The Gambia is one of Africa's smallest countries and unlike many of its West African neighbours it has enjoyed long spells of stability since independence.
President Yahya Jammeh seized power in a bloodless coup in 1994 and has ruled with an iron fist ever since.
Stability has not translated into prosperity. Despite the presence of the Gambia river, which runs through the middle of the country, only one-sixth of the land is arable and poor soil quality has led to the predominance of one crop - peanuts.
This has made The Gambia heavily dependent on peanut exports - and a hostage to fluctuations in the production and world prices of the crop.
Consequently, the country relies on foreign aid to fill gaps in its balance of payments.
President Jammeh wants to turn The Gambia into an oil-producing state. He says this could usher in a "new future". However, the country has yet to strike crude oil.
Tourism is an important source of foreign exchange, as is the money sent home by Gambians living abroad. Most visitors are drawn to the resorts that occupy a stretch of the Atlantic coast.
In 1994 The Gambia's elected government was toppled in a military coup. The country returned to constitutional rule two years later when its military leader ran as a civilian and won a presidential election. But the credibility of the poll was questioned by a group of Commonwealth ministers.
President: Yahya Jammeh
Yahya Jammeh seized power in 1994 as a young army lieutenant and has won three widely criticised multi-party elections since then..jpg)
He won his third five-year term in September 2006 with more than two-thirds of the votes cast. His main rival, Oussainou Darboe, rejected the result, saying there had been widespread intimidation by local chiefs, governors and members of the security forces.
Commonwealth observers said overt support for Jammeh from public officials during the run-up to the vote may have given him an unfair advantage.
Mr Jammeh raised eyebrows early in 2007 when he claimed that he can cure AIDS. His cure involves a green herbal paste, a bitter yellow liquid and eating bananas and he says his methods produce positive results within days.
The country representative of the United Nations development programme in The Gambia, Fadzai Gwaradzimba, was told to leave the country after she expressed doubts about the president's claims and said the remedy might encourage risky behaviour.
Mr Jammeh's government has been criticised by international rights groups for its attitude to civil liberties, especially freedom of the press.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says there is "absolute intolerance of any form of criticism" in Gambia, with death threats, surveillance and arbitrary night-time arrests the daily lot of journalists "who do not sing the government's praises".
Many Gambians privately disapprove of the iron-fisted nature of his rule, which has seen political opponents and journalists imprisoned without charge, but say he has done much to improve schools, hospitals and roads.
Born in 1965, Yahya Jammeh joined the army in 1984 upon leaving school. He came to power in 1994 when a bloodless military coup ousted the elected president, Dawda Jawara, who had led the country since independence.
Upon taking power he set up bodies to investigate corruption and recover pilfered public funds.
A chronology of key events:
1455 - Portuguese establish trading stations along Gambia river.
1889 - Present boundaries of The Gambia set by agreement between Britain and France.
1894 - The Gambia becomes a British protectorate.
1965 - The Gambia becomes independent with Dawda Jawara as prime minister.
1970 - The Gambia becomes a republic following a referendum; Jawara elected president.
1981 - Five hundred people are killed as Senegalese troops help suppress a coup.
1982 - The Gambia and Senegal form a loose confederation called Senegambia.
1989 - Senegambia confederation collapses.
1991 - The Gambia and Senegal sign friendship treaty.
Coup
1994 - Jawara ousted in coup led by Lieutenant Yahya Jammeh.
1996 - New multiparty constitution promulgated, but three major political parties remain prohibited from taking part in elections; Jammeh elected president.
1998 - A British human rights group, Article Nineteen, accuses the Gambian government of harassing opposition activists and journalists.
2000 January - Government says it has foiled a military coup.
2000 April - At least 12 people are shot dead during student demonstrations against the alleged torture and murder of a student the previous month.
2000 June - Ousainou Darboe, leader of the main opposition United Democratic Party, and 20 of his supporters are charged with the murder of activist of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction.
2000 July - Nine soldiers and businessmen charged with treason in connection with an alleged plot to overthrow the government.
2001 23 July - President Jammeh lifts the ban on the political parties he overthrew in his military coup of 1994.
2001 September - Military court sentences former head of the presidential guard Lieutenant Landing Sanneh to 16 years in prison for conspiracy in an alleged plot against Jammeh.
2001 October - Jammeh wins a second term. Foreign observers give the poll a clean bill of health in spite of rising tension ahead of the vote.
2002 January - Ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction sweeps parliamentary elections boycotted by the opposition amid widespread voter apathy.
2002 May - Opposition MPs and journalists condemn a new media law, passed by parliament, as draconian and intended to muzzle the independent press.
2004 February - President Jammeh announces the discovery of large reserves of oil.
2004 December - New press law provides for the jailing of journalists found guilty of libel, sedition. Days later a critic of the law, prominent editor Deyda Hydara, is shot dead.
2005 March - Ministers and civil servants are sacked and more than 30 senior officials are arrested over corruption allegations.
2005 October - Dispute with neighbouring Senegal over ferry tariffs on the border leads to a transport blockade. The economies of both countries suffer. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo brokers talks to resolve the issue.
2006 March - Government says a planned military coup has been foiled.
2006 July - Head of the independent electoral commission Ndondi Njai is sacked. The opposition complains that many non-Gambians have illegally registered to vote.
2006 August - Thousands flee into Gambia from Senegal's southern Casamance region to escape fighting between Senegalese troops and Casamance separatists.
2006 September - Jammeh wins a third term.
2007 January - Ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reorientation and Construction (APRC) wins parliamentary elections, retaining a tight grip on parliament.
2007 February - UN development envoy Fadzai Gwaradzimba is expelled for criticizing the president's assertion that he can cure AIDS.
2007 April - Ten ex-army officers are sentenced to prison for plotting a coup.
2008 May - President Yahya Jammeh tells a rally that he would "cut off the head" of any homosexual found in The Gambia, prompting an outcry from international gay rights campaigners.
2009 March - Amnesty International says hundreds have been kidnapped during a government campaign against witchcraft.
2009 August - Six journalists are jailed for publishing a statement criticising the president. They are later pardoned.
2009 September - President Jammeh threatens to kill human rights workers as saboteurs.
2010 July - Eight men, including a former army chief, are sentenced to death for their part in an alleged coup plot in 2009.
2010 October - Death penalty introduced for possession of cocaine or heroin in a bid to discourage international drug trafficking.
