 The European colonial powers of the 19th century had little interest in Mauritania.The French Republic was mostly interested in the territory for strategic reason, as a connection between their possessions in North and in West Africa.Mauritania thus became part of French West Africa in 1904, but colonial control was mostly limited to the coast and the Saharan trade routes, and there were territories nominally within French West Africa which were not reached by European control as late as 1955.