Africa in the 20th Century

AP World History

Presentation Outline

1) Review of European Colonialism in Africa (1914)2) Decolonization3) Algeria4) Kenya5) Nigeria6) South Africa 7) Zimbabwe8) Portuguese Africa9) Rwanda10) Ethiopia11) Africa and the Cold War

1) European Colonialism in Africa 1914• At the beginning of WWI in 1914 nearly

all of Africa was under European colonial control except Liberia and Ethiopia• The French controlled much of North

and West Africa, while the British controlled parts of West and East Africa, as well as Egypt, Sudan, and much of Southern Africa

Africa after WW1

• Many Africans fought as colonial troops on the British ,French, and German sides during the First World War• The outcome of the war did little for the

self-determination aspirations of Africans• Germany’s African colonies were

transferred to British and French control

African troops from Senegal being directed by French officers on the Western Front in 1914

A colonial unit on parade in German East Africa in 1916.

African colonial troops in formation in British East Africa, 1916.

2) Decolonization

• The process of Decolonization which began in the Middle East in the post-World War One period, and spread to Asia after World War Two, finally reached Africa in the late 1950s, 1960s, and lasted well into the 1970s

• In the majority of cases European powers voluntarily gave up their colonial possessions

• In some cases (French Algeria, Portuguese Angola and Mozambique) European powers desperately tried to hold on to power and waged wars against indigenous revolutionary groups

• Ultimately, all former colonies would eventually achieve independence

3) Algeria• French Morocco and Tunisia were granted

independence in the 1950s relatively peacefully• However, over 1 million French citizens resided in

Algeria, primarily Algiers and Oran, and they actively pressured France to keep Algeria French

• From 1954 to 1962 the National Liberation Front of Algeria waged war against the French army

• Hundreds of thousands of Algerians died in this conflict

• The war became increasingly unpopular in France and there was pressure to end it

• Nearly all the resident French population fled to France in the early 1960s- pieds noirs

French troops in Algeria

Algerian FLN fighters

Communists and Socialists in France called for an end to the war and a negotiated settlement.

4) Kenya• From 1888 to 1962 Kenya was under British control

as part of British East Africa• The British had granted independence to several of

its former colonies in the 1940s and 1950s and was prepared to do so in East Africa

• From 1952-1960 The Kikuyu tribe of Kenya launched an uprising against British colonial rule called the Mau Mau Uprising

• The British army and its colonial allies put down the rebellion

• In 1963 independence was granted to Kenya• Like many new African states, Kenya has had growing

pains but has developed a presidential democracy

British troops detain suspected Mau Mau rebels in Kenya.

Mau Mau rebels

5) Nigeria

• From 1800 to 1960 Nigeria was part of British West Africa

• In response to African nationalism, Britain granted Nigeria independence in 1960

• Nigeria, like many newly independent African states, was an artificial whose borders had been determined by the colonial power

• Nigeria has over 250 different ethnic groups• Instability and ethnic divisions contributed to the Biafra

Civil War between 1967-1970• From independence until 1999 Nigeria alternated

between brief periods of democratic rule and military dictatorship

• Nigeria is currently a democracy and Africa’s most populous state

Refugees fleeing Biafra in 1969

Children in Biafra suffered the most.

6) South Africa

• From 1910 to 1961 South Africa was known as the Union of South Africa, a fully sovereign British Dominion• From 1961 to 1994 South Africa was a republic

ruled by the White Minority• The policy of apartheid lasted until 1994 when

Nelson Mandela was elected as the first president in post-apartheid South Africa• Today South Africa is a multi-party democracy with

Black majority rule and civil rights for its White minority

Features of Apartheid rule

• Only white South Africans could vote• Blacks were forced to live in townships

(shanty towns)• Blacks could only work or travel to the

majority cities if they has a pass• There was segregation in a public places,

including beaches, restaurants, and parks• Black resistance was met with force during

the Sharpeville Massacre 1960

Sharpeville Massacre

Resistance to Apartheid

• Nelson Mandela formed the African National Congress (ANC) to combat apartheid• Blacks rose up to oppose the introduction of

