1- Angola

Angola is located along the coast of southwestern Africa, with its northern oil-rich Cabinda region separated from the rest of the country by Congolese territory and the estuary of the Congo River. It gets its name from the word ngola, which was the title of the local ruler in precolonial days.

The first known inhabitants of the region that is now Angola were Khoisan hunters and gatherers. By the 13th century, the Khoisan had been forced into less-fertile areas by Bantu groups that migrated into the area from western Africa. The metalworking Bantu soon developed several dominant kingdoms, notably the Kongo, Loango, and Mbundu, as well as such smaller kingdoms as Lunda in the northeast and Ovimbundu in the south.

In the late 15th century, Portugal began exploring the Angolan coast. It soon developed a strong slave trade in the region and sent many enslaved Africans to the Portuguese colony in Brazil. The ruler of the Kongo Empire, Manikongo (King) Nzinga Nkuwu, converted to Christianity during the early years of contact with the Portuguese, as did his successor, Afonso I. As the African slave trade prospered and grew, however, the authority of the king waned, and the Kongo were overrun by a warring nomadic group from the east in the late 16th century, several decades after Afonso's death.

The Portuguese began trying to extend their authority beyond the coastal area in the 17th century and appointed royal governors to rule over local populations. Those efforts were strongly resisted, however, and well into the 19th century, there were fewer than 2,000 Europeans in Angola. The slave trade continued unabated during those years nonetheless, resulting in the forced removal of an estimated 3 million people. It was not until 1902 that the Portuguese finally vanquished the people of the central Mbundu kingdom and seized control of the Bié Plateau. Soon after, the Benguela railroad was built and colonization began moving ahead more swiftly. In 1951, the territory was designated as an overseas province, and Portugal accelerated its settlement and development plans, perhaps in recognition of the incipient nationalist movement that continued to gain strength throughout the 1950s.

In 1961, the nationalist movement staged a major uprising against the colonial power. Portugal responded by sending thousands of army troops and killing tens of thousands of native Angolans. The nationalists fled into exile in neighboring countries and eventually organized into three main guerrilla groups: the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), the Marxist-based Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA). The three groups fought not only against Portuguese rule but also against one another.

By the time Portugal granted independence to Angola in November 1975, a virtual civil war was already going on. Each of the three groups received assistance from different foreign powers. Cuba and the Soviet Union backed the MPLA, while the FNLA received support from China and the United States, and South Africa aided UNITA. Cuba went so far as to deploy its own forces in Angola in 1975 after South African troops crossed the border from Namibia in pursuit of liberation forces from that country. The MPLA gained control as the governing party following Portugal's withdrawal, and it was recognized by the Organization of African Unity as Angola's legitimate government in February 1976. UNITA and the FNLA, however, did not accept the MPLA's authority and continued to wage guerrilla warfare, although the FNLA eventually dissolved as an organized group. The conflict continued for another 15 years, during which hundreds of thousands of Angolans, many of them civilians, were killed.

In 1988, Angola, Cuba, and South Africa agreed on a timetable for the withdrawal of Cuban troops from the country and the end of South African involvement in the conflict, which had become a power struggle by proxy for the United States and the Soviet Union. (The United States had thrown its support behind UNITA in 1986.) In 1990, the MPLA agreed to the establishment of a multiparty democracy, and in May 1991, Cuba concluded its troop withdrawal and a peace agreement was signed by the Angolan government and UNITA. The accord provided for the holding of multiparty elections, but UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi resumed fighting when he failed to win the September 1992 balloting. (The MPLA won the legislative vote, and MPLA leader José Eduardo dos Santos captured more votes than Savimbi in the presidential balloting, but he came just short of an outright majority.)

Savimbi's decision to renew civil warfare did little for his standing in the world community, especially since international observers had deemed the 1992 elections free and fair. In May 1993, the U.S. government officially recognized the dos Santos government in a reversal of its previous support of the UNITA leader. In late 1994, UNITA suffered several major setbacks, including the loss of its stronghold, Huambo, to government troops. The two sides signed a new peace agreement on November 20, 1994. In March 1996, dos Santos and Savimbi announced that they would form a new national unity government by the end of June 1996. After several delays, mostly caused by balking on Savimbi's part, a new administration was finally installed in April 1997.

In 1998, armed conflict began again as UNITA failed to relinquish territories under its control and began launching new attacks on government targets. The peace accord collapsed, and the country descended back into civil war. However, in February 2002, UNITA suffered a major blow when government troops killed Savimbi during an attack on UNITA forces in the southern part of the country. The government and the remaining UNITA leadership moved swiftly to secure what was hoped to be lasting peace in the war-torn country, signing an agreement in March 2002, just six weeks after Savimbi's death.

In early 2005, the largest outbreak ever recorded of the deadly Marburg virus sent waves of fear throughout Angola and brought the nation into the global spotlight.

 

"Angola." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

2- Central African Republic

Mysterious stone monuments near the Central African Republic's ancient city of Bouar indicate a civilization dating back thousands of years, but most of the country's current inhabitants are descended from peoples who fled into the area during the 16th to 19th centuries to escape slave raids. Among those groups were the Baya, who arrived in the early 1800s, and the Banda, who came later in the 19th century. The Baya and the Banda are the most populous of the Central African Republic's many ethnic groups.

The French explored the region that is now the Central African Republic in the late 1880s. In 1887, they occupied the area and subsequently annexed it to the French Congo. In 1894, France established it as a separate colony named Ubangi-Shari. Administered jointly with Chad beginning in 1906, Ubangi-Shari was incorporated into the Federation of French Equatorial Africa in 1910. Over the next few decades, the colony's economy was dominated by French concessionaires (private European companies that leased large tracts of land from the French government), whose exploitation of black labor led to violent rebellions in 1928, 1935, and again in 1946. That year, the colony was given its own legislature as well as representation in the French National Assembly. Political activism developed rapidly. It was spearheaded by nationalist leader Barthelemy Boganda, who was the founder of the Social Evolution Movement of Black Africa (MESAN—Mouvement d'évolution sociale de l'Afrique noire). In 1958, France granted internal autonomy to the territory, renamed it the Central African Republic, and full independence followed in August 1960.

Boganda had formed an African-led government in preparation for independence, but he was killed in a plane crash during the 1959 elections. His nephew, David Dacko, became the new nation's first president following independence. Dacko had served in the territorial legislature and had also been a member of Boganda's government. Dacko governed within a parliamentary system until the end of 1965, when he asked for the army's help during a government crisis and instead was overthrown by Col. Jean-Bédel Bokassa, who was the army's commander in chief (and also Dacko's cousin). Assuming both the presidency and the leadership of MESAN, Bokassa dissolved the legislature and suspended the constitution. Despite the authoritarian and increasingly brutal nature of his rule, Bokassa maintained strong support from France, which financed much of the extravagant coronation ceremony Bokassa staged in December 1977 after he declared himself emperor and renamed the country the Central African Empire.

Bokassa's repressive tactics and increasingly bizarre behavior took a grisly turn in early 1979, when he ordered the massacre of some 150 children who had been imprisoned for refusing to wear costly school uniforms that were manufactured by a factory run by his wife. Later that year, he was overthrown in a coup supported by the French government. David Dacko assumed the presidency and was reelected in March 1981 balloting, but only by a very slim margin. Six months later, Dacko was ousted for a second time in a bloodless coup led by army commander Gen. Andre Kolingba. Kolingba pledged to work toward restoring civilian rule, but he also cracked down on the opposition. He suspended the new constitution (adopted in February 1981), banned all political activity, and sent Ange-Felix Patasse, the nation's main opposition leader, into exile.

Despite the crackdown, opposition to Kolingba's administration grew during the first half of the 1980s. The pressure led to the granting of an amnesty in September 1984 for the leaders of banned political parties, whom Kolingba had put under house arrest in January of that year. In 1985, Kolingba appointed civilians to a number of government posts and allowed legislative elections to be held. A new constitution that established the country as a one-party state was approved in a November 1986 referendum, but popular demands for a multiparty system intensified during the second half of the 1980s. Kolingba finally lifted the ban on political parties in 1991 and agreed to convene a national conference on the country's future. The conference opened in August 1992, and multiparty legislative and presidential elections were eventually held in August-September 1993. Patasse defeated Kolingba and Dacko, among others, to capture the presidency. His party, the Movement for the Liberation of the Central African People, also won the most seats in the National Assembly. Kolingba made an attempt to delay the transfer of power by issuing several decrees relating to the electoral code and the composition of the Supreme Court, but he revoked the decrees after France threatened to cut off all aid to the country.

