Decolonisation of Africa

thumb|Order of independence of African nations between 1950 and 2011|alt=An animated map shows the order of independence of African nations, 1950–2011

The decolonisation of Africa was a series of political developments in Africa between the mid-1950s to 1975, during the Cold War. Colonial governments formed during the Scramble for Africa collapsed, giving way to sovereign states in a process characterised by violence, political upheaval, civil unrest, and organised revolts. Major events during the decolonisation of Africa include the Mau Mau rebellion, the Algerian War, the Congo Crisis, the Angolan War of Independence, the Zanzibar Revolution, and the events leading to the Nigerian Civil War.

Background

thumb|[[Scramble for Africa: Africa in the years 1880 and 1913, just before World War I]]

The Scramble for Africa between 1870 and 1914 was a significant period of European imperialism in Africa that ended with almost all of Africa, and its natural resources, claimed as colonies by European powers, who raced to secure as much land as possible while avoiding conflict amongst themselves. The partition of Africa was confirmed at the Berlin Conference of 1885, without regard for the existing political and social structures.

Almost all the precolonial states of Africa lost their sovereignty. The only exceptions were Liberia, which had been settled in the early 19th century by formerly enslaved African-Americans and was recognised as independent by the United States in 1862 but was viewed by European powers as being in the United States' sphere of influence, and Ethiopia, which won its independence at the Battle of Adwa but was later occupied by Italy in 1936. Britain and France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies.

By 1977, 50 African countries had gained independence from European colonial powers.

External causes

thumb|European colonies in Africa in 1939, the year [[World War II began]]

In the early 20th century, nationalism gained ground globally. Following the end of World War I, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires according to the principles espoused in Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points. Though many anti-colonial intellectuals saw the potential of Wilsonianism to advance their aims, Wilson had no intention of applying the principle of self-determination outside the lands of the defeated Central Powers. The independence demands of Egyptian and Tunisian leaders, which would have compromised the interests of the victorious Allies, were not entertained. Though Wilsonian ideals did not endure as the interwar order broke down, the principle of an international order based on the self-determination of peoples remained relevant.

After 1919, anti-colonial leaders increasingly oriented themselves toward the Soviet Union's proletarian internationalism.

Many Africans fought in both World War I and World War II. In World War I, African labour was essential on the Western Front, and African soldiers fought in the Sinai and Palestine campaign. Many Africans were not allowed to bear arms or serve on an equal basis with whites. The sinking of the SS Mendi in 1917 was a particularly tragic incident for Africans in the war, with 607 of the 646 crew killed being Black South Africans. In the Second World War, Africans fought in both the European and Asian theatres of war.

Approximately one million sub-Saharan Africans served in European armies in some capacity. Many Africans were compelled or even forced into military service by their respective colonial regimes, but some voluntarily enlisted in search of better opportunities than they could find in civilian employment. This led to a deeper political awareness and the expectation of greater respect and self-determination, which went largely unfulfilled. Because the victorious allied powers had no intention of withdrawing from their colonial holdings at the end of the war, and would instead need to rely on the resources and manpower of their African colonies during postwar reconstruction in Europe, the colonial powers downplayed Africans' contributions to the allied victory. It was not a treaty and was not submitted to the Parliament of the United Kingdom or the United States Senate for ratification, but it turned out to be a widely acclaimed document. Clause Three referred to the right to decide what form of government people wanted, and to the restoration of self-government.

Prime Minister Churchill argued in the British Parliament that the document referred to "the States and nations of Europe now under the Nazi yoke". President Roosevelt regarded it as applicable across the world. Anticolonial politicians immediately saw it as relevant to colonial empires.

In 1948, three years after the end of World War II, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognised all people as being born free and equal.

Italy, a colonial power, lost its African empire, Italian East Africa, Italian Ethiopia, Italian Eritrea, Italian Somalia and Italian Libya, as a result of World War II. Furthermore, colonies such as Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana pushed for self-governance as colonial powers were exhausted by war efforts.

thumb|Comparison of 1950 Africa to 1960 Africa

The United Nations 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples stated that colonial exploitation is a denial of human rights, and that power should be transferred back to the countries or territories concerned.

Internal causes

Colonial economic exploitation involved diverting resource extraction, such as mining, profits to European shareholders at the expense of internal development, causing significant local socioeconomic grievances. For early African nationalists, decolonisation was a moral imperative around which a political movement could be assembled.

In the 1930s, colonial powers cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small elite of local African leaders educated in Western universities, where they became familiar with ideas such as self-determination. Although independence was not encouraged, arrangements between these leaders and the colonial powers developed,

Transition to independence

Following World War II, rapid decolonisation swept across the continent of Africa as many territories gained their independence from European colonisation.

In August 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss their post-war goals. In that meeting, they agreed to the Atlantic Charter, which in part stipulated that they would, "respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live; and they wish to see sovereign rights and self-government restored to those who have been forcibly deprived of them". This agreement became the post-WWII stepping stone toward independence as nationalism grew throughout Africa.

Consumed by post-war debt, European powers could no longer afford to maintain control of their African colonies. This allowed African nationalists to negotiate decolonisation very quickly and with minimal casualties. Some territories, however, saw large death tolls as a result of their fight for independence.

