Decolonisation of Africa
The Decolonisation of Africa followed World War II, when colonised people agitated for independence and colonial powers withdrew their administrators from Africa.[1]
Background
During the Scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century, Western European powers divided Africa and its resources into colonies at the Berlin Conference of 1884-85.[2][3] By 1905, control of almost all African soil was claimed by Western European governments, with the only exceptions being Liberia (which had been settled by African-American former slaves) and Ethiopia (which had successfully resisted colonisation by Italy).[4] Britain and France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies. As a result of colonialism and imperialism, a majority of Africa lost sovereignty and control of natural resources such as gold and rubber. The introduction of imperial polices surfacing around local economies led to the failing of local economies due to an exploitation of resources and cheap labor.[5]
Causes
On February 12, 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the postwar world. The result was the Atlantic Charter.[6] It was not a treaty and was not submitted to the British Parliament or the Senate of the United States for ratification, but it turned to be a widely acclaimed document.[7] One of the provisions, introduced by Roosevelt, was the autonomy of imperial colonies. After World War II, the US and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the Atlantic Charter. After the war, some British considered African colonies to be childish and immature; British colonisers introduced democratic government at local levels in the colonies.
By the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small elite of leaders educated in Western universities and familiar with ideas such as self-determination. In some cases where the road to independence was fought, settled arrangements with the colonial powers were also being placed.[5] These leaders came to lead the struggles for independence, and included leading nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast, now Ghana), Julius Nyerere (Tanganyika, now Tanzania), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d'Ivoire).
One of the leaders Nkrumah strived towards independence and pan Africanism. Under British colonization and influence from indigenous elites Nkrumah endured innumerable amount of challenges towards full liberation.[8] In 1947 the elites established United Gold Coast Convention (UGCC) with the influence of British government. Through the UGCC, Nkrumah revealed his opposition towards the British by setting up newspapers, schools, and youth organizations in order to gain support from the community. After verbal and political attack from the UGCC, Nkrumah created his own movement known as the Convention Peoples Party (CPP). Through his nonviolent movement and his legislative victory in 1951, the British soon realized that Nkrumah will continue to fight towards full decolonization. Through the issues of neocolonialism, the United States suggest for Ghana and other independent states to align with them economically and politically in order to suppress colonialism.[9] Although Nkrumah efforts towards black unity, economic and political success was his goal, different views from fellow elites, a large amount of debt, and armed forces against decolonization became evident issues constructed from the European nations. In 1972, Nkrumah died of cancer and his plot towards Ghana's full independence withered away as well during his passing.[9]
Timeline
This table is the arranged by the earliest date of independence in this graph; 58 countries have seceded.
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See also
- Colonialism
- Decolonization
- Indépendance Cha Cha, a 1960 Congolese song widely considered as the anthem of African independence
- Economic history of Africa
- Scramble for Africa
- Wars of national liberation
- States and Power in Africa
- Year of Africa
Notes
- ↑ Birmingham, David (1995). The Decolonization of Africa. Routledge. ISBN 1-85728-540-9.
- ↑ "Berlin Conference of 1884-1885". http://www.oxfordreference.com. Retrieved 11 January 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ "A Brief History of the Berlin Conference". http://teacherweb.ftl.pinecrest.edu. Retrieved 11 January 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - ↑ Evans, Alistair. "Countries in Africa Considered Never Colonized". http://africanhistory.about.com. Retrieved 11 January 2015. External link in
|website=(help) - 1 2 Hunt, Michael (2017). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 264. ISBN 9780199371020.
- ↑ "The Atlantic Conference & Charter, 1941". https://history.state.gov. Retrieved 26 January 2015.
The Atlantic Charter was a joint declaration released by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill on August 14, 1941 following a meeting of the two heads of state in Newfoundland.
External link in|website=(help) - ↑ Karski, Jan (2014). The Great Powers and Poland: From Versailles to Yalta. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 330. ISBN 9781442226654. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
- ↑ Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 264.
- 1 2 Hunt, Michael (2014). The World Transformed 1945 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 267–268.
- ↑ Explanatory notes are added in cases where decolonization was achieved jointly by multiple countries or where the current country is formed by the merger of previously decolonized countries.
- ↑ Some territories changed hands multiple times, so in the list is mentioned the last colonial power. In addition, the mandatory or trustee powers are mentioned for territories that were League of Nations mandates and UN Trust Territories.
- ↑ The dates of decolonization for territories annexed by or integrated into previously decolonized independent countries are given in separate notes.
- ↑ The Union of South Africa was constituted through the South Africa Act entering into force on 31 May 1910. On 11 December 1931 it got increased self-governance powers through the Statute of Westminster which was followed by transformation into republic after the 1960 referendum. Afterwards, South Africa was under apartheid regime until elections resulting from the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa on 27 April 1994 when Nelson Mandela became president.