Patasse assumed office in October 1993, but unrest in the nation continued. Several coup attempts were put down with soldiers from Libya and other African nations that supported Patasse, fostering feelings by some that the president was being propped up by forces outside the country. Such sentiments boiled over on March 15, 2003, when fired army chief Gen. Francois Bozize took over the capital, Bangui, in a coup while Patasse was out of the country. The coup met little resistance, and initially some residents celebrated in the streets. A coalition of opposition groups soon announced their support of his takeover, and Bozize promised to hold democratic elections by January 2005. Bozize, who suspended the constitution and dissolved Congress, appointed a prime minister and cabinet soon after his takeover. He was subsequently democratically elected by a wide margin in May 2005 runoff elections.

 

"Central African Republic." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

3- Somalia

In ancient times, the region of present-day Somalia was known to the Egyptians as the land of Punt. The Ethiopian kingdom of Aksum held the region from the second century until the arrival of Arab tribes in the seventh century. Between the seventh and 10th centuries, the Arabs settled along the coastal areas, establishing the sultanate of Adel, which endured until the 16th century. Historians are unsure of when the Issa ancestors of modern-day Somalis first settled in the area, but by the 13th century, the Somali ethnic group was well established. In the 16th century, the Adel sultanate dissolved into separate independent states, many of which were governed by Somali leaders. On the coast, the Arabs dominated the trading communities, while Somali pastoral nomads and agriculturists occupied the inland area. Those chiefdoms existed through the 19th century, when the arrival of Europeans destroyed the traditional political systems.

Although the first Europeans to visit the region were the Portuguese in 1499, the first to show an active interest were the British. In 1839, the United Kingdom took control of the port of Aden (now in Yemen) as a refueling station for merchant ships on the trade route to India. The British then established trading posts along the Somali coast to secure a steady supply of meat for Aden. Egypt occupied some of the coast and interior villages in 1875, but pulled its troops out in 1882 to fight the Mahdia in Sudan. The United Kingdom took the opportunity to seize the coast with the purpose of safeguarding the trade route through the Suez Canal (which had opened in 1869). The British made deals with local tribal leaders for the transfer of land. Five years after the Egyptians left, the United Kingdom proclaimed the region the British Somaliland protectorate. At first, the British administered from Aden, but in 1905, British Somaliland was placed under the authority of the Colonial Affairs Office. However, British authorities did not have much control over the interior. Clan leader Sayyid Muhammed Abdullah Hassan, who was later considered a national hero, kept the British troops busy fighting his rebellion that began in 1900. As a result of Hassan's revolt, the British abandoned most of its inland interests until Hassan died of influenza in 1920.

Even though the British had included the interior in their land claim, Italy had also set its sights on some of the region in the late 1800s. Through a series of treaties in the early 1900s with local Somali sultans, the battle-weary United Kingdom, and Ethiopia, Italy extended its control in the hinterlands. Italy consolidated its power in 1927 by uniting its treaty-granted territories under the banner of Italian Somaliland. During World War II, Italian troops from Italian Somaliland invaded British Somaliland in 1940 and expelled the British. A year later, the United Kingdom regained its protectorate and seized the Italian territory.

After World War II, the terms of a 1947 peace treaty called for Italy to abandon its African land claims, which were placed in trust of the United Nations (UN). The UN decided that an Italian administration would rule Italian Somaliland for 10 years, after which the territory would become independent. In turn, the British would relinquish British Somaliland. The British military administration in Italian Somaliland withdrew in 1950, and a transitional Italian administration was established. On July 1, 1960, Italian Somaliland was granted independence and immediately joined with British Somaliland, which had been given independence just four days earlier. The two united as Somalia, and Aden Abdullah Osman Daar was elected the country's first president. The peaceful transfer of power to Abdirashid Ali Shermarke after he defeated Daar in 1967 elections marked the apparent success of Somalia's young democracy.

The democracy was short-lived. Shermarke was assassinated in 1969, and a few days after his death, a group of military officers seized control of the government. Maj. Gen. Muhammed Siad Barre took power, beginning what would be a 22-year career as a smart, tough dictator. Siad Barre proclaimed Somalia a socialist state and nationalized the economy over the next few years. Somalia, after being devastated by drought in 1974 and 1975, sought to maintain close ties with Italy. When it came to the Cold War lines being drawn around the globe, Somalia aligned with the Soviet Union. Domestically, Siad Barre practiced political manipulation, paying off or brutally suppressing any politically threatening members of rival clans.

Ethnic Somalis have long insisted on complete Somali self-determination, no matter where they are settled. That cultural tenet manifested itself in 1977, when ethnic Somalis in the Ogaden region of Ethiopia took up arms to end Ethiopian control. Siad Barre committed Somali troops and contributed arms to the Ogaden Somalis' enterprise. With that help, the rebels gained most of the Ogaden region by the end of the year. To Somalia's surprise, the Soviet Union, which had been affiliated with Somalia, then switched alliances. In early 1978, with the aid of the Soviet Union and Cuba, Ethiopia regained the Ogaden region while it inflicted heavy casualties on Somalia's army. As the tide of the war changed, over 1 million ethnic Somali refugees flooded into Somalia from Ethiopia. By 1981, an estimated 2 million people had been left homeless due to continued violence. The United States contributed financial and military aid to the Somali government in exchange for use of the formerly Soviet-held naval base at Berbera.

Opposition to Siad Barre's regime peaked in 1981 when the autocrat installed only members of his own clan in government positions. Several rival clans organized against the government as the Somali National Movement (SNM). Armed fighting erupted between the army and armed rebels in 1982. Siad Barre was reelected president in 1987, and a year later, he signed a peace treaty with Ethiopia. Thus, one war came to an end, and another one—a civil war—began. Clans, subclans, and factions of clans all demanded an end to Siad Barre's corrupt authoritarian regime. Siad Barre tried to grant such concessions as multipartyism, but it was too late. Since the opposition could not be placated, the government began to brutally crush it instead. The rebels fought back. By 1989, the government had firm control only over Mogadishu and parts of Hargeisa and Berbera, while the SNM had control over extensive areas of the north and east. In January 1991, the rebels captured Mogadishu as Siad Barre fled the capital and found asylum in Nigeria.

However, the clans who had united to secure Siad Barre's ouster could not seem to unite to form a coalition government. As everyone scrambled to fill the power vacuum that the deposed president left behind, internal rivalries were emphasized and violence broke out. Not only did the clans—equipped with plenty of weapons left over from the rebellion—fight each other, but they often carried out attacks against such nonthreatening entities as the ethnic Sab, who were quiet farmers. In the midst of wanton destruction and almost complete anarchy, the economy collapsed. The Somalian Civil War that ensued in the two years following Siad Barre's departure caused the deaths of an estimated 50,000 people. Some 300,000 Somalis died of starvation because international relief supplies could not be delivered due to violence and the looting of supplies.

After the Red Cross estimated that one-fourth of Somalia's 6 million residents were threatened with starvation from a widespread famine in 1992, the United States deployed nearly 2,000 U.S. marines to Somalia in "Operation Restore Hope." The purpose of the deployment was to restore order so that relief could be sent where needed. The force arrived as the vanguard of a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission that officially took over the operation in May 1993. International donors resumed humanitarian aid and saved an estimated 300,000 Somalis from starvation.

The UN mission moved from relief efforts to helping foster political reconciliation. However, after faction leader Mohamed Farah Aidid led an attack on UN soldiers, the UN became increasingly embroiled in a quest to capture Aidid. After U.S. troops sustained casualties from Aidid's rebels during the Battle of Mogadishu, the United States pulled out of Somalia. Most Somali factions resented the presence of outsiders, and the UN mission to rebuild a stable government failed. The last of the UN troops withdrew in early 1995, leaving no central government. In mid-1996, Aidid's forces controlled most of southern Mogadishu while his main rival, Ali Mahdi Mohamed, dominated northern Mogadishu. After Aidid was killed in the factional fighting in 1996, he was succeeded as the self-proclaimed president of Somalia by his son, Hussein Aidid.

