Africa

Egypt: Egypt became independent in 1955, but Nasser nationalized the Suez Canal (1956) and this led to the   Anglo– French invasion. International pressure forced them to withdraw after six   weeks,   and   the   Canal becameEgyptian property.

• Algeria: Algeria was a French colony with a million French settlers there. The French were humiliated after the defeat in Indochina. Oil was discovered in the Sahara (1956) so the Algerian independent movement (FLN) fought against French forces between 1956 and 1962 where Algeria became independent.
• Ghana: Ghana became independent in 1957 under the leadership of Kwame Nkrumah.
• Kenya: Kenya independence (1963) was achieved after a bloody conflict involving both tribal and independence problems.
• Rhodesia: Northern Rhodesia became the independent country of Zambia (1963), but the territory of Southern Rhodesia, dominated by a white minority, declared unilateral independence in 1965.

The following guerilla war was not concluded until the formation of Zimbabwe (1980) under the leadership of Robert Mugabe.

By 1960, all French colonies were independent but were closely linked to France commercially.

• The Belgian Congo: The Belgian Congo was also allowed independence in 1960. However the civil war that followed was not solved until the formation of Zaire in 1965.
• Libya: Libya became independent from Italy in 1951. At the beginning it was ruled by a monarchy but after a “coup d’état” Gaddafi established a dictatorship that lasted until recent times.
• Tunisia: Tunisia became independent, after some problems with terrorism, in 1956.
• Morocco: Morocco became independent the same year as Tunisia. Both were French colonies.
• The Portuguese were the last European colonists to lose control of their colonies: Angola and Mozambique declared their independence in 1975.
• In Subsaharian countries,  the independence  of the colonies was  agreed, between the strongest local powers and the metropolis. The new countries faced a lot of cultural, ethnic and religious problems.
• When South Africa reached indepence from Great Britain a racist regime was set on the country (Apartheid). Nelson Mandela was the leader of resistance and he became the first presidente of free South Africa after spendind 27 years on jail.