1960 — Mauritania's Independence

On November 28, 1960, shortly after midnight, French Premier Michel Debré transferred sovereignty to Moktar Ould Daddah, and Mauritania stepped into independence as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. There was no war. Independence came through negotiation, as the autonomy granted in 1958 gave way to the continent's wave of liberation, and a new state took its place among nations by signature and ceremony in the first minutes of its first day of freedom.

Less than a year later, Daddah was elected the new nation's first president. The negotiated road had brought Mauritania to independence without a battlefield, and its first elected leadership grew directly from the handover itself.