In the summer of 2000, a conference in Arta, Djibouti, of civil servants, businesspeople, and politicians resulted in the naming of a 245-member transitional national assembly, which, in turn, elected Abdulkassim Salat Hassan as president of Somalia. Though the Somali population generally welcomed the Arta legislature and the election of Salat, opposition by the major faction leaders left the long-term prospects of the government in doubt. Though the transitional government was able to establish itself in Mogadishu, it did not succeed in exerting control outside the capital, and, moreover, warfare between rival factions and clan warlords continued.

In October 2002, the six-nation Inter-Governmental Authority for Development—comprising Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Sudan, Uganda, and Somalia—hosted a series of peace talks in Kenya. The Somali National Reconciliation Conference, as the talks were called, continued for two years and resulted in major governmental changes. In January 2004, feuding warlords signed an agreement to create a new government, under which representatives from each of four major clans and a coalition of several smaller clans would be handpicked by clan leaders and politicians to form an interim 275-member parliament. Though plagued with disputes over the distribution of power among rival groups, the new parliament was inaugurated in August 2004, and members elected a new national president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, on October 10. Following Abdullahi's election, the breakaway northern region of Somaliland refused to acknowledge the new president, vowing to fight any future efforts to reunite the autonomous region with the nation.

Abdullahi's transitional government first administered Somalia from exile in Nairobi, Kenya's capital city, due to escalating clashes between rival warlords in Mogadishu. In February 2006, the transitional parliament repatriated to the interior Somali city of Baidoa. Over the following months, however, the government's hold over the country's south began to deteriorate, and militias loyal to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC)—a group professing sharia law that emerged in the absence of any official Somali judiciary—seized control of Mogadishu in June. UIC forces quickly secured most of southern Somalia. By mid-September, the Abdullahi government retained administrative power only over Baidoa and its immediate surroundings and was forced to turn to neighboring Ethiopia, Somalia's historic enemy, for military support. During December 2006–January 2007, an Ethiopian-Somali joint force ousted the UIC, and the transitional government began operating in Mogadishu for the first time since its formation.

However, the government's alliance with Ethiopian troops angered many Somalis and raised support for the exiled UIC. Former UIC leader Shairf Ahmed, a moderate within the faction, used such sentiments to form the broad-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) during his exile in Eritrea. In the midst of continued fighting in Mogadishu and southern Somalia, the ARS and the transitional government reached a peace agreement in 2008 that called for the withdrawal of all Ethiopian troops in exchange for ARS participation in government. Then-president Yusuf Ahmed, who had objected to negotiations with Islamic leaders, resigned over the matter. The Ethiopians left later that year, and in 2009, the transitional parliament was expanded to 550 members, including 149 from ARS. The legislature elected Sharif Ahmed president in January 2009, giving the government a much-needed dose of credibility. However, the hard-line Islamist al-Shabab militia has so far refused to negotiate with the government, leaving the nation's political future in doubt.

 "Somalia." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

4- Uganda

The eastern African nation of Uganda was once known as the "pearl of Africa" and was heralded for its royal history and development as a center of learning and culture. In the 1970s, however, it descended into chaos and destruction with the rise to power of a despotic military leader; only in the last decade has it begun to reestablish itself as a stable, progressive nation.

Bantu-speaking peoples migrated into what is now southwestern Uganda around 500 BCE, and by the 1300s, the territory had been organized into several kingdoms known as the Cwezi states. Two centuries later, the Nilotic-speaking Lwo migrated into the area from what is now southeastern Sudan, settled in the Cwezi states, and established the kingdoms of Buganda, Bunyoro, and Ankole. Throughout the 1500s and 1600s, Bunyoro was the dominant kingdom. At the start of the 18th century, however, Buganda expanded, and over the next 100 years, it established itself as the largest and most powerful of the three kingdoms. (A fourth kingdom, Toro, also developed in the 18th century.) Each kingdom had a strong centralized structure and was led by a kabaka, or king, who governed with the help of regional administrators appointed by him. In the 1860s, Bunyoro attempted to reassert its dominance with the aid of guns obtained from Muslim traders who had arrived in southern Uganda in the 1840s, but within two decades, Buganda had consolidated its influence.

The first European to visit Buganda was J. H. Speke, a British explorer who came to the region in 1862 on an ultimately successful quest to find the source of the Nile. Speke met with King Mutesa I. Thirteen years later, Mutesa I received another Briton, Henry M. Stanley, and agreed to allow Christian missionaries into Buganda largely because he mistakenly believed that they would provide military assistance against attacks from Egypt. The first Protestant missionaries arrived in 1877 and were followed shortly afterward by Catholic missionaries. Mutesa I died in 1884 and was succeeded by King Mwanga II, who perceived Christians as a threat to his power and persecuted them. Mwanga II was deposed in 1888 by a united group of Christians and Muslims. He regained the throne in early 1890.

Just prior to retaking the throne, Mwanga II signed a friendship treaty with Germany, a move that alarmed the United Kingdom and prompted that nation to work out a deal in which Germany essentially ceded the territory to the United Kingdom. In 1894, Uganda became a British protectorate, and the United Kingdom initially governed the territory through Buganda. As Mwanga II increasingly resisted the influence of the colonial power, however, the United Kingdom deposed the kabaka and replaced him with his infant son. Between the late 1890s and 1918, the United Kingdom extended its authority into northern Uganda both by force and through treaties. In 1900, it signed an agreement that gave Buganda considerable autonomy, but by the 1930s, the kingdom had lost much of its independence—largely because of the United Kingdom's control over its parliament and restrictions on the Buganda prime minister.

The British government established a legislative council in Uganda in 1921. However, it wasn't until 1945 that government-nominated Africans participated in the council, and the first direct balloting for African representatives was not held until 1958. The two main nationalist groups that emerged during the decades before independence were the Uganda People's Congress (UPC), led by Milton Obote, and the Catholic-based Democratic Party, which started as a movement within Buganda and then expanded. The UPC formed a winning electoral alliance with an all-Buganda royalist party called Kabaka Yekka ("The King Alone") for April 1962 national elections and organized a coalition government to lead the country into independence.

In October 1962, Uganda gained national independence with Obote serving as prime minister under a constitution that recognized the kingdoms of Ankole, Buganda, and Bunyoro, as well as the kingdom of Toro. The following year, Uganda became a federal republic with King Mutesa II (Sir Edward Frederick Mutesa II) as president, although the cabinet retained executive powers. (Mutesa II had been crowned as Buganda's kabaka in 1942.) Obote deposed Mutesa II in 1966 and abolished the kingdoms. He was then ousted in turn in a 1971 military coup led by Maj. Gen. Idi Amin. Amin's "reign of terror" lasted for eight years, during which tens of thousands of Ugandans were killed or fled into exile, and Amin's name became synonymous with horrific human rights atrocities. He was finally overthrown in June 1979, and Obote emerged as the winner of 1980 elections amid accusations of fraud. Obote was overthrown again in a July 1985 military coup led by Lt. Gen. Tito Okello, but the Okello regime was short-lived. In January 1986, the National Resistance Movement, a guerrilla movement launched in 1980 by Yoweri Museveni, entered Kampala and seized control. Museveni and the NRM gained wide popular support during their guerrilla campaign and became known for their discipline and grassroots political education efforts. The Museveni government, supported by the international community, did much to rebuild Uganda's economy, restore its infrastructure, and reestablish a sense of security. In May 1996, Museveni won presidential elections by a wide margin despite controversy over the fact that his challengers were hampered in their campaign efforts by the restrictions on political parties.

Museveni has been a leader in the fight against AIDS in Africa, establishing public health clinics whose work has made Uganda the first African nation to reduce the number of HIV infections. However, in recent years the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a rebel group active in northern Uganda that espouses a Christian fundamentalist agenda, has increased its attacks, particularly in northern Uganda, forcing thousands to flee their homes and kidnapping children to reinforce its ranks. Federal armed forces have been criticized repeatedly for failing to stop the LRA's assaults on civilians, and attempts by Museveni's government to engage the group in peace talks have so far failed.

In 2005, Parliament abolished the constitutional limit on presidential terms, allowing Museveni to seek a third term. In February 2006, Museveni won his third presidential victory, which was also the the first multi-party poll in 25 years of elections. Critics accused the government of intimidating the opposition in the run-up, but observers noted that the conduct of the poll was an improvement on the 2001 vote. In July 2006, the government began peace talks with the LRA, and a month later the two signed a truce agreement.

 

"Uganda." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

5- Tunisia

Modern Tunisia lies at the center of the ancient Carthaginian Empire and was an early outpost for the spread of Islam in north Africa.