Historian James Meriweather argues that American policy towards Africa was characterised by a middle road approach, which supported African independence but also reassured European colonial powers that their holdings would remain intact. Washington wanted the right type of African groups to lead newly independent states, in other words not communist and not especially democratic. Meriweather argues that nongovernmental organisations influenced American policy towards Africa. They pressured state governments and private institutions to disinvest from African nations not ruled by the majority population. These efforts also helped change American policy towards South Africa, as seen with the passage of the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act of 1986.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+African countries that have gained independence

!scope="col"| Country

!scope="col"| Colonial name

!scope="col"| Colonial power

!scope="col" data-sort-type="date" | Independence date

!scope="col"| First head of state

!scope="col"| Independence won through

!scope="row"|

| Liberia

| (American Colonization Society)

| 26 July 1847

| Joseph Jenkins Roberts William Tubman

| Liberian Declaration of Independence

!scope="row"| South Africa

| Cape Colony Colony of Natal Orange River Colony Transvaal Colony

| rowspan="2" | United Kingdom

| 31 May 1910

| Louis Botha

| South Africa Act 1909 Remained under white minority rule until 1994.

!scope="row"| Kingdom of Egypt

| Sultanate of Egypt

| 28 February 1922

| Fuad I

| 1919 Egyptian revolution

!scope="row"| Emirate of Cyrenaica

| British Military Administration of Libya Italian Libya

| Kingdom of Italy

|1 March 1949

| rowspan="2" | Idris

| Unilateral declaration of Cyrenaican independence

!scope="row"| United Kingdom of Libya

| British Military Administration of Libya Fezzan-Ghadames Military Territory Emirate of Cyrenaica Italian Libya

| France Emirate of Cyrenaica Kingdom of Italy

|24 December 1951

| United Nations General Assembly Resolution 289

!scope="row"| Republic of Sudan

| Anglo-Egyptian Sudan

| Egypt

| 1 January 1956

| Ismail al-Azhari

| –

!scope="row"| Kingdom of Tunisia

| French Tunisia

| France

| 20 March 1956

| Lamine Bey Habib Bourguiba

| –

!scope="row"|

| French Morocco Tangier International Zone Spanish Morocco Spanish West Africa Ifni

|

|2 March 1956 7 April 1956 10 April 1958 4 January 1969 14 November 1975 27 February 1976

| Mohammed V

| Ifni War

!scope="row"| Dominion of Ghana

| 6 March 1957

| Kwame Nkrumah

| 1956 Gold Coast general election

!scope="row"|

| France

| 2 October 1958

| Ahmed Sékou Touré

| 1958 Guinean constitutional referendum

!scope="row"| Cameroon

| Kamerun French Cameroon British Cameroons

|

|4 March 1916 1 January 1960 1 October 1961

|Karl Ebermaier Ahmadou Ahidjo John Ngu Foncha

| –

!scope="row"|

| French Togoland

Togoland

| rowspan="3" |

| 27 April 1960

| Sylvanus Olympio

| –

!scope="row"| Mali Federation

| French West Africa

|20 June 1960

| Modibo Keïta

| –

!scope="row"| Malagasy Republic

| French Madagascar

| 26 June 1960

| Philibert Tsiranana

| –

!scope="row"| Republic of the Congo

| 30 June 1960

| Joseph Kasa-Vubu

| Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference

!scope="row"| Somali Republic

| Trust Territory of Somaliland

| Italy

| 26 June 1960 1 July 1960

| Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal Aden Adde

| –

!scope="row"| Republic of Dahomey

| Republic of Dahomey Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá

| France Portugal

| 1 August 1960 31 July 1961

| Hubert Maga

!scope="row"|

| rowspan="4" |

| rowspan="8" |

| 1 August 1960

| Hubert Maga

| –

!scope="row"|

| 3 August 1960

| Hamani Diori

| –

!scope="row"|

| 5 August 1960

| Maurice Yaméogo

| –

!scope="row"|

| 7 August 1960

| Félix Houphouët-Boigny

| –

!scope="row"|

| rowspan="4" |

| 11–12 August 1960

| François Tombalbaye

| –

!scope="row"|

| 13 August 1960

| David Dacko

| –

!scope="row"|

| 14–15 August 1960

| Fulbert Youlou

| –

!scope="row"|

| 16–17 August 1960

| Léon M'ba

| –

!scope="row"| Federation of Nigeria

| Colonial Nigeria British Cameroon

| 1 October 1960 1 June 1961 1 October 1961

| Nnamdi Azikiwe

| –

!scope="row"|

| 28 November 1958 28 November 1960

| Moktar Ould Daddah

| –

!scope="row"| Dominion of Sierra Leone

| Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate

| rowspan="2" |

| 27 April 1961

| Milton Margai

| –

!scope="row"|

| 9 December 1961

| Julius Nyerere

| –

!scope="row"| Kingdom of Burundi

| rowspan="2" | Ruanda-Urundi

| rowspan="2" |

| rowspan="2" | 1 July 1919 1 July 1962

| Mwambutsa IV of Burundi

| –

!scope="row"|

|Yuhi V Musinga Grégoire Kayibanda

| Rwandan Revolution

!scope="row"|

| French Algeria

| 5 July 1962

| Ahmed Ben Bella

| Algerian War Évian Accords

!scope="row"| Dominion of Uganda

| Protectorate of Uganda

| rowspan="11" |

| 9 October 1962

| Milton Obote

| –

!scope="row"| Dominion of Kenya

| British East Africa

| 12 December 1963

| Jomo Kenyatta

| –

!scope="row"| Sultanate of Zanzibar

| Sultanate of Zanzibar

| 10 December 1963

| Jamshid bin Abdullah

| –

!scope="row"|

| 6 July 1964

| Hastings Banda

| –

!scope="row"|

| 24 October 1964

| Kenneth Kaunda

| –

!scope="row"|

| Gambia Colony and Protectorate

| 18 February 1965

| Dawda Jawara

| –

!scope="row"| '

| 11 November 1965 (As Rhodesia) 18 April 1980 (As Zimbabwe)

| Ian Smith Robert Mugabe

| Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence Lancaster House Agreement

