History:  

Modern Guinea has its roots in the Mali Empire, a prominent region that had embraced Islam from 7^th to 15^th century. The advent of the Portuguese explorers in the region during the mid-15th century and later the British and the French, saw Guinea turning into the biggest slave trade centre of its times.
In 1849, the Boke region became a French protectorate. A Franco-Portuguese agreement of 1886 saw the division between the Guinea Republic and Guinea-Bissau. This was one of the many concluded in West Africa to settle the competing disputes of European colonialists. In 1895, the French merged the Boke province and the adjacent territory which they had taken control of, into French West Africa. The region was a single body mostly of modern-day francophone West Africa, governed from Dakar. Guinea was the only former French protectorate which refused to join the French Community upon independence in 1958 when French West Africa was dissolved before decolonisation.

In independent Guinea, political power was assumed by the Parti Democratique de Guinée (later named the Parti pour l’Unité et le Progrès), which became the only legitimate political party. An estimated two million people  were driven into exile by 1983, due to the regime’s extreme mismanagement and repressive behaviour. This had resulted in rising discontent. March 1984,saw the death of the ruler of Guinea since independence, President Sekou Touré. The army  immediately seized power in a bloodless coup under Colonel Lansana Conté. This Government put the repair of its political and economic relations with the West African neighbours on the list of top priorities. In 1989 under Conté the country took its first move towards a democratic system of governance.  As the next step, in December 1990, a new constitution, known as the Third Republic, was accepted by national referendum.  December 1993  saw the first presidential elections under the new constitution being contested and Conté emerged victorious over seven other candidates. At the beginning of February 1996, Conté survived an attempted coup, after which he gathered the reins of the country’s armed forces himself. Laimine Sidime was appointed as Prime MInister and this was the first ever significant step in the reorganisation of the government. As of August 2002, Sidime was still in charge of the PUP government. In January 1997, to open up the economy and attract foreign investment, a three-year economic reform programme was agreed with the IMF. In December 1998, Conté returned to office once again after winning a clear majority in the most recent presidential election.

The year 2000 saw tensions with neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone over ths issues of territory and mineral wealth. This resulted in an inrush of nearly 80,000 refugees from Sierra Leone and 70,000 from Liberia fleeing from the fights in in the area where the borders of the three countries meet. This number has added up to a staggering 150,00,00 in April 2002.