By 550 B.C., Carthage had achieved a position of commercial and naval supremacy in the Mediterranean. The empire reached its height in the course of the fourth century B.C. but was later challenged by the Roman Republic. The Punic Wars (264-241 B.C., 218-201 B.C., and 149-146 B.C.) ended in the total destruction of the Carthaginian Empire and its incorporation within the empire of Rome. Carthage was rebuilt by the emperor Augustus, and intensive colonization brought a new prosperity. In 439 A.D., the city was lost to the Vandals only to be recovered by the Byzantine Empire in 533-534.

The rise of Islam in Arabia and its rapid expansion after the death of the Prophet Muhammad (632) led to the destruction of Byzantine power and to the Arab invasion of North Africa. Arab control was finally established in Africa with the conquest of Carthage in 698 and the foundation of Tunis. Islam spread rapidly, and the eighth century was dominated by militant Islamic uprisings and constant revolts among the occupying Arab forces. For most of the ninth century, the country was relatively prosperous, but the Aghlabid dynasty, which ruled from 800, began to decline in 874 and was finally overthrown between 905 and 909 by the Fatimids, who were fanatical adherents of the doctrines of Shi'ism.

Between the 11th and the 17th centuries, Tunisia changed hands several times; however, in 1606, the de facto independence of Tunisia was recognized, although it was to remain nominally part of the Ottoman Empire for more than 250 years. Hammuda, who led from 1659 to 1663, became master of the entire country, and his family, the Muradids, retained power until 1702. In 1705, Hussain Ali Turki took power, and the remainder of the 18th century passed fairly uneventfully.

French forces invaded Tunisia in April 1881 and encountered little resistance. In the 1930s, a campaign for independence from French rule began, led by the Neo-Destour Party (New Constitution Party), which was founded in 1934. On March 20, 1956, six years after it gave the country autonomy, France granted Tunisia independence. The move was spurred by intense nationalism and the fear of a conflict similar to that which took place in Algeria. Elections for a constitutional assembly were held shortly after independence, and Habib Bourguiba, the founder and leader of the Neo-Destour Party, became prime minister. In 1957, the assembly abolished the monarchy and established a republic. A new Tunisian Constitution was created two years later, which established a presidential system.

Although a one-party state was never institutionalized, the Neo-Destour Party, renamed the Parti Socialiste Destourien (PSD) in 1964, was the only legal party from 1963 to 1981. Led by Bourguiba, the government pursued a socialist program and collectivized agriculture and expropriated foreign property. Bourguiba consolidated his power and ruthlessly suppressed opposition. In 1964, Bourguiba was declared president for life, validated by the National Assembly, the members of which all belonged to the PSD.

By the mid-1970s, opposition groups demanded greater political freedom. In 1978, the most influential unofficial opposition group, the Union Générale de Travailleurs Tunisiens (UGTT), joined with the unemployed and major political dissidents in a general strike. The armed forces intervened, and 51 people were killed. Some voting regulations were liberalized in 1979, but the government refused to change the one-party system. Muslim fundamentalists proved a threat to the government during the early 1980s, when Bourguiba's refusal to deal with UGTT demands pushed many into the more fundamentalist Mouvement de la Tendance Islamique (MTI).

In 1981, Bourguiba announced his willingness to officially recognize other political parties provided that they rejected violence and religious fanaticism. In January 1984, however, widespread rioting was set off by a 115% increase in the price of bread and the cessation of government food subsidies. Bourguiba's personal intervention to cancel the price increases reestablished peace. In 1985, however, there was unrest among students and Islamic militants who held strikes and demonstrations.

In November 1987, seven physicians declared Bourguiba unfit to govern because of senility and ill health. The constitution provided for the prime minister, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, to assume the office of president. Hedi Baccouche replaced Ben Ali as prime minister. The new administration adopted a policy of national reconciliation. Publication of opposition newspapers was once again allowed in 1987, and political and other detainees were released. In 1988, the name of the PSD was changed to the Democratic Constitutional Assembly (RCD) in line with the new government's moves toward democratic reform. That year, the National Assembly instituted a multiparty system that afforded legal recognition of other political parties, provided that they agreed to adhere to the constitution and avoid pursuit of religious, racial, and linguistic objectives.

In July 1988, the National Assembly amended the constitution to abolish the post of president for life and provided for the president to be elected for no more than three consecutive five-year terms. Legislative and presidential elections in April 1989 reelected Ben Ali as president. The electoral system, however, continued to favor the ruling party, which caused opposition parties to boycott the 1990 elections. In response, the legislature approved a reformed electoral code the following year that introduced a system of partial proportional representation.

Following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, Ben Ali condemned Baghdad but subsequently expressed disapproval of the U.S.-led multinational force deployed to the Persian Gulf. His official criticism of Western intervention in the dispute was apparently influenced by the growing Arab nationalist support for Iraq within Tunisia.

In July 1991, the human rights organization Amnesty International stated that it had received more than 100 allegations of the torture of political detainees in Tunisia. In early March 1992, the same organization published a report that detailed the arrests of some 8,000 suspected members of Hizb an-Nahdah (the fundamentalist MTI, now renamed Hizb an-Nahdah or the Parti de la Renaissance) over an 18-month period. The government initially denied the allegations but announced that such incidents would be investigated. Another Amnesty report that was published in January 1994 claimed that thousands of suspected opponents of the government had been tortured and imprisoned unjustly. The claims were expressly denied by the Tunisian government.

In May and November 1994, Ben Ali made minor alterations to the composition of the government, and in January 1995, he announced a major reorganization of the Council of Ministers. The new government reflected the president's determination to secure economic growth with the creation of economic development, industry, and trade ministries to replace the national economy ministry. Ben Ali was reelected to serve a third five-year term in October 1999 in the country's first-ever multiparty presidential contest. The RCD also swept the 1999 legislative elections, though opposition parties secured some 34 seats alloted to them under an electoral reform law.

In 2002, a referendum ratified amendments to the constitution creating a second legislative chamber, removing the term limitation on the presidency (but installing an age limitation of 75 years), and introducing certain guarantees concerning human rights and the rights of the accused. The referendum passed with more than 99% of the votes cast. In October 2004, Ben Ali and the RCD were successful again, with the president retaining his position with 94.5% of the votes and his party winning 152 out of 189 parliamentary seats.

 

"Tunisia." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

6- Botswana

In a continent torn by racial conflict and political upheaval, Botswana stands out as an example of a stable democracy and a model of cooperative social development.

The first inhabitants of the region that is now Botswana were the San, also known as Bushmen or Khwe. As a hunter-gatherer society, the San represent one of the oldest cultures in the world. They lived chiefly in the Kalahari Desert and subsisted on game, native vegetation, and small, scarce wells of fresh water that became sacred to the culture. By 1800, the Tswana peoples had migrated into the region. They conquered and displaced the local San, who would continue to be pushed out of the land they had inhabited for thousands of years. The Tswana were divided into eight major tribal groups, which are still intact today. Their language, Setswana, belongs to a subgroup of Bantu languages and is still spoken by most of the population (although English is the official language of Botswana).

British missionaries arrived in the first half of the 19th century and gained a strong foundation of Christian followers that would eventually account for about half of the modern population. Zulu invasions began in the 1820s as the Zulu nation in southern Africa expanded, along with the Zulus' appetite for land. Khama, who was chief of the Ngwato (the largest Tswana group), checked the Zulu incursion from Natal, but when the Boers (white South Africans of Dutch descent) began migrating north from the Transvaal Republic, the Tswana could no longer go it alone. The Boers became extremely interested in the region when gold was discovered there in 1867 and wanted to absorb the area into the independent Boer republic of Transvaal. Neither the Tswana nor the British embraced this idea. In 1885, on the urging of Khama III, Great Britain established the region as the Protectorate of Bechuanaland, and the Boers were obligated to withdraw.

Attempts to annex Bechuanaland did not end there, however. After the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, South Africa sought to incorporate the Bechuanaland protectorate. Indeed, Britain itself hoped for the eventual incorporation of Bechuanaland into South Africa, but it stipulated that the incorporation would not happen without the popular consent of Bechuanaland residents. The Tswana chiefs opposed the annexation and continued to reject South Africa's requests for the transfer of territory. In 1948, when apartheid policies solidified in South Africa, the annexation lost the support of the British, and the idea was permanently shelved. From 1910 until 1965, the region was administered by a British commissioner stationed in South Africa.