!scope="row"|

| Bechuanaland Protectorate

| 30 September 1960 – 1966

| Seretse Khama

| –

!scope="row"|

| Basutoland

| 4 October 1966

| Leabua Jonathan

| –

!scope="row"|

| Mauritius

| 12 March 1968

| Seewoosagur Ramgoolam

| –

!scope="row"|

| Swaziland

| 6 September 1968

| Sobhuza II

| –

!scope="row"|

| Kamerun French Cameroon British Cameroon Spanish Guinea

|

| 4 March 1916 1 January 1960 16–17 August 1960 1 October 1961 12 October 1968

| Karl Ebermaier Ahmadou Ahidjo Léon M'ba John Ngu Foncha Francisco Macías Nguema

| –

!scope="row"|

| Portuguese Guinea

| rowspan="3" |

| 24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975

| Luís Cabral João Bernardo Vieira Aristides Pereira Pedro Pires

| Guinea-Bissau War of Independence

!scope="row"|

| Portuguese Mozambique

| 25 June 1975

| Samora Machel

| Mozambican War of Independence

!scope="row"|

| Portuguese Cape Verde

| 5 July 1975

| Aristides Pereira

| Guinea-Bissau War of Independence

!scope="row"|

| French Comoros

| 6 July 1975

| Ahmed Abdallah

| 1974 Comorian independence referendum

!scope="row"|

| Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe

| rowspan="2" |

| 12 July 1975

| Manuel Pinto da Costa

| –

!scope="row"|

| Portuguese Angola

| 11 November 1975

| Agostinho Neto

| Angolan War of Independence

!scope="row"| Seychelles

| Crown Colony of the Seychelles

| 29 June 1976

|James Mancham

| –

!scope="row"|

| French Territory of the Afars and the Issas

| 27 June 1977

| Hassan Gouled Aptidon

| 1977 Afars and Issas independence referendum

!scope="row"| '

| Spanish Sahara Moroccan-occupied Western Sahara Western Tiris

| Mauritania

| 27 February 1976 independence not yet effected

| El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed Mohamed Abdelaziz

| Western Sahara War Western Sahara conflict

!scope="row"|

| South Africa

|27 October 1966 (de jure) 21 March 1990

|Sam Nujoma

|U.N. Security Council Resolution 269

South African Border War

!scope="row"|

| Italian Eritrea Eritrea Province

| Kingdom of Italy Ethiopian Empire

|15 September 1952 (Federated with Ethiopia) 24 May 1993 independence)

|Isaias Afwerki

|Eritrean War of Independence

British Empire

thumb|The British Empire in 1959

thumb|British decolonisation in Africa. By 1980, each British colony was decolonised.

Ghana

On 6 March 1957, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonisation. Starting with the 1945 Pan-African Congress, the Gold Coast's (modern-day Ghana's) independence leader Kwame Nkrumah made his focus clear. In the conference's declaration, he wrote, "We believe in the rights of all peoples to govern themselves. We affirm the right of all colonial peoples to control their own destiny. All colonies must be free from foreign imperialist control, whether political or economic."

In 1948, three Ghanaian veterans were killed by the colonial police on a protest march. Riots broke out in Accra and though Nkrumah and other Ghanaian leaders were temporarily imprisoned, the event became a catalyst for the independence movement. After being released from prison, Nkrumah founded the Convention People's Party (CPP), which launched a wide-scale campaign in support of independence with the slogan "Self Government Now!" Heightened nationalism within the country grew their power and the political party widely expanded.

In February 1951, the CPP gained political power by winning 34 of 38 elected seats, including one for Nkrumah who was imprisoned at the time. The British government revised the Gold Coast Constitution to give Ghanaians a majority in the legislature in 1951. In 1956, Ghana requested independence inside the Commonwealth, which was granted peacefully in 1957 with Nkrumah as prime minister and Queen Elizabeth II as sovereign.

Winds of Change

Prime Minister Harold Macmillan gave the famous "Wind of Change" speech in South Africa, in February 1960, where he spoke to the country's Parliament of "the wind of change blowing through this continent". Macmillan urgently wanted to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria. Under his premiership, decolonisation proceeded rapidly.

Britain's remaining colonies in Africa, except for Southern Rhodesia, were all granted independence by 1968. British withdrawal from the southern and eastern parts of Africa was not a peaceful process. Kenyan independence was preceded by the eight-year Mau Mau rebellion. In Rhodesia, the 1965 Unilateral Declaration of Independence by the white minority resulted in a civil war that lasted until the Lancaster House Agreement of 1979, which set the terms for recognised independence in 1980, as the new nation of Zimbabwe.

Britain has moved to return its last British-occupied possession in Africa by signing a formal agreement in 2025 transferring sovereignty over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Under the terms of the agreement, the strategic atoll of Diego Garcia and its 38-kilometre buffer zone are immediately returned to Mauritius. This agreement allows for the continued operation of the joint Anglo-American base on Diego Garcia.

Belgium

thumb|Equestrian statue of [[Leopold II of Belgium, the sovereign of the Congo Free State from 1885 to 1908, Regent Place in Brussels, Belgium]]

Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had a small concession in China (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco.

Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony, about 76 times larger than Belgium itself, known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State, which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II. The violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction had led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinité coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced extensive urbanisation and the administration aimed to make it into a "model colony". As the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, as the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville in 1960.

