ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the interrelationships among the basic dynamics of Niger's societies and four forces of change—environmental changes producing competition between two modes of life, nomadic and sedentary; economic changes. A knowledge of the history of the peoples of present-day Niger can help understand the country's contemporary society and politics. The Hausa states of central Niger later became powerful regional actors. Prior to the sixteenth century the Hausa- and Kanuri-speaking communities of central Niger were smaller, more egalitarian societies than the empires on their frontiers. In the nineteenth century the state of Damagaram emerged as the dominant Hausa power in the eastern Sahel, owing to the ability of its leaders to counterbalance the force of the jihad with the weakening of Bornu and the growth of Tuareg power. In the nineteenth century several forces shifted the balance of power in the Sahel. The most important was the rise of Islamic fundamentalism led by the Torodbe.