In 1961, Britain granted a constitution to the protectorate, which provided for a legislative council. The Bechuanaland Democratic Party won a majority of seats in the legislative assembly in 1963. Although the protectorate had no appreciable nationalistic movement, self-government began in 1965, and on September 30, 1966, the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland became independent Botswana. The Bechuanaland Democratic Party became the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), and its founder, Sir Seretse Khama, was elected president.

The 1966 constitution set up a parliamentary republic and provided for universal suffrage. It also created a special advisory body called the House of Chiefs. The fact that approximately 95% of the population is Tswana is one reason that Botswana has a relatively stable political history; the House of Chiefs is another. The House of Chiefs contributed to Botswana's stability not only by acting as an advisory council to the government but also by facilitating communication between tribes.

Botswana's growth following independence was aided by the discovery of rich new mineral deposits. In 1966, the only known deposits were manganese, asbestos, and gold, but in the early 1970s, such minerals as diamonds, nickel, copper, salt, soda ash, and coal were found and exploited. Botswana's mineral wealth helped make it one of the richest countries in southern Africa, yet about half the population remained poor. Most of the revenues were poured back into commercial enterprises, and wages remained low. During the late 1970s and the 1980s, subsistence farming became less profitable, and migrant workers returned from South Africa, where political upheaval was growing worse. Both factors increased unemployment along with the popularity of the Botswana National Front (BNF), which acted on behalf of workers, although the BDP retained its grip on power.

Although Botswana has avoided major social conflict, the government's treatment of the San people, especially in more recent years, has become a controversial issue. An estimated 50,000 Khwe have been dispersed throughout the country after having been forced to leave their land in search of food and water in the face of an expanding cattle industry. As the live cattle and meat export industry grew, ranchers drilled wells that upset the delicate equilibrium of the underground water table. The lowering of the water table affected much of the country, including the Kalahari Desert and the sacred sip-wells used by the Bushmen.

During his years in power, Khama supported legislation that protected the Bushmen by reserving land in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve for their use, so they could retain their ancient traditions and preserve their heritage. Since then, promises made to the Bushmen by Khama have been set aside. Although the Khwe were granted special hunting rights during Khama's administration, they are now often executed for poaching. About 3,000 Khwe reside in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve Settlements, but they are threatened by the government's tourist industry plans for the wildlife-rich area.

Khama served as Botswana's president until his death in 1980. He was succeeded by his vice president, Ketumile Masire. Masire was reelected in 1984, 1989, and 1994. In the 1990s, public discontent over high unemployment, government corruption, and other grievances sparked riots in the capital. The BDP's dominance was challenged in 1994 elections when the socialist BNF won over 30% of National Assembly seats, which reflected the rising dissatisfaction with the conservative BDP. In 1997, the National Assembly amended the 1966 constitution to limit the presidential office to two five-year terms; therefore, Masire resigned in March 1998. His vice president, Festus Mogae, took over as head of state. Easily capturing the majority of votes, Mogae retained the presidency in October 1999 elections. The government attempted to address the needs of the country by investing mineral revenues (which declined in the early 1990s) into rural development to ease the effects of severe droughts and to reduce food imports.

After being officially elected president in 1999, Mogae took a major step in tackling the AIDS epidemic by announcing that beginning in 2001, drugs for HIV patients would be available free of charge. In March 2002, the Bushmen challenged the Botswana government in court after they were forced from their land, but the case was dismissed on a technicality. In 2004, Mogae was reelected in a landslide victory to serve a second five-year term.

 

"Botswana." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

7- Zambia

The south-central African nation of Zambia is a former British colony that for many years following independence was a single-party state. Somewhere between one-half and three-quarters of Zambians are Christian, and most others are Muslim or Hindu. English is the official language, but at least 70 indigenous Bantu languages are used around the country.

Bantu-speaking agriculturists migrated into the region that is now Zambia by the ninth century BCE. The Shona Bantu arrived during the 12th century and later established the Mutapa Empire, which included most of the southern region of Zambia. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the Lunda and Lozi peoples migrated southward from the region that is now the Democratic Republic of Congo and settled in the north and in the lands that surrounded the upper Zambezi River. Arab and Swahili traders, who were interested in exporting copper, wax, and slaves, penetrated the area in the late 18th century. The Kololo, who had escaped the wars in southern Africa, settled in the central and western lands of Zambia in the 19th century and briefly dominated the area before the Lozi reestablished their control. In 1835, the warrior Ngoni people from southern Africa settled in the east. Although Zambia was occupied by diverse African communities, those Bantu groups shared certain cultural characteristics. They were essentially agriculturists but did keep some cattle. Tribally oriented, they set up small chiefdoms although occasionally a dominant king expanded his control over some neighboring tribes. Thus, when Europeans arrived in the late 19th century, there was no powerful organized kingdom to coordinate a resistance to the incursion.

In 1851, Scottish adventurer David Livingstone became the first European to explore Zambia. When the British arrived in the late 19th century, the strongest state in the region was the Lozi kingdom. Chief Lewanika Lubosi, who openly sought alliance with the British newcomers, signed a protection treaty with Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company in 1889. Soon afterward, the company dispatched its soldiers to the east to subdue the Ngoni and Bemba peoples who had not yet bowed to the company's rule. The conquests of Sir Harry Johnson, who had established British control of Nyasaland (now Malawi), added the eastern region of Zambia to the long list of British holdings in Africa. The British South Africa Company sent an agent to work with Lewanika in 1897, but within a few years, the British ruled the area directly and called it Northern Rhodesia. The British government took direct control of the protectorate in 1924, which was just in time for the discovery of extensive copper resources in the north a few years later. By 1939, Northern Rhodesia was one of the world's leading copper producers. The copper boom attracted thousands of Europeans who came to work as engineers and administrators while Africans labored in the mines.

African laborers, who were not permitted to form unions, held strikes to protest the discrimination and unkind treatment they endured under white domination. Despite the union ban, organized groups evolved to bring together African workers of different ethnic backgrounds, which marked the beginning of a black political force in Northern Rhodesia. In 1953, the British government created the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland by merging Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), and Nyasaland (now Malawi). The federation was administered by a central government headed by whites from Southern Rhodesia. The merger, which African nationalists knew would make independence even more difficult to achieve, was denounced by every African labor or political group that existed at the time of the alliance.

Northern Rhodesia's United National Independence Party (UNIP), led by Kenneth Kaunda, staged a massive civil disobedience campaign during the 1950s to demand political power for Africans in the protectorate. A decade-long assault by fervent political forces in Nyasaland also helped force the eventual dissolution of the federation. When Nyasaland withdrew to become independent Malawi in 1963, Northern Rhodesia pulled out of the alliance as well. On October 24, 1964, Northern Rhodesia became the independent republic of Zambia. UNIP swept into power in the new government, and Kaunda won the presidency and began a presidential career that spanned 27 years.

Kaunda's long rule oversaw a time of great change for the young nation. In order to reduce European economic control over Zambia, the government purchased a controlling interest in several banks and industries (mining companies in particular) that operated in Zambia. Kaunda, who vehemently opposed white supremacist rule in Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia and then Zimbabwe), cut off as many links as possible with that country. Imports of coal and other goods from Rhodesia were halted. Zambian coal resources were exploited to meet the country's energy needs. Even though it hurt Zambia to airlift or drive exports to Tanzanian seaports, the government took that route instead of using traditional railways that traveled through Rhodesia.

Zambia also gave crucial support to organized black resistance movements. That support incurred the wrath of a vengeful Rhodesian government, whose army was dispatched several times during the 1970s to conduct attacks on Zambia. During the 1980s, the country also sustained attacks from South African troops in retaliation for Zambia's support of the rebel African National Congress. Kaunda encouraged diplomatic solutions to the racial problems that faced Africa, which included the difficulties stemming from white-minority governments leading black-majority populations, and was admired for his statesmanship. At home, it was a different story.

As early in his regime as the late 1960s, Kaunda faced protest against the increasing power he held. The Lozi peoples, who had enjoyed a fair amount of autonomy when the region was a protectorate, resented their loss of power at independence. In 1972, the government banned opposition parties, and Zambia became a single-party state with UNIP as the sole legal party. Unemployment and shortages of food due to drought led to a series of strikes and riots in the early 1980s. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other international donors pressured the government to introduce austerity measures, which included the repeal of several subsidies. The austerity measures, the stagnant condition of the economy, and dissatisfaction with Kaunda's increasingly autocratic rule all combined to fuel popular unrest.

