Decolonisation of Africa

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The decolonisation of Africa was a series of political developments in Africa that spanned from the mid-1950s to 1975, during the Cold War. Colonial governments gave way to sovereign states in a process often marred by violence, political turmoil, widespread unrest, and organised revolts. Major events in the decolonisation of Africa included 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.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

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.^[6][7] Almost all the pre-colonial 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 recognized as independent by the United States in 1862^[8] 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^[9] but was later occupied by Italy in 1936.^[10] Britain and France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies.^[11] By 1977, 50 African countries had gained independence from European colonial powers.^{[12][better source needed]}

The early twentieth century was a time of rising nationalism throughout the world. The end of the First World War saw the breakup of the 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 Wilsonian Internationalism 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.^[13]

Many Africans fought in both World War and World War II. In the First World War, African labor was essential on the Western Front, and African soldiers fought in the Egypt and Palestine campaigns. 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.^[14] In the Second World War, Africans fought in both the European and Asian theatres of war.^[15]

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.^[16] This led to a deeper political awareness and the expectation of greater respect and self-determination, which went largely unfulfilled.^[17] 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.^[16]

On February 12, 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the post-war world. The result was the Atlantic Charter.^[18] 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 out to be a widely acclaimed document.^[19] 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".^[20] President Roosevelt regarded it as applicable across the world.^[21] Anticolonial politicians immediately saw it as relevant to colonial empires.^[22] The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, three years after the end of World War II, recognised all people as being born free and equal.^[23]

After World War II, the US and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the Atlantic Charter.^{[citation needed]} After the war, some Britons considered African colonies childish and immature.^{[citation needed]} British colonisers introduced democratic government at local levels in the colonies.^{[citation needed]} Britain was forced to agree but Churchill rejected the universal applicability of self-determination for subject nations.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[24] Furthermore, colonies such as Nigeria, Senegal and Ghana pushed for self-governance as colonial powers were exhausted by war efforts.^[25]

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.^[26]

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.^[27] For early African nationalists, decolonisation was a moral imperative around which a political movement could be assembled.^[28][29]

In the 1930s, the colonial powers had 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,^[11] and such figures as Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast, now Ghana), Julius Nyerere (Tanganyika, now Tanzania), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), Patrice Lumumba (DRC) and Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d'Ivoire) came to lead the struggles for African nationalism.

During the Second World War, some local African industries and towns expanded when U-boats patrolling the Atlantic Ocean impeded the shipping of raw materials to Europe.^{[12][better source needed]}

Over time, urban communities, industries, and trade unions grew, improving literacy and education, and leading to the establishment of pro-independence newspapers.^{[12][better source needed]}

By 1945, the Fifth Pan-African Congress demanded the end of colonialism, and delegates included future presidents of Ghana, Kenya and Malawi among other nationalist activists.^[30]

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."^[31] 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.^{[citation needed]} This allowed African nationalists to negotiate decolonisation very quickly and with minimal casualties.^{[citation needed]} Some territories, however, saw large death tolls as a result of their fight for independence.^{[citation needed]}

Historian James Meriweather argues that American policy towards Africa was characterized 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 communist and not especially democratic. Meriweather argues that nongovernmental organizations 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.^[32]

