New World. The decline of these kingdoms can be explained by internal rivalries, then by the arrival of Europeans, who organized the mass exodus of young Africans to the New World. Ghazis, wars, epidemics and famine afflicted the people, along with the Atlantic slave trade, in exchange for weapons and manufactured goods. Under the influence of Islam, these kingdoms were transformed and marabouts played an increasing role. In Casamance, the Baïnounks, the Manjaques and Diola inhabited the coastal area while the mainland – unified 13th century under the name of Kaabu – was occupied by the Mandingo. In the 15th century, the king of one of the tribes, Kassas gave his name to the region: Kassa Mansa (King of Kassas). Until the French intervention The Casamance was a heterogeneous entity, weakened by internal rivalries. The era of trading posts and trafficking According to several ancient sources, including occasions by the Dictionnaire de pédagogie et d'instruction primaire by Ferdinand Buisson in 1887, the first French settlement in Senegal dates back to the Dieppe Mariners in the 14th century. Flattering for Norman sailors, this argument gives credence also to the idea of a precedence of the French presence in the region, but it is not confirmed by subsequent work. In the mid-15th century, several European nations reached the coast of West Africa, vested successively or simultaneously by the Portuguese, the Dutch, the English and French. Europeans first settled along the coasts, on islands in the mouths of rivers and then a little further upstream. They opened trading posts and engaged in the "trade:" – a term which, under the Ancien Régime, means any type of trade (wheat, pepper, ivory...), and not necessarily, or only, the slave trade, although this "infamous traffic", as it was called at the end of the 18th century, was indeed at the heart of a new economic order, controlled by powerful companies in privilege. The Portuguese navigators Encouraged by Henry the Navigator and always in search of the Passage to India, and not forgetting gold and slaves, Portuguese explorers explored the African coast and ventured still farther south. In 1444 Dinis Dias went off the mouth of the Senegal River to reach the westernmost point of Africa he calls Cabo Verde, Cape Vert, because of the lush vegetation seen there. He also reached the island of Gorée, referred to by its inhabitants as Berzeguiche, but which he called