By 1990, even more extensive austerity actions sparked demonstrations and rioting. An attempted coup rocked the government, and Kaunda agreed to multiparty elections. The constitution was subsequently amended, and 1991 saw Zambia's first multiparty elections in nearly three decades. The opposition Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) swept into the government, and its leader, Frederick Chiluba, won the presidency.

Chiluba restored relations with the IMF and the World Bank, which had gone downhill because of Zambia's huge foreign debt. Like Kaunda before him, he slashed subsidies even though Zambia experienced water and food shortages in the early 1990s. In 1993, he called a state of emergency after a reported coup attempt by the UNIP. Gradually, Chiluba dealt more harshly with the opposition, while accusations of corruption in his own government forced him to make cabinet changes that have split the ruling MMD. Chiluba was reelected in 1996.

Chiluba sparked more controversy in March 2001 when he announced his intent to run for an unconstitutional third term as president. The move encountered strong resistance from several top members of his own party, including Vice President Christon Tembo and senior cabinet officials, and in May Chiluba dropped his bid. His chosen successor, Levy Mwanawasa, was declared the winner of highly controversial December 2001 elections in which a fractured opposition claimed that the vote had been rigged. In 2005, the Supreme Court finally ruled on and rejected the opposition challenge to President Mwanawasa's 2001 election victory. Mwanawasa suffered a minor stroke in April 2006 but resumed some of his duties after a few weeks. Shortly thereafter, he declared himself fit and announced his plans to run for reelection later in the year.

 

"Zambia." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

Chicago

World History: The Modern Era, s.v. "Zambia," accessed January 25, 2011. http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/.

APA

Zambia. (2011). In World History: The Modern Era. Retrieved January 25, 2011, from http://worldhistory.abc-clio.com/

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8- Nigeria

Endowed with abundant natural resources and a rich cultural history, Nigeria gained its independence in the modern era only to endure years of tyranny under successive military governments known for their corruption and ruthlessness.

In 2000 BC, much of the area that is now Nigeria was inhabited by peoples who practiced a limited form of agriculture and stock-herding. Archaeological evidence indicates that the Nok people lived on the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria between approximately 800 BC and AD 200. By the eighth century, the Kanem-Bornu Empire had formed north of present-day Nigeria, and the empire expanded south over the next few centuries. Kanem-Bornu's rulers adopted Islam in the early 11th century. Around the same time, a number of independent Hausa city-states were founded in northern Nigeria. The seven Hausa states came under the control of the Songhai Empire in the early 1500s. However, they had regained their independence by the end of the century; the Songhai collapsed, and the influence of Kanem-Bornu waned.

In Nigeria's southern region, the dominant states were Ife, Oyo, and Benin, which began forming sometime in the first century AD. The first two states were organized by the Yoruba people and the latter by the Edo people. Benin's power reached its peak between the 15th and 17th centuries, but by the 18th century, Oyo had gained control of Yorubaland and Dahomey (later the nation of Benin). The Oyo Empire flourished until the early 19th century, when civil wars began to break out; by the end of the century, the kingdom had fallen apart. In the north, meanwhile, a Muslim named Usuman dan Fodio launched a jihad, or holy war, in the early 1800s to reform the practice of Islam. Usuman gradually gained control of all the Hausa city-states except Bornu. His son, Muhammad Bello, ruled most of northern Nigeria until the early 1900s, when the British asserted control.

The first Europeans to reach the Nigerian coast were Portuguese explorers, who arrived in the 1400s and soon developed a busy slave trade. African middlemen captured the slaves inland and brought them to the coast for sale to the Portuguese. The British also set up slave-trading stations, as did Dutch and French traders, during the 1600s and 1700s. (The British abolished the slave trade in 1807, but other powers continued to engage in it well into the 1860s.) During the 1800s, palm oil emerged as an important regional product, which diverted some attention from the slave trade, and the United Kingdom sent consuls to Calabar and Lagos in southern Nigeria. The British took control of the southern port of Lagos in 1861.

In 1879, the British Royal Niger Company, led by Sir George Goldie, incorporated all of the British trading companies active in southern Nigeria. Goldie concluded several treaties with regional African leaders over the next few years. During 1884–1885, he gained control of the French trading companies in the area and firmly established Britain's dominance. During the Berlin Conference (1884), at which the world's major powers determined their spheres of influence in Africa, Britain laid claim to southern Nigeria without dispute. The Royal Niger Company administered the region and began to extend its reach to the southwest and the southeast, both through treaties and by force, during the 1890s. It was also given authority to administer northern Nigeria, but the company encountered resistance from both Africans and other Europeans—France, in particular, was interested in the northern region. Because of its inability to establish control in the north, the company lost its charter in 1900, the same year Britain declared the north the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria and the south the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.

Despite the proclamations, Britain had not yet gained complete control of the two protectorates, but British forces, led by Frederick Lugard, conquered most of the north during 1900–1906 and fought against supporters of the north's Muslim rulers. By 1914, Britain had consolidated its authority throughout Nigeria. It established the Protectorate of Nigeria and combined the north, the south, and Lagos, also known as the Colony. Lugard was appointed governor-general and introduced the concept of indirect rule. He administered the protectorate through already established African political structures (chieftaincies, etc.) but retained ultimate command. Britain developed the protectorate's infrastructure, built roads and railways, and strengthened the economy by encouraging the production of cash crops.

In 1922, the colonial power established a legislative council, which included a few African representatives, for southern Nigeria. The council had limited authority. (Northern Nigeria continued to be administered by a governor-general.) As Africans had no other role in higher government, however, the move did little to satisfy growing calls for self-government. Nationalist sentiment strengthened as an educated African elite emerged during the early decades of the 20th century. In 1947, Britain introduced a new constitution that gave traditional rulers—although not the educated elite—more say in national affairs through the establishment of provincial councils. Members of the elite, led by Nnamdi Azikiwe and Herbert Macaulay, rejected the document. Azikiwe was head of the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC), one of three main political parties that formed around that time. The other two parties were the Northern People's Congress (NPC) and the Yoruba-based Action Group. Under pressure from the nationalist movement—and in recognition of Nigeria's diverse religious and ethnic composition—Britain promulgated a new constitution in 1954 that established Nigeria as a federation divided into three areas: eastern, western, and northern, plus Lagos. The 1954 document gave each region the option to become internally self-governing, a step taken by the eastern and western areas in 1956, followed by the northern region in 1959.

In December 1959, elections to a federal legislature were held ahead of the 1960-scheduled independence for Nigeria. The NPC captured the most votes, but not an absolute majority, and formed a coalition with the NCNC. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained its independence as a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. In October 1963, Nigeria adopted a new constitution declaring the nation a republic. NCNC leader Azikiwe became the Federal Republic of Nigeria's first president.

Regional, religious, and ethnic differences plagued independent Nigeria from the outset. In January 1966, Ibo junior officers from the east overthrew the government of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, killing the premier in the process. Army commander Maj. Gen. Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi then dissolved the nation's federal system, set up a Supreme Military Council, and instituted emergency rule. In late July 1966, Hausa army officers from the north carried out a countercoup and killed Ironsi, replacing him with Maj. Gen. Yakubu Gowon. (Tens of thousands of Ibos were massacred during the latter half of 1966.) Gowon restored Nigeria's federal structure and appointed military governors to the main regions, but tensions between the eastern Ibos and the northern-led government increased. In 1967, Gowon announced a plan to split the eastern region into three parts, under which Ibos would lose access to the sea and the region's rich oil reserves. In May 1967, the eastern region seceded and declared itself the independent Republic of Biafra. The move sparked a civil war that lasted until Nigerian troops defeated the secessionist forces in 1970.

Because of expanding oil revenues, Nigeria's economy surged during the early 1970s. Meanwhile, its political progress foundered. Gowon was overthrown in a July 1975 military coup, but that regime was succeeded by Lt. Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, the first military leader to take steps toward returning the country to civilian rule. Obasanjo promulgated a new constitution in 1978 and voluntarily relinquished power to Alhaji Shehu Shagari following 1979 presidential elections. During Shagari's administration, the oil market declined, and Nigeria's economy fell into a deep recession. Shagari managed to win August 1983 presidential elections despite the economic downturn, but he was ousted a few months later by Muhammad Buhari, an army major general who implemented harsh austerity measures. Another major general, Ibrahim Babangida, overthrew Buhari in August 1985.