African countries that have gained independence

Country[a]	Colonial name	Colonial power[b]	Independence date[c]	First head of state[d]	Independence won through
Ethiopian Empire	N/A	N/A	N/A	Yekuno Amlak	Never Colonized[33] Occupied by Italy briefly
Liberia	Liberia	United States	26 July 1847[e]	Joseph Jenkins Roberts[f] William Tubman	Liberian Declaration of Independence
South Africa[g]	Cape Colony Colony of Natal Orange River Colony Transvaal Colony	United Kingdom	31 May 1910[h]	Louis Botha	South Africa Act 1909 Remained under white minority rule until 1994.
Egypt[i]	Sultanate of Egypt		28 February 1922[j]	Fuad I[k]	Egyptian revolution of 1919
Emirate of Cyrenaica	British Military Administration	United Kingdom	1 March 1949	Idris
United Kingdom of Libya	British Military Administration Fezzan-Ghadames Military Territory Emirate of Cyrenaica	United Kingdom France Emirate of Cyrenaica	24 December 1951		Western Desert campaign
Libya[l]	Italian Libya[m]	Italy  United Kingdom	24 December 1951	Idris	Treaty of Peace with Italy, 1947 U.N. General Assembly Resolution 289[35]
Sudan	Anglo-Egyptian Sudan	United Kingdom[n] Egypt	1 January 1956[o]	Ismail al-Azhari[p]	–[q]
Tunisia[r]	French Tunisia	France  United Kingdom	20 March 1956	Muhammad VIII al-Amin Habib Bourguiba	–[s]
Morocco	French Morocco Tangier International Zone Spanish Morocco Spanish West Africa Ifni	France  Spain	2 March 1956[t] 7 April 1956 10 April 1958 4 January 1969 14 November 1975 27 February 1976	Mohammed V	Ifni War
Ghana[u]	Gold Coast	United Kingdom	6 March 1957[v]	Kwame Nkrumah[w]	1956 Gold Coast general election
Guinea	French West Africa	France	2 October 1958	Ahmed Sékou Touré	1958 Guinean constitutional referendum
Cameroon	Kamerun French Cameroon British Cameroon	German Empire  France  United Kingdom	4 March 1916 1 January 1960[x] 1 October 1961	Karl Ebermaier Ahmadou Ahidjo John Ngu Foncha	–[y]
Togo	French Togoland Togoland	France	27 April 1960	Sylvanus Olympio	–
Mali	French West Africa		20 June 1960[z]	Modibo Keïta	–
Senegal				Léopold Sédar Senghor	–
Madagascar[aa]	French Madagascar		26 June 1960	Philibert Tsiranana	–[ab]
Democratic Republic of the Congo[ac]	Belgian Congo	Belgium	30 June 1960	Joseph Kasa-Vubu	Belgo-Congolese Round Table Conference[ad]
Somalia[ae]	British Somaliland Trust Territory of Somaliland	United Kingdom  Italy	26 June 1960 1 July 1960[af]	Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal Aden Adde	–
Republic of Dahomey	Republic of Dahomey Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá	France Portugal	1 August 1960 31 July 1961[37]	Hubert Maga
Benin[ag]	French West Africa	France	1 August 1960	Hubert Maga	–
Niger			3 August 1960	Hamani Diori	–
Burkina Faso[ah]			5 August 1960	Maurice Yaméogo	–
Ivory Coast			7 August 1960	Félix Houphouët-Boigny	–
Chad	French Equatorial Africa		11–12 August 1960	François Tombalbaye	–
Central African Republic			13 August 1960	David Dacko	–
Republic of the Congo			14–15 August 1960	Fulbert Youlou	–
Gabon			16–17 August 1960	Léon M'ba	–
Nigeria	Colonial Nigeria British Cameroon	United Kingdom	1 October 1960 1 June 1961 1 October 1961[ai]	Nnamdi Azikiwe	–
Mauritania	French West Africa	France	28 November 1958 28 November 1960	Moktar Ould Daddah	–
Sierra Leone	Sierra Leone Colony and Protectorate	United Kingdom	27 April 1961	Milton Margai	–
Tanganyika[aj]	Tanganyika Territory		9 December 1961	Julius Nyerere	–
Burundi[ak]	German East Africa Ruanda-Urundi	Germany  Belgium	1 July 1919 1 July 1962	Mwambutsa IV of Burundi	–
Rwanda				Yuhi V Musinga Grégoire Kayibanda	Rwandan Revolution
Algeria	French Algeria	France	5 July 1962	Ahmed Ben Bella[al]	Algerian War Évian Accords
Uganda	Protectorate of Uganda	United Kingdom	9 October 1962	Milton Obote	–
Kenya	British East Africa		12 December 1963[am]	Jomo Kenyatta[w]	–[an]
Sultanate of Zanzibar[aj]	Sultanate of Zanzibar		10 December 1963	Jamshid bin Abdullah	–[ao]
Malawi	Nyasaland		6 July 1964[ap]	Hastings Banda[w]	–
Zambia	Northern Rhodesia		24 October 1964	Kenneth Kaunda	–
The Gambia	Gambia Colony and Protectorate		18 February 1965[aq]	Dawda Jawara[w]	–
Rhodesia  Zimbabwe	Southern Rhodesia		11 November 1965 (As Rhodesia)[ar]	Ian Smith	Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence
Botswana	Bechuanaland Protectorate		30 September 1960 – 1966[as]	Seretse Khama	–
Lesotho	Basutoland		4 October 1966	Leabua Jonathan[at]	–
Mauritius	Mauritius		12 March 1968	Seewoosagur Ramgoolam	–
Eswatini	Swaziland		6 September 1968	Sobhuza II	–
Equatorial Guinea	Kamerun French Cameroon  French Equatorial Africa British Cameroon Spanish Guinea	German Empire  France  United Kingdom  Spain	4 March 1916 1 January 1960 16–17 August 1960 [au] 1 October 1961 12 October 1968	Karl Ebermaier Ahmadou Ahidjo Léon M'ba John Ngu Foncha Francisco Macías Nguema	–
Guinea-Bissau	Portuguese Guinea	Portugal	24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975[av]	Luís Cabral João Bernardo Vieira Aristides Pereira Pedro Pires	Guinea-Bissau War of Independence
Mozambique[aw]	Portuguese Mozambique		25 June 1975	Samora Machel	Mozambican War of Independence
Cape Verde	Portuguese Cape Verde		5 July 1975	Aristides Pereira[ax]	Guinea-Bissau War of Independence[ay]
Comoros	French Comoros	France	6 July 1975	Ahmed Abdallah	1974 Comorian independence referendum
São Tomé and Príncipe	Portuguese São Tomé and Príncipe	Portugal	12 July 1975	Manuel Pinto da Costa	–
Angola[az]	Portuguese Angola		11 November 1975	Agostinho Neto	Angolan War of Independence
Seychelles	Crown Colony of the Seychelles	United Kingdom	29 June 1976	James Mancham	–
Djibouti	French Territory of the Afars and the Issas	France	27 June 1977	Hassan Gouled Aptidon	1977 Afars and Issas independence referendum
Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic[ba]	Spanish Sahara Southern Provinces Western Tiris	Spain  Morocco Mauritania	27 February 1976 independence not yet effected	El-Ouali Mustapha Sayed Mohamed Abdelaziz	Western Sahara War Western Sahara conflict
Namibia	South West Africa	South Africa	October 27, 1966 (de jure)[39] 21 March 1990	Sam Nujoma	U.N. Security Council Resolution 269 South African Border War
Eritrea	Italian Eritrea Eritrea Province	Italian Empire Ethiopian Empire	September 15th 1952 (Federated with Ethiopia)[40] May 24th 1993 independence)	Isaias Afwerki	Eritrean war of Independence