Of Belgium's other colonies, the most significant was Ruanda-Urundi, a portion of German East Africa, which was given to Belgium as a League of Nations mandate, when Germany lost all of its colonies at the end of World War I. After the Second World War and the establishment of the United Nations, Ruanda-Urundi became a United Nations trust territory which replaced the League of Nations mandate system. Following the Rwandan Revolution, the trusteeship became the independent states of the Republic of Rwanda and the Kingdom of Burundi in 1962.

French colonial empire

thumb|The [[French Community in Africa in 1959]]

[[File:European settlement in Africa map1962.png|thumb|Geographic distribution of Europeans and their descendants on the African continent in 1962:

]]

The French colonial empire began to fall during World War II when the Vichy France regime controlled the Empire. One after another, most of the colonies were occupied by foreign powers with Japan in Indochina, Britain in Syria, Lebanon, and Madagascar, the United States and Britain in Morocco and Algeria, and Germany and Italy in Tunisia. Control was gradually reestablished by Charles de Gaulle, who used the colonial bases as a launching point to help expel the Vichy government from Metropolitan France. De Gaulle, together with most Frenchmen, was committed to preserving the Empire in its new form. The French Union, included in the Constitution of 1946, nominally replaced the former colonial empire, but officials in Paris remained in full control. The colonies were given local assemblies with only limited local power and budgets. A group of elites, known as evolués, who were natives of the overseas territories but lived in metropolitan France emerged.

De Gaulle assembled a major conference of Free France colonies in Brazzaville, in central Africa, in January–February 1944. The survival of France depended on support from these colonies, and De Gaulle made numerous concessions. These included the end of forced labour, the end of special legal restrictions that applied to natives but not to whites, the establishment of elected territorial assemblies, representation in Paris in a new "French Federation", and the eventual representation of Sub-Saharan Africans in the French Assembly. However, Independence was explicitly rejected as a future possibility:

:The ends of the civilizing work accomplished by France in the colonies excludes any idea of autonomy, all possibility of evolution outside the French bloc of the Empire; the eventual Constitution, even in the future of self-government in the colonies is denied.

Conflicts

After World War II ended, France was immediately confronted with the beginnings of the decolonisation movement. In Algeria demonstrations in May 1945 were repressed with an estimated 20,000-45,000 Algerians killed. Unrest in Haiphong, Indochina, in November 1945 was met by a warship bombarding the city. Paul Ramadier's (SFIO) cabinet repressed the Malagasy Uprising in Madagascar in 1947. French officials estimated the number of Malagasy killed from as low as 11,000 to a French Army estimate of 89,000.

In Cameroon, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon's insurrection which began in 1955 headed by Ruben Um Nyobè, was violently repressed over two years, with perhaps as many as 100,000 people killed.

Algeria

French involvement in Algeria stretched back a century. Ferhat Abbas and Messali Hadj's movements marked the period between the two wars, but both sides radicalised after the Second World War. In 1945, the Sétif and Guelma massacre was carried out by the French army. The Algerian War started in 1954. Atrocities characterised both sides, and the number killed became highly controversial estimates that were made for propaganda purposes. Algeria was a three-way conflict due to the large number of "pieds-noirs" (Europeans who had settled there in the 125 years of French rule). The political crisis in France caused the collapse of the Fourth Republic, as Charles de Gaulle returned to power in 1958 and finally pulled the French soldiers and settlers out of Algeria by 1962. Lasting more than eight years, the estimated death toll typically falls between 300,000 and 400,000 people. By 1962, the National Liberation Front was able to negotiate a peace accord with de Gaulle, the Évian Accords in which Europeans would be able to return to their native countries, remain in Algeria as foreigners or take Algerian citizenship. Most of the one million Europeans in Algeria poured out of the country.

French Community

thumb|The [[Special member state territories and the European Union|special territories of the European Union, ]]

French conservatives were disillusioned with the colonial experience after the disasters in Indochina and Algeria. They wanted to cut all ties to the numerous colonies in French Sub-Saharan Africa. During the war, had successfully based his Free France movement and the African colonies. After a visit in 1958, he made a commitment to make sub-Saharan French Africa a major component of his foreign-policy. The French Union was replaced in the new Constitution of 1958 by the French Community. Only Guinea refused by referendum to take part in the new colonial organisation. However, the French Community dissolved itself amid the Algerian War; almost all of the other African colonies were granted independence in 1960, following local referendums. Some colonies chose instead to remain part of France, under the status of overseas départements (territories). Critics of neocolonialism claimed that the Françafrique had replaced formal direct rule. They argued that while de Gaulle was granting independence, on one hand, he was creating new ties with the help of Jacques Foccart, his counsellor for African matters. Foccart supported in particular the Nigerian Civil War during the late 1960s.

Robert Aldrich argues that with Algerian independence in 1962, it appeared that the Empire practically had come to an end, as the remaining colonies were quite small and lacked active nationalist movements. However, there was trouble in French Somaliland (Djibouti), which became independent in 1977. There also were complications and delays in the New Hebrides Vanuatu, which was the last to gain independence in 1980. New Caledonia remains a special case under French suzerainty. The Indian Ocean island of Mayotte voted in a referendum in 1974 to retain its link with France and forgo independence.