The economy improved somewhat—at least initially—under Babangida, who repealed some of Buhari's harshest decrees and lifted government restrictions on business. He also declared his willingness to restore civilian rule, but his promises proved hollow when he pushed back an October 1990 deadline for the transfer of power to 1992, and then to 1993. Presidential elections finally took place in June 1993, but Babangida annulled the results afterward. He handed power over to a military-appointed civilian administration in August 1993; two months later, defense minister Gen. Sani Abacha seized control of the government, once again putting Nigeria under military rule.

Abacha suspended the constitution and cracked down on prodemocracy activists; however, he stated that he planned to return the country to democracy. He imprisoned opposition leader Moshood Abiola—the apparent winner of the June 1993 elections—in mid-1994, and in 1995, he approved lengthy prison sentences for a number of opposition members allegedly involved in a coup plot. In November 1995, Abacha provoked worldwide condemnation by executing nine minority rights activists, including prominent Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. He later took some steps to appease the outrage of the world community, but his administration remained under close, and disapproving, scrutiny.

Abacha's rule came to an abrupt end in June 1998 when the leader died of an apparent heart attack. His successor, Gen. Abdulsalam Abubakar, acted quickly to establish a freer political atmosphere. He released scores of political prisoners, lifted restrictions on political parties, and set a timetable for democratic elections. Balloting was held in February 1999, and Abubakar ceded power to the winner, Obasanjo, in May 1999, which marked a return to democratic government.

Obasanjo won a second presidential term in April 2003, gaining more than 60% of the vote in the nation's first civilian-run election to take place in 20 years. Opposition parties rejected the outcome, however, citing allegations of fraud. In May 2006, the Senate rejected proposed changes to the constitution that would have allowed Obasanjo to run for a third term in 2007.

"Nigeria." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.

9- Côte d'Ivoire

Little is known about the region that is now Côte d'Ivoire before the arrival of European settlers. It is believed that the original African residents—over 60 ethnically independent tribes—arrived in relatively recent times and lived in small villages under a structured hierarchical social system. The Baoule, the largest ethnic group, are thought to have arrived in the region as recently as the late 18th to early 19th centuries from the area that is now Ghana.

European knowledge of Africa's west coast came initially from Portuguese explorers who searched for a route around Africa in the 15th century. Subsequent European explorers found thriving, well-organized, native African states in the north and east but less organization on the coast. European interest was piqued by two enterprises, slaves and ivory, and competition for trading settlements was fierce; the Dutch, British, and French all wanted to exploit the human, animal, and mineral resources (namely gold) of the African west coast. Settlement was impeded by the oppressive climate, such diseases as malaria and yellow fever, and the rough seas and rocky landing offered by the shore. By 1842, the French had decisively positioned themselves as the dominant European power in Côte d'Ivoire. Gold and ivory eventually replaced slavery as the main economic activity, and the region's other resources—ostrich feathers, hardwood, and pepper—also began to be developed.

France dominated the territory's trading and settlement scene from the 1840s until the beginning of the 20th century. After the 1870-1871 Franco-Prussian War, France withdrew its official garrisons for a time, but it maintained relations with the region through a resident trader named Verdier. Verdier and his assistant consolidated the French position in the region by signing a series of treaties with local tribal chiefs. The French built forts and kept trade monopolies, and in exchange, they paid regular, fixed-rate tributes to the chiefs. The agreements effectively prevented any British advancement into the area and maintained French domination.

In 1893, Côte d'Ivoire was officially named a French territory, and a French governor was assigned to it. France established an eastern border with the Gold Coast (Ghana) and a western border with Liberia. (The northern border with Upper Volta, which was later renamed Burkina Faso, would not be settled until 1947.) However, French control was not totally secure, as a great deal of the area was unexplored. In addition, a warrior chief named Samory, who fiercely opposed the French, led uprisings against them until he was defeated in 1898. In 1904, Côte d'Ivoire became a member territory of French West Africa. France consolidated its power by using military maneuvers up until the eve of World War I. Although French authorities were beset with intermittent revolts, nearly 20,000 Ivorian troops were recruited for the war. The interwar period saw growth for Côte d'Ivoire; several important railroads and ports were opened, and trade flourished as the region became a leading producer of cocoa, coffee, bananas, and mahogany. During World War II, the territory was administered from 1940 to 1943 by the Vichy government, which treated the native Africans harshly. In 1941, thousands of Ivorians made their way to the Gold Coast to join Gen. Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces.

After the war, the French administration instituted reforms, which included the granting of citizenship to native Africans and the right to organize political parties. In 1946, when Côte d'Ivoire was established as an overseas territory, Ivorian Félix Houphouët-Boigny, who would have an important political presence for nearly half a century, founded the African Democratic Rally (Rassemblement Démocratique Africain—RDA) with other local African leaders. The RDA was the first all-African political organization, and branches developed in other African colonies. Houphouët-Boigny also established the local branch, the Democratic Party of Côte d'Ivoire—African Democratic Rally (PDCI-RDA). At first, the organization opposed French rule, and violence erupted in 1949 as a result. A year later, the PDCI-RDA reversed its position and cooperated with the French, which led to French support of the party's endeavors. Reforms in 1956 gave French West Africa universal suffrage and territorial assemblies with control over domestic affairs. Two years later, the local assembly voted to join the newly created French Community. In 1959, the territory's first constitution was approved by the Territorial Assembly, which also unanimously voted in Houphouët-Boigny as president. On August 7, 1960, Côte d'Ivoire became an independent nation, and the Ivorian Constitution took effect. Months later, a new constitution that established a republic was approved, and Houphouët-Boigny was elected president and instituted a one-party state.

Although Houphouët-Boigny served as an authoritarian but largely moderate president for nearly 35 years and was widely admired as an African leader, his career was not without turmoil. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, popular unrest plagued government operations. In 1969, authorities arrested some 1,500 unemployed youths for widespread looting. Further disturbances broke out in 1970. In 1973, the government fought an alleged coup conspiracy. In 1975, however, the government made some concessions, and the president pardoned over 5,000 prisoners, including more than 100 political prisoners. The government used "dialogues"— public discussions in which a government administrator, or even the president, would meet with citizens—to increase goodwill. During the second half of the 1970s, Houphouët-Boigny and the PDCI-RDA remained firmly in control, and the nation entered an economically prosperous time. The president was reelected in 1980.

The early 1980s saw a series of labor strikes as economic opportunity declined. Cacao and coffee prices dropped on a global level, and timber industry revenues declined as harvesting depleted natural resources. Houphouët-Boigny ran for president unopposed in 1985 and won yet again, and the PDCI-RDA retained control of the National Assembly. However, Ivorians pushed for change. Even PDCI-RDA members called for a more liberalized political system. Amid prodemocracy demonstrations, the government legalized opposition parties in 1990. Later that year, the nation's first multiparty elections were held. PDCI-RDA candidates carried the day with a huge win; the opposition Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) won only a tiny handful of seats, and outsiders accused the government of holding unfair elections. Public dissatisfaction grew, mass demonstrations were held, and rioting erupted. The government then began what was viewed by many as persecution of the FPI; a number of opposition leaders were jailed and later "pardoned" by the president.

Houphouët-Boigny was reelected in the nation's first multiparty presidential elections on October 28, 1990, and legislative elections took place the following month. The next several years were marked by serious unrest in the education sector and frequent conflict between student activists and the government; opposition deputies boycotted the National Assembly in 1992 to protest harsh prison sentences handed out to several university-affiliated opposition leaders. In the first half of 1993, Houphouët-Boigny successfully resolved two military mutinies related to salary issues. He then left the country for medical treatment in mid-May. The elderly president returned in November and died on December 7, 1993. After an initial conflict over who was the constitutionally mandated successor to Houphouët-Boigny, National Assembly president Henri Konan Bedie became Côte d'Ivoire's second president.

Popular unrest continued under Bedie, and both labor strikers and student demonstrators were arrested. Virtually unchallenged in his 1995 bid for the presidency due to election rules that kept his potential rivals from running, Bedie secured a presidential victory. In legislative elections held later that year, the PDCI-RDA retained control, but the FPI and another opposition group were able to gain a toehold by winning 24 of 176 seats. Criticized for sowing ethnic divisiveness for his own political gains and harassing opposition groups, Bedie fell victim to a coup in December 1999 and fled into exile in France. He was replaced with a military junta led by Gen. Robert Guei, who was fired as armed forces chief in 1995 after he criticized Bedie for calling in the army to suppress student demonstrations.