- ↑ Transcontinental country, partially located in Asia.
- ↑ On 28 February 1922 the British government issued the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence. Through this declaration, the British government unilaterally ended its protectorate over Egypt and granted it nominal independence with the exception of four "reserved" areas: foreign relations, communications, the military and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan.[16] The Anglo–Egyptian treaty of 1936 reduced British involvement, but still was not welcomed by Egyptian nationalists, who wanted full independence from Britain, which was not achieved until the 1952 revolution. The last British troops left Egypt after the Suez Crisis of 1956.
- ↑ King, Joan Wucher (1989) [First published 1984]. Historical Dictionary of Egypt. Books of Lasting Value. American University in Cairo Press. pp. 259–260. ISBN 978-977-424-213-7.
- ↑ Anglo-Egyptian Condominium Agreement of 1899, stated that Sudan should be jointly governed by Egypt and Britain, but with real power remaining in British hands.[18]
- ↑ Robert O. Collins, A History of Modern Sudan
- ↑ See Tunisian independence.
- ↑ Cape Juby was ceded by Spain to Morocco on 2 April 1958. Ifni was returned from Spain to Morocco on 4 January 1969.
- ↑ The British Togoland mandate and trust territory was integrated into Gold Coast colony on 13 December 1956.
- ↑ After the French Cameroun mandate and trust territory gained independence it was joined by part of the British Cameroons mandate and trust territory on 1 October 1961. The other part of British Cameroons joined Nigeria.
- ↑ Minor armed insurgency from Union of the Peoples of Cameroon.
- ↑ Senegal and French Sudan gained independence on 20 June 1960 as the Mali Federation, which dissolved a few months later into present day Senegal and Mali.
- ↑ The Trust Territory of Somalia (former Italian Somaliland) united with the State of Somaliland (former British Somaliland) on 1 July 1960 to form the Somali Republic (Somalia).
- ↑ Part of the British Cameroons mandate and trust territory on 1 October 1961 joined Nigeria. The other part of British Cameroons joined the previously decolonized French Cameroun mandate and territory.
- 1 2 After both gained independence Tanganyika and Zanzibar merged on 26 April 1964.
- ↑ The Sultanate of Zanzibar would later be overthrown within a month of sovereignty by the Zanzibar Revolution.
- ↑ Due the Rhodesia's unwillingness to accommodate the British government's request for black majority rule, the United Kingdom (along with the rest of the international community) refused to recognize the white-minority led government. The former self-governing colony would not be recognized as an independent state until the aftermath of the Rhodesian Bush War, under the name Zimbabwe.
- ↑ Although the fight for Cape Verdean independence were linked to the liberation movement occurring in Guinea-Bissau, the island country itself saw little fighting.
- ↑ The Spanish colonial rule de facto terminated over the Western Sahara (then Spanish Sahara), when the territory was passed on to and partitioned between Mauritania and Morocco (which annexed the entire territory in 1979). The decolonization of Western Sahara is still pending, while a declaration of independence has been proclaimed by the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, which controls only a small portion east of the Moroccan Wall. The UN still considers Spain the legal administrating country of the whole territory,[32] awaiting the outcome of the ongoing Manhasset negotiations and resulting election to be overseen by the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara. However, the de facto administrator is Morocco (see United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories).
- ↑ UN General Assembly Resolution 34/37 and UN General Assembly Resolution 35/19
References
- Ali A. Mazrui ed. "General History of Africa" vol. VIII, UNESCO, 1993
- Chafer, Tony. The end of empire in French West Africa: France's successful decolonization (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002).
- Clayton, Anthony. The wars of French decolonization (Routledge, 2014).
- Cooper, Frederick. Decolonization and African society: The labor question in French and British Africa (Cambridge University Press, 1996).
- Michael Crowder. "The Story of Nigeria" Faber and Faber, London, 1978 (1962)
- Dávila, Jerry. "Hotel Tropico: Brazil and the challenge of African Decolonization, 1950–1980." Duke University Press, 2010. ISBN 978-0822348559
- Gordon, April A. and Donald L. Gordon, Lynne Riener. Understanding Contemporary Africa (London, 1996).
- Rothermund, Dietmar. The Routledge companion to decolonization (Routledge, 2006), comprehensive global coverage; 365pp*Kevin Shillington "History of Africa" St. Martin's Press, New York, 1995 (1989)
- Khapoya, Vincent B. The African Experience (1994)
- White, Nicholas. Decolonization: the British experience since 1945 (Routledge, 2014).
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