Portugal

thumb|[[Portuguese Empire in the 20th century with dates of loss of colonies]]

Unlike other European nations during the 1950s and 1960s, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime did not withdraw from its African colonies. During the 1960s, various armed independence movements became active in Portuguese Africa. The Portuguese Colonial War, also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, was a 13-year-long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese regime at the time, the Estado Novo, was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, and the change in government brought the conflict to an end. From May 1974 to the end of the 1970s, over 500,000 Portuguese citizens from Portugal's African territories (mostly from Portuguese Angola and Mozambique) left those territories as refugees—the retornados.

United States

Colony of Liberia

The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia—after declaring independence in 1847.

{| class="wikitable sortable"

|+Countries that have gained independence from United States

! Country

! Colonial name

! Colonial power

! data-sort-type="date" | Independence date

! First head of state

! Independence won through

| Liberia

| (American Colonization Society)

| 26 July 1847

| Joseph Jenkins Roberts

| Liberian Declaration of Independence

Acquisition of sovereignty

{| class="wikitable sortable tpl-blanktable"

!Country

!Date of acquisition of sovereignty

!Acquisition of sovereignty

|French recognition of Algerian referendum on independence held two days earlier

|Independence from Portugal

|Independence from France

|Independence from the United Kingdom

|Independence from France

|Independence from Belgium

|24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975

|Independence from Portugal

| rowspan="3" |Independence from France

|Independence from France declared

|Independence from Belgium

| rowspan="2" |Independence from France

|The UK ends its protectorate, granting independence to Egypt

|Independence from Spain

|1 June 1936 5 May 1941 19 May 1941 10 February 1947 19 February 1951 15 September 1952

|Abyssinian campaign, independence from Ethiopia declared

|Independence from the United Kingdom under the name Swaziland

|Dʿmt

|Independence from France

| rowspan="2" |Independence from the United Kingdom

|Independence from France

|24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975

|Independence from Portugal declared

|Autonomous republic within French Community

|Independence from France

| rowspan="2" |Independence from the United Kingdom

|Independence from American Colonization Society

|Independence from United Nations Trusteeship Council (British and French administration after Italian governance ends in 1947)

| rowspan="2" |

|The Malagasy Republic was created as autonomous state within French Community

|France recognises Madagascar's independence

|Independence from the United Kingdom

| rowspan="2" |

|French Sudan gains autonomy

|24 November 1958 4 April 1959 20 June 1960 20 August 1960 22 September 1960

| rowspan="2" |Independence from France

|Independence from the United Kingdom

|Independence from France and Spain

|Independence from Portugal

|Independence from South African rule

| rowspan="2" |

|Autonomy within French Community

|23 July 1900 13 October 1922 13 October 1946 26 July 1958 20 May 1957 25 February 1959 25 August 1958 3 August 1960 8 November 1960 10 November 1960

|Independence from France

|Independence from the United Kingdom

|Independence from Belgium

|Independence from Portugal

|25 November 1957 24 November 1958 4 April 1959 4 April 1960 20 August 1960 20 June 1960 22 September 1960 18 February 1965 30 September 1989

|Independence from France

| rowspan="2" |Independence from the United Kingdom

|20 July 1887 26 May 1925 1 June 1936 3 August 1940 19 August 1940 8 April 1941 25 February 1941 10 February 1947 1 April 1950 26 June 1960 1 July 1960

|Union of Trust Territory of Somaliland (former Italian Somaliland) and State of Somaliland (formerly British Somaliland)

| rowspan="2" |

|Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominion of the Union of South Africa and the UK

|Creation of the autonomous Union of South Africa from the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River

|Independence from Sudan after a civil war.

|Independence from Egyptian and British joint rule

|Independence of Tanganyika from the United Kingdom

| rowspan="2" |

|Autonomy within French Union

|Independence from France

| rowspan="2" |

|Self-government granted

| rowspan="2" |Independence from the United Kingdom

| rowspan="2" |

|Unilateral declaration of independence by Southern Rhodesia

|Recognised independence from the United Kingdom as Zimbabwe

Modern colonialism

thumb|right|World empires and colonies in 1550

thumb|World empires and colonies in 1800

Colonialism in the colonial era, mostly refers to Western European countries' colonisation of lands in the Americas, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The main European countries active in this form of colonisation included Spain, Portugal, France, the Tsardom of Russia (later Russian Empire and Soviet Union), the Kingdom of England (later Kingdom of Great Britain), the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium and the Kingdom of Prussia (now mostly Germany), and, beginning in the 18th century, the United States. Most of these countries had a period of almost complete dominance of world trade at some stage in the period from roughly 1500 to 1900. Beginning in the late 19th century, the Empire of Japan also engaged in settler colonisation, most notably in Hokkaido and Korea.

While some European colonisation focused on shorter-term exploitation of economic opportunities (Newfoundland, for example, or Siberia) or addressed specific goals such as settlers seeking religious freedom (Massachusetts), at other times long-term social and economic planning was involved for both parties, but more on the colonising countries themselves, based on elaborate theory-building (note James Oglethorpe's Province of Georgia in the 1730s and Edward Gibbon Wakefield's New Zealand Company in the 1840s). In some cases European colonisation appeared to be primarily for long-term economic gain, as in the Congo where Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness described life under the rule of King Leopold II of Belgium in the 19th century and Siddharth Kara has described colonial rule and European and Chinese influence in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Many African independence movements took place in the 20th century, when a wave of struggles for independence in European-ruled African territories were witnessed. World War II (1939-1945) served as the catalyst for many of these movements, as it devastated both the colonial empires and their African territories. The colonial powers were distracted by the war against Nazi Germany, and thus had less time and resources devoted to their colonies, weakening their influence.

