Download Modern World History Assign. #5-2 *Africa in the 20th Century*

Modern
World
History
Assign.
#5-4
“Africa in
the 20th
Century”
Division of Africa (#1)
• The scramble for Africa
began in full by 1880 with
the French now in West
Africa and diamonds and
gold discovered in South
Africa
• Berlin Conference – a
meeting of 14 European
nations in 1884-1885 that
set rules for the dividing
of Africa into colonies so
that they could avoid war
between each other
• Only Liberia and Ethiopia
were the free nations by
1914
Demand for Raw
Materials Shapes
Colonies
• Africa provided raw
materials and resources like
tin, copper, diamonds, and
gold, but did not buy
European goods
• Europeans set up cash crop
plantations to grow
peanuts, palm oil, cocoa,
and rubber, which
displaced food crops grown
by farmers to feed their
families
Black African
Nationalism (#2)
• Négritude – means
“Blackness,” and stemmed
from the Pan-African, black
nationalism movement that
began in the U.S.
• it led to a revival of pride for
Africa’s great traditions,
values, and culture
• It was expressed by writers
and nationalist leaders,
particularly in French-held
territories in sub-Saharan
Africa (like Kwame Nkrumah
of Ghana)
Impact of WWII
on Africa (#3)
• African soldiers fought
alongside Europeans in
WWII
• The soldiers who returned
to Africa after the war were
unwilling to accept colonial
domination
• Europeans began to
question the cost and
morality of maintaining
colonies abroad
African
Independence
• A new urban African elite had
been forming that created
organizations that led grassroots
protests against African
imperialism
• European powers believed that
the African people were not ready
to rule themselves and planned a
slow transition to independence
• The presence of white settlers
complicated things as European
nations felt compelled to protect
them
• Independence was gained at
different paces and with varying
degrees of violence
Ghana Gains
Independence
Without Violence
(#4)
• Kwame Nkrumah – nationalist leaders like
him who conducted strikes and boycotts
in the Gold Coast were jailed and
repressed
• Great Britain gradually allowed reforms
and turned over power
• The Gold Coast became the first subSaharan nation to gain independence
from colonial rule (renamed itself Ghana)
• Nkrumah became a strong supporter for
Pan-African unity
Ghana received
its name from
an empire from
centuries earlier
as part of the
Négritude
movement
• White settlers pushed Kenyans off their
land in the 1930s
• Labor strikes and violence against these
landlords took place in the 1940s
• Militant nationalists began a civil war in
1947 and were labeled communists
• The British government launched military
offensives against the rebels and
suppressed all nationalists (violent or not)
and killed more than 10,000
• Finally the British gave in to local and
international calls for Kenyan
independence in 1963
• Jomo Kenyatta – a nationalist leader who
was jailed by the British for 10 years and
later became the first president of
independent Kenya and worked hard to
Young and
unite the different ethnic and language
old Jomo
groups in his nation
Kenya Turns
Violent (#4)
French Decolonization in Africa
• Like in French Indochina in
Southeast Asia, France
resisted giving up its colonial
possessions
• While focusing its efforts on
Vietnam (lost in 1954) and
Algeria (lost in 1962) it
allowed its other African
possessions to gain
independence
• Morocco and Tunisia were
given independence in 1956,
while 10 others gained it in
1960 (“The Year of Africa”)
Tunisia
Morocco
War in Algeria
(#5)
• The French fought for Algeria as it had
1 million French settlers living there
• A revitalized nationalist movement
was born in Algeria following WWII
• When French colonial police fired
shots at a peaceful demonstration of
Algerians in 1945 it set off a revolt,
which the French violently
suppressed
• The Algerian War for Independence
began in 1956
• National Liberation Front (FNL)
resorted to guerrilla warfare
• The French were trying to protect
their citizens and economic interests
there
• Hundreds of thousands died in the
fighting
• The war ended after 8 years in 1962
with Algeria gaining its independence
Algeria after
Independence (#5)
• The first president of an
independent Algeria tried to
create a socialist state
• He was overthrown in 1965 by
his army commander
• Algeria tried to modernize and
industrialize with limited success
from 1965 to 1988, and suffered
high unemployment rates
• Many Muslims wanted to make
Algeria an Islamic state
• A civil war broke out in 1991
between Islamic militants and
the government
• A dictatorship took power after a
ceasefire in the civil war in 1998
• Protests in 2011 led to promises
of political reforms and freedom
of speech, but little has changed
Congo Caught in Cold War Conflict (#6)
• Belgian Congo was probably the most brutal
European colony in Africa
• Independent in 1960 and became known as
Zaire in 1971, it is now the Democratic
Republic of the Congo in 1997
• A Marxist leaning prime minister was killed in
a military coup supported by the U.S. in 1961
• The new regime was led by a repressive and
extremely corrupt dictatorship led by Col.