On 6 March 1957, Ghana (formerly the Gold Coast) became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain its independence from European colonisation.^[41] 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."^[42]

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!"^[43] 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.^[44]

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."^[45] Macmillan urgently wanted to avoid the same kind of colonial war that France was fighting in Algeria. Under his premiership decolonisation proceeded rapidly.^[46]

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 Uprising. 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.^[47]

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 urbanization 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. Following the Rwandan Revolution, the mandate became the independent states of Burundi and Rwanda in 1962.^[48]

The French colonial empire began to fall during the Second World War when the Vichy France regime controlled the Empire. One after another, most of the colonies were occupied by foreign powers (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.^[50][51][52]

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.^[53]

After the war 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.^[54] Unrest in Haiphong, Indochina, in November 1945 was met by a warship bombarding the city.^[55] 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.^[56]

In Cameroun, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon's insurrection which began in 1955 headed by Ruben Um Nyobé, was violently repressed over two years, with perhaps as many as 100,000 people killed.^[57]

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 massacre was carried out by the French army. The Algerian War started in 1954. Atrocities characterized both sides, and the number killed became highly controversial estimates that were made for propaganda purposes.^[58] 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.^[59][60] Lasting more than eight years, the estimated death toll typically falls between 300,000 and 400,000 people.^[61] By 1962, the National Liberation Front was able to negotiate a peace accord with French President Charles de Gaulle, the Évian Accords^[62] 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.^[63]

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.^[64]

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.^[65] The Indian Ocean island of Mayotte voted in referendum in 1974 to retain its link with France and forgo independence.^[66]

Sweden temporarily controlled several settlements on the Gold Coast (present Ghana) from 22 April 1650 to 20 April 1663, when Fort Carlsborg and the capital Fort Christiansborg were seized by Denmark.

In 1652, the Swedes took Cape Coast (in modern Ghana) which had previously been under the control of the Dutch and before that the Portuguese. Cape Coast was centered on the Carolusburg Castle which was built in 1653 and named after King Charles X Gustav of Sweden but is now known as the Cape Coast Castle.

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.

Countries that have gained independence from United States

Country	Colonial name	Colonial power	Independence date	First head of state	Independence won through
Liberia	Liberia	United States (American Colonization Society)	26 July 1847[bb]	Joseph Jenkins Roberts[bc] William Tubman	Liberian Declaration of Independence