After WW2, Harry Truman and Winston Churchill introduced the Atlantic Charter, which declared that the United States and Britain would "respect the right of all peoples to choose the form of government under which they will live". The United Nations was also formed, and colonial powers were required to make annual reports on their territories, and it gave Africans a voice to list their grievances. The end of WW2 also saw the decline of Britain and France, and the rise of the United States and the USSR, which did not support colonial Europe's overseas territories. The troops did not encounter significant resistance, and within 3 weeks, the occupation was officially declared on 5 July 1830. An estimated 6,000–45,000 Algerians were killed by the French army. Women took part as "combatants, spies, fundraisers, and couriers, as well as nurses, launderers, and cooks". Peace in the country did not last long. Shortly after gaining independence, the Algerian Civil War began. The civil war erupted from anger regarding one party rule and ever increasing unemployment rates in Algeria. In October 1988, young Algerian men took to the streets and participated in week-long riots. In addition, the Algerian war for independence inspired liberationists in South Africa. However, the liberationists were unsuccessful in implementing Algerian strategy into their independence movement.

African nationalism in Portuguese Africa

Portugal built a five-century global empire, starting overseas expansion in the 15th century. Innovations such as the caravel, better navigation tools, and the school at Sagres under Prince Henry the Navigator gave the small Atlantic nation an early lead. Explorers reached islands like Madeira and the Azores, pushed down the African coasts, and arrived in Asia, including Japan, by the 16th century. Portugal established forts and colonies across Africa, including Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, and territory around the Congo River such as Cabinda, Luanda, and Benguela. On the southeast coast, they controlled ports like Mozambique, Quelimane, and Lourenço Marques until Arab rivals from Oman took northern territories.

Weaknesses soon emerged. Portugal's small population and limited popular support meant few settlers, and convict exiles were sent to places like Angola. African economies under Portuguese control became dependent on the Atlantic slave trade, especially to Brazil. Although slavery was outlawed in stages, ending in 1858, powerful interests delayed change. Political instability at home during and after the Napoleonic Wars hindered colonial governance. Meanwhile, the Industrial Revolution increased European demand for African resources. Britain, tied to Portugal through long diplomatic and economic relations, pushed for free-trade access and often dominated commerce in Portuguese territories. Growing European competition in the 19th century led to disputes over regions such as the Shire Highlands (modern Malawi) and over control around the Congo River. British challenges to vague Portuguese claims set precedents requiring effective occupation, a principle formalised at the Congress of Berlin in 1884–85.

After World War II, Portugal renamed its colonies "Overseas Provinces" and resisted decolonisation. Modernisation followed, particularly in Angola and Mozambique. In the 1960s, nationalist movements, supported by the Eastern Bloc and others, launched liberation struggles. The resulting conflicts in Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique became known as the Portuguese Colonial War.

Portuguese Angola

thumb|Portuguese soldiers in [[Angola]]

In Portuguese Angola, the rebellion of the ZSN was taken up by the União das Populações de Angola (UPA), which changed its name to the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in 1962. On 4 February 1961, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) took credit for the attack on the prison of Luanda, where seven policemen were killed. On 15 March 1961, the UPA, in a tribal attack, started the massacre of white populations and black workers born in other regions of Angola. This region would be retaken by large military operations that, however, would not stop the spread of the guerrilla actions to other regions of Angola, such as Cabinda, the east, the southeast and the central plateaus.

Portuguese Guinea

thumb|An [[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) checkpoint in 1974]]

In Portuguese Guinea, the Marxist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) started fighting in January 1963. Its guerrilla fighters attacked the Portuguese headquarters in Tite, located to the south of Bissau, the capital, near the Corubal River. Similar actions quickly spread across the entire colony, requiring a strong response from the Portuguese forces.

The war in Guinea placed face to face Amílcar Cabral, the leader of PAIGC, and António de Spínola, the Portuguese general responsible for the local military operations. In 1965 the war spread to the eastern part of the country and in that same year the PAIGC carried out attacks in the north of the country where at the time only the minor guerrilla movement, the Struggle Front for the National Independence of Guinea (FLING), was fighting. By that time, the PAIGC started receiving military support from the Socialist Bloc, mainly from Cuba, a support that would last until the end of the war.

In Guinea the Portuguese troops mainly took a defensive position, limiting themselves to keeping the territories they already held. This kind of action was particularly devastating to the Portuguese troops who were constantly attacked by the forces of the PAIGC. They were also demoralised by the steady growth of the influence of the liberation supporters among the population that was being recruited in large numbers by the PAIGC.

With some strategic changes by António Spínola in the late 1960s, the Portuguese forces gained momentum and, taking the offensive, became a much more effective force. Between 1968 and 1972, the Portuguese forces took control of the situation and sometimes carried attacks against the PAIGC positions. At this time the Portuguese forces were also adopting subversive means to counter the insurgents, attacking the political structure of the nationalist movement. This strategy culminated in the assassination of Amílcar Cabral in January 1973. Nonetheless, the PAIGC continued to fight back and pushed the Portuguese forces to the limit. This became even more visible after PAIGC received anti-aircraft weapons provided by the Soviets, especially the 9K32 Strela-2 rocket launchers, thus undermining the Portuguese air superiority.