Afrikaans in their schools during the Soweto riots in 1976• International public opinion turned against

the racist South African regime• Several countries broke off relations with

South Africa, boycotted its products, and imposed sanctions

7) Zimbabwe

• From 1888 to 1965 Zimbabwe was a British colony called Southern Rhodesia

• Like South Africa, a powerful White minority ruled over a Black majority

• In 1965 Ian Smith’s Rhodesian Front unilaterally declared independence from Britain and continued an apartheid system in Rhodesia

• Immediately after this declaration a civil war broke out between two rival African armies and Smith’s government

• Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU)

• Joseph Nkomo’s Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU)

• After years of instability, Zimbabwe finally became a Black majority rule republic and held its first democratic elections in 1980

Mugabe’s Zimbabwe

• Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe continuously since 1980 as either prime minister or president• He ordered the massacre of Ndebele tribe who resisted

his rule• He seized land from White farmers and redistributed the

land to Black farmers• He has been accused by Amnesty International of

numerous human rights abuses

Robert Mugabe

8) Portuguese Africa (Mozambique and Angola)

• From the 17th Century until 1974 Mozambique and Angola were part of the Portuguese Empire in Africa• Like France, Portugal was intent on holding on to its

colonial possessions• From the early 1960s until 1974 the Portuguese army

fought on two fronts in a guerilla war against insurgents and revolutionaries from Angola and Mozambique• Like the pieds noirs in Algeria, there was a massive

exodus of Portuguese colonists from Portuguese Africa back to Portugal

9) Rwanda

• From 1884 to 1916 Rwanda was part of German East Africa• Belgian forces seized Rwanda and Burundi during World War

One and ruled them directly as Belgian colonies until 1962• The Belgians used the divide and rule principal so common to

European colonialism in Africa by favoring the Tutsi minority group over the Hutu majority• The Tutsis were allowed better access to education, and filled

many of the top bureaucratic posts• Civil war broke out between the Tutsis and Hutus in 1959 and

the Hutu majority declared independence in 1962• Thousands died and over 100,000 Tutsis went into exile

German East Africa

Rwandan Genocide

• Tensions between the Hutus and Tutsis had settled down for much of the 1970s and 1980s• However, in 1990 an army of Tutsi exiles invaded Northern Rwanda and set off a

civil war which culminated with the 1994 genocide of the Tutsi people and moderate Hutus by the Hutu government and its paramilitary allies• Between 500,000 and 1 million Rwandans are estimated to have been

slaughtered during the genocide• The United Nations was helpless to prevent the slaughter• Reconciliation efforts began in 2000 and Rwanda has stabilized politically and

economically

Tutsi refugees fleeing Hutu forces during the genocide.

Mass graves during the genocide

Interhamwe Hutu militia

10)Ethiopia• Along with Liberia, was the only African state that was not

colonized• Briefly occupied by Mussolini’s army from 1936-1941

(Abyssinian War)• Ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie from 1916-1974• Selassie modernized Ethiopia and abolished the slave trade

in 1942• From 1975 until 1991 Ethiopia was ruled as a socialist one

party republic• Throughout the 1980s Ethiopia experienced severe famines• Since 1991 Ethiopia has been a federal democratic republic,

a trend of democratization seen elsewhere in Africa Emperor Haile Selassie

11) Africa and the Cold War

• Africa was not excluded from the Cold War• Both the USA and the Soviet Union sought

regional allies and provided financial aid and assistance as incentives• The USA sponsored several anti-communist

guerilla movements• About half of Africa’s states stayed out of the

Cold War seeing it as an imperialist struggle and declared themselves non-aligned nations

Mozambique received financial aid from the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries throughout the 1980s and closely aligned its foreign policy to that of the Soviet Union- especially in its opposition to Apartheid era South Africa

Angola was closely aligned with the Soviet Union, Warsaw Pact, and Cuba during the Cold War. The Soviet Union funded the Angolan revolutionaries in their fight against Portuguese imperialism.