Mobutu
• Though the dictator Mobutu was overthrown
in 1997, political stability has escaped the
nation (assassinations and civil war rebellions)
• It has been caught up in the civil wars in
neighboring Uganda and Rwanda and has seen
millions of its people die in the fighting
Prime Minister
Patrice Lumumba
Independence for
Angola (#7)
• Angola won its independence
from Portugal in 1975 after a
costly war lasting 14 years
• A civil war broke out between a
leftist group supported by the
USSR and an opposition group
supported by the U.S.
• Fighting lasted until 2002 and
resulted in 1 million people killed,
and 4 million (1/3 of the nation’s
population) displaced from their
homes
• Currently the fighting has stopped
and democratic elections have
taken place in recent years
Genocide in Rwanda
• Rwanda, a tiny African nation in East
Africa gained its independence from
Belgium in 1962
• The main ethnic groups, the Hutus
and the Tutsis, have fought an onand-off war for over 40 years since
• After a suspicious plane crash killed
the Rwandan president, a Hutu, in
1994 the Hutus slaughtered 1 million
Tutsis
• The Tutsis rebels finally overthrew
the Hutus and ended the fighting in
1996
• 2 million Hutus fled Rwanda to
neighboring nations following the
defeat
Negative Effects of Imperialism (#8)
• Africans lost their lands and
thousands lost their lives to
disease (smallpox), resistance
warfare, and famine due to cash
crop farming
• Traditional cultures destroyed as
leaders replaced, and people
forced to find new ways to
support themselves as
traditional ways of life destroyed
• The political division of once
unified people due to Europeans
drawing artificial borders to their
colonies that divided people
creating problems when these
nations became independent
Failure of Democratic Governments (#9)
• Europeans built mines and
plantations, but not factories
(which led to a small middle
class)
• Europeans also didn’t promote
widespread education, so not
prepared to run government
administration
• In most nations Europeans
didn’t support limited self-rule,
so African people had little
experience with democracy
• Rival groups often fought for
power
• Strong militaries were used by
ambitious leaders to dominate
the new governments
Nigeria After
Independence (#10)
• Nigeria gained its independence
peacefully from the British in 1960
• 3 major ethnic groups reside within
the borders of Nigeria
• Originally power was shared
between the three regions but
eventually civil war broke out in 1967
• The military dictatorship that ruled
Nigeria stepped down in 1979, only
to be replaced by another military
dictatorship in 1983
• Free elections finally took place in
1999
• Nigeria has become more unified and
has profited off of the sale of oil
• However, it still has problems of
violence, corruption, poverty, and
hunger
Apartheid in
South Africa
(#11)
• South Africa – Independent nation with
in the British Commonwealth in 1931
• Oppressive white regime denied black
majority of people basic political, civil,
and human rights
• White government, led by Afrikaner
National Party, put forth apartheid laws
that promoted “Separateness”
• Apartheid: promoted white supremacy
in South Africa through laws (whites
are minority, but get most land rights)
• Social contact between whites and
blacks was not allowed
• Segregation set up in schools,
hospitals, and neighborhoods
Apartheid in
South Africa
(#12)
• African National Congress (ANC) –
group that fought for rights for Africans
in South Africa
• some leaders like Nelson Mandela
were jailed
• Others were killed like Stephen Biko
• International pressure was put on
South Africa to end apartheid as many
nations imposed trade restrictions
• Under leadership of F. W. de Klerk in
late 1980s, the system of apartheid was
abolished
• Mandela released from prison, a new
constitution written, elections held in
1994, and Mandela becomes first black
president of South Africa
Problems Faced by New
Independent African Nations
• Extremely unequal distribution of
wealth with large-scale poverty
• Little industrial development
• Drought and cash crop farming has
led to severe famines (Ethiopia)
• Ethnic divisiveness lead to civil wars
in nations like Rwanda and Sudan
• Organization of African Unity (OAU) –
formed to prevent conflicts decided
to keep artificial boundaries to
prevent more conflicts
• Fledgling democracies often fell to
dictators who would not give up
power
AIDS Epidemic
(#13 & #14)
• AIDS (Acquired Immune
Deficiency Syndrome) – disease
that attacks the immune system
that was first detected in the
1980s
• Over 25 million have died from
the disease since, with over 45
million living with the HIV virus
that causes AIDS
• About 70% of the world’s HIV
and AIDS sufferers live in this
region, causing a tremendous
loss of economic productivity