Portuguese Mozambique

Portuguese Mozambique was the last territory to start the war of liberation. Its nationalist movement was led by the Marxist–Leninist Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which carried out the first attack against Portuguese targets on 24 September 1964, in Chai, province of Cabo Delgado. The fighting later spread to Niassa, Tete at the centre of the country. A report from Battalion No. 558 of the Portuguese army makes references to violent actions, also in Cabo Delgado, on 21 August 1964. On 16 November of the same year, the Portuguese troops suffered their first losses fighting in the north of the country, in the region of Xilama. By this time, the size of the guerrilla movement had substantially increased; this, along with the low numbers of Portuguese troops and colonists, allowed a steady increase in FRELIMO's strength. It quickly started moving south in the direction of Meponda and Mandimba, linking to Tete with the aid of Malawi.

Until 1967 the FRELIMO showed less interest in Tete region, putting its efforts on the two northernmost districts of the country where the use of landmines became very common. In the region of Niassa, FRELIMO's intention was to create a free corridor to Zambézia. Until April 1970, the military activity of FRELIMO increased steadily, mainly due to the strategic work of Samora Machel in the region of Cabo Delgado. In the early 1970s, after Portugal's Operation Gordian Knot, the nationalist guerrilla was severely damaged.

Role of the Organisation of African Unity

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was founded May 1963. Its basic principles were co-operation between African nations and solidarity between African peoples. Another important objective of the OAU was an end to all forms of colonialism in Africa. This became the major objective of the organisation in its first years and soon OAU pressure led to the situation in the Portuguese colonies being brought up at the United Nations Security Council.

The OAU established a committee based in Dar es Salaam, with representatives from Ethiopia, Algeria, Uganda, Egypt, Tanzania, Zaire, Guinea, Senegal and Nigeria, to support African liberation movements. The support provided by the committee included military training and weapon supplies. The OAU also took action in order to promote the international acknowledgement of the legitimacy of the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE), composed of the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). This support was transferred to the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and to its leader, Agostinho Neto in 1967. In November 1972, both movements were recognised by the OAU in order to promote their merger. After 1964, the OAU recognised PAIGC as the legitimate representatives of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and in 1965 recognised FRELIMO for Mozambique.

Eritrea

Eritrea sits on a strategic location along the Red Sea between the Suez Canal and the Bab-el-Mandeb. Eritrea was an Italian colony from 1890 to 1941. On 1 April 1941, the British captured Asmara defeating the Italians and Eritrea fell under the British Military Administration. This military rule lasted from 1941 until 1952. On 2 December 1950, the United Nations General Assembly, by UN Resolution 390 A(V) federated Eritrea with Ethiopia. The architect of this federal act was the United States. The federation went into effect 11 September 1952. However, the federation was a non-starter for feudal Ethiopia, and it started to systematically undermine it. On 24 December 1958—the Eritrean flag was replaced by the Ethiopian flag; On 17 May 1960—The title "Government of Eritrea" of the Federation was changed to "Administration of Eritrea". Earlier Amharic was declared official language in Eritrea replacing Tigrinya and Arabic. Finally on 14 November 1962 -– Ethiopia officially annexed Eritrea as its 14th province.

The people of Eritrea, after finding out peaceful resistance against Ethiopia's rule was falling on deaf ears formed the Eritrean Liberation Movement in 1958. The founders of these independence movement were: Mohammad Said Nawud, Saleh Ahmed Iyay, Yasin al-Gade, Mohammad al-Hassen and Said Sabr. ELM members were organised in secret cells of seven. The movement was known as Mahber Shewate in Tigrinya and as Harakat Atahrir al Eritrea in Arabic. On 10 July 1960, a second independence movement, the Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF) was founded in Cairo. Among its founders were: Idris Mohammed Adem, President, Osman Salih Sabbe, Secretary General, and Idris Glawdewos as head of military affairs. These were among those who made up the highest political body known as the Supreme Council. On 1 September 1961, Hamid Idris Awate and his ELF unit attacked an Ethiopian police unit in western Eritrea (near Mt. Adal). This heralded the 30-year Eritrean war for independence. Between March and November 1970, three core groups that later made up the Eritrean People's Liberation Front (EPLF) split from the ELF and established themselves as separate units.

In September 1974, Emperor Haile Selassie was overthrown by a military coup in Ethiopia. The military committee that took power in Ethiopia is better known by its Amharic name the Derg. After the military coup the Derg broke ties with the U.S. and aligned with the Soviet Union, and the Soviet Union and its eastern bloc allies replaced the United States as patrons of Ethiopia's aggression against Eritrea. Between January and July 1977, the ELF and EPLF armies had liberated 95% of Eritrea, capturing all but 4 towns. However, in 1978–79, Ethiopia mounted a series of five massive Soviet-backed offensives and reoccupied almost all of Eritrea's major towns and cities, except for Nakfa. The EPLF withdrew to a mountain base in northern Eritrea, around the town of Nakfa. In 1980 the EPLF had offered a proposal for referendum to end the war, however, Ethiopia, thinking it had a military upper hand, rejected the offer and war continued. In February–June 1982, The EPLF managed to repulse Ethiopia's much heralded four-month "Red Star" campaign, also known as the 6th offensive by Eritreans, inflicting more than 31,000 Ethiopian casualties.

In 1984, the EPLF launched a counter-offensive and cleared the Ethiopian from the Northeastern Sahil front. In March 1988, the EPLF demolished the Ethiopian front at Afabet in a major offensive the British Historian Basil Davidson compared to the French defeat at Điện Biên Phủ. In February 1990, the EPLF liberated the strategic port of Massawa, and in the process destroyed a portion of the Ethiopian Navy. A year later, the war came to conclusion on 24 May 1991, when the Ethiopian army in Eritrea surrendered. Thus Eritrea's 30-year war crowned with victory.

On 24 May 1993, after a UN-supervised referendum on 23–25 April 1993, in which the Eritrean people overwhelmingly, 99.8%, voted for independence, Eritrea officially declared its independence and gained international recognition.

