It shows how a neo-colonial state was formed for the specific purpose not only of continuing colonial plunder under a new institutional arrangement but of intensifying the exploitation of Mauritanian workers for the benefit of multinational corporations, with far-reaching and even tragic socioeconomic consequences for the majority of the Mauritanian people |