Country	Date of acquisition of sovereignty	Acquisition of sovereignty
Algeria	3 July 1962	French recognition of Algerian referendum on independence held two days earlier
Angola	11 November 1975	Independence from Portugal
Benin	1 August 1960	Independence from France
Botswana	30 September 1966	Independence from the United Kingdom
Burkina Faso	5 August 1960	Independence from France
Burundi	1 July 1962	Independence from Belgium
Cabo Verde	24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975[bd]	Independence from Portugal
Cameroon	1 January 1960	Independence from France
Central African Republic	13 August 1960	Independence from France
Chad	11 August 1960	Independence from France
Comoros	6 July 1975	Independence from France declared
Democratic Republic of the Congo	30 June 1960	Independence from Belgium
Republic of Congo	15 August 1960	Independence from France
Djibouti	27 June 1977	Independence from France
Egypt	28 February 1922	The UK ends its protectorate, granting independence to Egypt
Equatorial Guinea	12 October 1968	Independence from Spain
Eritrea	1 June 1936 5 May 1941 19 May 1941 10 February 1947 19 February 1951 15 September 1952	Abyssinian campaign Independence from Ethiopia declared
Eswatini	6 September 1968	Independence from the United Kingdom under the name Swaziland
Ethiopia	5 May 1941	Abyssinian campaign
Gabon	17 August 1960	Independence from France
Gambia	18 February 1965	Independence from the United Kingdom
Ghana	6 March 1957	Independence from the United Kingdom
Guinea	2 October 1958	Independence from France
Guinea-Bissau	24 September 1973 10 September 1974 (recognised) 5 July 1975[be]	Independence from Portugal declared
Ivory Coast	4 December 1958	Autonomous republic within French Community
Ivory Coast	7 August 1960	Independence from France
Kenya	12 December 1963	Independence from the United Kingdom
Lesotho	4 October 1966	Independence from the United Kingdom
Liberia	26 July 1847	Independence from American Colonization Society
Libya	24 December 1951	Independence from UN Trusteeship (British and French administration after Italian governance ends in 1947)
Madagascar	14 October 1958	The Malagasy Republic was created as autonomous state within French Community
	26 June 1960	France recognizes Madagascar's independence
Malawi	6 July 1964	Independence from the United Kingdom
Mali	25 November 1958	French Sudan gains autonomy
	24 November 1958 4 April 1959 20 June 1960 20 August 1960 22 September 1960	Independence from France
Mauritania	28 November 1960	Independence from France
Mauritius	12 March 1968	Independence from the United Kingdom
Morocco	7 April 1956	Independence from France and Spain
Mozambique	25 June 1975	Independence from Portugal
Namibia	21 March 1990	Independence from South African rule
Niger	4 December 1958	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
Nigeria	1 October 1960	Independence from the United Kingdom
Rwanda	1 July 1962	Independence from Belgium
São Tomé and Príncipe	12 July 1975	Independence from Portugal
Senegal	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
Seychelles	29 June 1976	Independence from the United Kingdom
Sierra Leone	27 April 1961	Independence from the United Kingdom
Somalia	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 Somalia (former Italian Somaliland) and State of Somaliland (formerly British Somaliland)
South Africa	11 December 1931	Statute of Westminster, which establishes a status of legislative equality between the self-governing dominion of the Union of South Africa and the UK
	31 May 1910	Creation of the autonomous Union of South Africa from the previously separate colonies of the Cape, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River
South Sudan	9 July 2011	Independence from Sudan after a civil war.
Sudan	1 January 1956	Independence from Egyptian and British joint rule
Tanzania	9 December 1961	Independence of Tanganyika from the United Kingdom
Togo	30 August 1958	Autonomy within French Union
	27 April 1960	Independence from France
Tunisia	20 March 1956	Independence from France
Uganda	1 March 1962	Self-government granted
	9 October 1962	Independence from the United Kingdom
Zambia	24 October 1964	Independence from the United Kingdom
Zimbabwe	11 November 1965	Unilateral declaration of independence by Southern Rhodesia
	18 April 1980	Recognized independence from the United Kingdom as Zimbabwe

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 colonization included Spain, Portugal, France, the Tsardom of Russia (later Russian Empire and Soviet Union), the Kingdom of England (later Great Britain), the Netherlands, Belgium^[67] 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, Imperial Japan also engaged in settler colonization, 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 colonizing countries themselves, based on elaborate theory-building (note James Oglethorpe's Colony of Georgia in the 1730s and Edward Gibbon Wakefield's New Zealand Company in the 1840s).^[68] In some cases European colonization 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.^[67]

Colonisation may be used as a method of absorbing and assimilating foreign people into the culture of the imperial country. One instrument to this end is linguistic imperialism, or the use of non-indigenous colonial languages to the exclusion of any indigenous languages from administrative (and often, any public) use.^[69]

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 .^[70]

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.^[71] 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.^[72] 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.^[71]

Scholars including Dellal (2013), Miraftab (2012) and Bamgbose (2011) have argued that Africa's linguistic diversity has been eroded.^{[full citation needed]} Language has been used by western colonial powers to divide territories and create new identities, which have led to conflicts and tensions between African nations.^[73]

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.^[74]

• History of Africa#1951 – present
• Postcolonial Africa
• Economic history of Africa
• List of European colonies in Africa
• List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa
• States and Power in Africa
• Africa–United States relations
• Wars of national liberation
• Women in the decolonisation of Africa
• Year of Africa

• 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