Namibia

thumb|[[South African National Defence Force soldiers pose with a captured flag of Germany after their successful invasion of South West Africa in 1915.]]

thumb|A South African military convoy in present-day [[Namibia in 1978]]

At the onset of World War I, the Union of South Africa participated in the invasion and occupation of several Allied territories taken from the German Empire, most notably German South West Africa and German East Africa in present-day Namibia and Tanzania respectively. Germany's defeat forced the new Weimar Republic to cede its overseas possessions to the League of Nations as mandates. A mandate over South-West Africa was conferred upon the United Kingdom, "for and on behalf of the government of the Union of South Africa", which was to handle administrative affairs under the supervision of the league. South-West Africa was classified as a "C" mandate, or a territory whose population sparseness, small size, remoteness, and geographic continuity to the mandatory power allowed it to be governed as an integral part of the mandatory itself. Nevertheless, the League of Nations obliged South Africa to promote social progress among indigenous inhabitants, refrain from establishing military bases there, and grant residence to missionaries of any nationality without restriction. Article 7 of the South-West Africa mandate stated that the consent of the league was required for any changes in the terms of the mandate.

With regards to the local German population, the occupation was on especially lenient terms; South Africa only repatriated civil and military officials, along with a small handful of political undesirables. Other German civilians were allowed to remain. In 1924 all white South-West Africans were automatically naturalised as South African nationals and British subjects thereof; the exception being about 260 who lodged specific objections. In 1926 a Legislative Assembly was created to represent German, Afrikaans, and English-speaking white residents. Control over basic administrative matters, including taxation, was surrendered to the new assembly, while matters pertaining to defence and native affairs remained in the hands of an administrator-general.

Following World War II, South West Africa's international status after the dissolution of the League of Nations was questioned. The United Nations General Assembly refused South Africa permission to incorporate the mandate as a fifth province, largely due to its controversial policy of racial apartheid. At the General Assembly's request the issue was examined at the International Court of Justice. The court ruled in 1950 that South Africa was not required to transfer the mandate to UN trusteeship, but remained obligated to adhere to its original terms, including the submission of annual reports on conditions in the territory.

Led by newly elected Afrikaner nationalist D. F. Malan, the South African government rejected this opinion and refused to recognise the competence of the UN to interfere with South-West African affairs. In 1960 Ethiopia and Liberia, the only two other former League of Nations member states in Africa, petitioned the Hague to rule in a binding decision that the league mandate was still in force and to hold South Africa responsible for failure to provide the highest material and moral welfare of black South West Africans. It was pointed out that nonwhite residents were subject to all the restrictive apartheid legislation affecting nonwhites in South Africa, including confinement to reserves, colour bars in employment, pass laws, and "influx control" over urban migrants. A South African attempt to scupper proceedings by arguing that the court had no jurisdiction to hear the case was rejected; conversely, however, the court itself ruled that Ethiopia and Liberia did not possess the necessary legal interest entitling them to bring the case.

In October 1966 the General Assembly declared that South Africa had failed to fulfil its obligations as the mandatory power and had in fact disavowed them. The mandate was unilaterally terminated on the grounds that the UN would now assume direct responsibility for South-West Africa. In 1967 and 1969 the UN called for South Africa's disengagement and requested the Security Council to take measures to oust the South African Defence Force from the territory that the General Assembly, at the request of black leaders in exile, had officially renamed Namibia. One of the greatest aggravating obstacles to eventual independence occurred when the UN also agreed to recognise the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO), then an almost exclusively Ovambo body, as the sole authentic representative of the Namibian population. South Africa was offended by the General Assembly's simultaneous dismissal of its various internal Namibian parties as puppets of the occupying power. Furthermore, SWAPO espoused a militant platform which called for independence through UN activity, including military intervention.

By 1965 SWAPO's morale had been elevated by the formation of a guerrilla wing, the People's Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN), which forced the deployment of South African Police troops along the long and remote northern frontier. The first armed clashes between PLAN cadres and local security forces took place in August 1966.

Legacy

An extensive body of literature has examined the legacy of colonialism and colonial institutions on economic outcomes in Africa, with numerous studies showing disputed economic effects. Modernisation theory posits that colonial powers built infrastructure to integrate Africa into the world economy; however, this was built mainly for extraction purposes. African economies were structured to benefit the coloniser and any surplus was likely to be 'drained', thereby stifling local capital accumulation. Dependency theory suggests that most African economies continued to occupy a subordinate position in the world economy after independence with a reliance on primary commodities such as copper in Zambia and tea in Kenya. Despite this continued reliance and unfair trading terms, a meta-analysis of 18 African countries found that a third of them experienced increased economic growth post-independence. In the immediate post-independence period, African countries largely retained colonial legislation. However, by 2015 much colonial legislation had been replaced by laws that were written locally.

Notes

References

External links

Africa: 50 years of independence Radio France Internationale in English
"Winds of Change or Hot Air? Decolonization and the Salt Water Test" Legal Frontiers International Law Blog

Decolonisation of Africa

Background

External causes

Internal causes

Transition to independence

British Empire

Ghana

Winds of Change

Belgium

French colonial empire

Conflicts

Algeria

French Community

Portugal

United States

Colony of Liberia

Acquisition of sovereignty

Modern colonialism

African nationalism in Portuguese Africa

Portuguese Angola

Portuguese Guinea

Portuguese Mozambique

Role of the Organisation of African Unity

Eritrea

Namibia

Legacy

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links