Though Guei promised a speedy return to democracy and pledged to assemble an interim government of national unity, he soon emerged as a dictator just as willing to sow and exploit ethnic divisiveness for political gains as his predecessor. In an attempt to return Côte d'Ivoire to civilian rule, presidential elections were set for October 2000. Guei reversed his earlier position and announced that he would run for the high office. Although Guei managed to have nearly all of his competitors disqualified from the ballot, he fraudulently declared himself the victor when early ballot-counting indicated that FPI candidate Laurent Gbagbo would be the winner. Guei's strong-arm tactics failed, however, when the armed forces joined a popular uprising in the days following the election and forced Guei from power. Gbagbo became Côte d'Ivoire's fourth leader amid criticisms that his victory was illegitimate because of the disqualification of other opposition candidates, in particular Alassane Ouattara.

The tasks before the government included restoring some measure of ethnic harmony to the country's Christian and Muslim populations and reversing the nation's economic decline, which was exacerbated by a large foreign debt. The government implemented austerity measures and encouraged diversity in the economy by developing pineapple, cotton, sugarcane, and rubber crops to take pressure off traditional markets.

Guei returned to lead another coup attempt on September 19, 2002 but was killed in a battle around the capital. The fighting, which started as an army mutiny, quickly turned into a full-scale civil war, but in January 2003 the two sides signed a peace agreement, and in July 2003 government and rebel officials announced the formal end to the war. However, disputes among the nation's political parties and former rebel groups have continued, and in March 2004 the PDCI-RDA pulled out of the new, power-sharing government.

"Côte d'Ivoire." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 28 Jan. 2011.

 

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone lies on the west coast of Africa, north of Liberia and south of Guinea. From its beginnings as a haven created by British philanthropists for freed slaves, Sierra Leone went on to become a British crown colony and a protectorate before gaining independence in 1961.

When Portuguese explorers first arrived at Sierra Leone in 1460, the northern coastal region was inhabited by the Temne peoples, who had established small chiefdoms and had resided there since the 13th century. Portuguese navigator Pedro da Cintra named the land Sierra Leone ("Lion Mountains") after the mountains that he encountered in the area now referred to as the Freetown Peninsula. During the mid-16th century, Mande-speaking peoples arrived on the coast from inland regions and established Mende states. The Muslim Fulani and Mande speakers from the region of Fouta Djallon (now Guinea) migrated into Sierra Leone in the early 17th century and converted many of the Temne in northern Sierra Leone to Islam. Starting in about 1500, European traders regularly visited the Freetown Peninsula to trade cloth and metal goods for ivory, timber, and slaves. The British established dominance in the region by the early 17th century. Sierra Leone played a comparatively minor role in the slave trade that dominated West Africa during the 17th and 18th centuries; about 2,000 people a year were exported as slaves until Great Britain abolished slavery at home.

In 1787, Sierra Leone became a colony for freed slaves from Britain and the United States. After coastal land was purchased from local Temne chiefs, 400 people arrived to establish a settlement near modern-day Freetown. The first colony was a failure; disease wiped out most of the residents in the first year, and conflicts with the Temne destroyed what was left. A second attempt at settlement five years later met with success when about 1,000 freed slaves founded Freetown. The settlers, who lived exclusively in coastal areas and were mostly farmers, had little contact with the interior. Britain abolished the local slave trade in 1807, and in the following year it took over the administration of Freetown from the financially troubled Sierra Leone Company, which had controlled the colony and protected the settlers from Temne aggression. The British designated the coast of Sierra Leone a crown colony and established a naval base that provided them with a foundation for their antislavery operations.

Between 1808 and 1864, at least 50,000 liberated slaves, called Creoles, settled at Freetown. The Creole settlers and their descendants were highly active in the region, sending Protestant missionaries into the interior and bringing trade and education to the indigenous peoples of the West African coast. The colony had an advisory legislative council as early as 1863, but no blacks sat on it until 1924. Britain proclaimed the interior a protectorate in 1896, in part to keep it out of the hands of the ambitious French. Together, the coast and the interior made up the colony and protectorate of Sierra Leone. That arrangement called attention to the differences between the Westernized Creoles on the coast and the indigenous Africans residing in the interior and did not help foster a feeling of national unity or identity. The British administered their new protectorate by co-opting the existing political structure of local rulers in small states, forcing the Africans to pay taxes to finance the new administration. The Africans protested the taxes with an open rebellion, which British troops quickly crushed. Apart from some railroad construction and the development of palm products and groundnuts as an industry, the British dedicated few resources to Sierra Leone's advancement.

After World War II, the Creoles demanded a larger voice in a government that was largely staffed by the British. The 1951 Constitution provided for more black representation, but since power was doled out according to the number of votes in the coastal colony and the interior protectorate combined, the African majority (instead of the vocal Creole minority) gained power. In elections that year, the Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), based in the protectorate and led by Mande physician Milton Margai, was victorious.

On April 27, 1961, Sierra Leone declared its independence as a constitutional monarchy, with a governor-general representing the British Crown. Margai became prime minister and served until his death in 1964. His brother, Albert Margai, succeeded him. Margai's proposal to make Sierra Leone a single-party state was widely protested, especially by the SLPP's key opposition, the overwhelmingly Temne All People's Congress (APC). Elections were held in March 1967, but the results were never announced. At the request of the governor-general, APC leader Siaka Stevens stepped in to form a new government. Just minutes after Stevens took his oath of office, he was ousted by a group of army officers, who in turn were overthrown in another military coup just days later. A little over a year later, a group of lower-ranking army officers overthrew the ruling junta and reinstalled a parliamentary system with Stevens as prime minister. That time, Stevens served for more than a few minutes as head of state; he ruled for 17 years.

After a 1971 coup attempt, Stevens asked Guinea to send troops to Sierra Leone to back his government. That same year, a new constitution proclaimed Sierra Leone a republic, and Stevens was voted in for a five-year term as president. Through a strong military presence, Stevens quieted or eliminated all opposition, creating a de facto one-party state. In early 1973, the Guinean soldiers withdrew. The APC was victorious in May 1973 parliamentary elections, as they ran unopposed. A new constitution that was passed by referendum in 1978 officially created a single-party state with the APC as the only legal party, and Stevens was reelected to a seven-year term in office. The early 1980s were marked by political and ethnic unrest and rioting due to rising food prices and fiscal scandals. Stevens retired in 1985, leaving Maj. Gen. Joseph Momoh, the new head of the APC, to succeed him. Momoh suppressed an attempted coup in 1987 and oversaw the drafting of a new Sierra Leonean Constitution. In early 1991, Sierra Leonean dissidents and Liberian guerrillas (the latter resented Momoh's support of West African peacekeeping troops in Liberia) invaded Sierra Leone near the Liberian border. The Revolutionary United Front (RUF)—as the dissidents called themselves—captured several towns, but the uprising was put down with military assistance from Guinea and Nigeria. The RUF rebellion continued, however, and the rebel group became notorious for widespread atrocities committed against civilians.

In 1992, Momoh was overthrown in a coup led by Capt. Valentine Strasser, who installed himself as president. Strasser promised to clean up the crime-ridden streets, lower inflation so that Sierra Leone would qualify for international loans, and end the rebel war. Strasser succeeded in all but the latter. The civil war escalated; by 1995, nearly 1 million people had fled the country to escape the violence. Strasser's regime was accused of restricting freedoms and executing its political enemies. In 1994, however, Strasser announced that Sierra Leone would adopt a multiparty democratic system after a two-year transition period. Elections were scheduled for early 1996.

Shortly before the balloting, Strasser's second in command, Brig. Gen. Julius Maada Bio, ousted Strasser in a bloodless coup. Bio claimed that Strasser planned to renege on his promise to hold fair elections. Elections went ahead in February-March 1996, and Ahmed Tejan Kabbah of the SLPP was elected president. Although violent outbreaks marred the balloting itself, the transfer of power to a civilian administration was peaceful. Soon after his inauguration, Kabbah signed a cease-fire pact with RUF rebels, and the government and the rebels entered into peace negotiations. The two sides signed an accord in November 1996, but the RUF then allied itself in 1997 with military forces that ousted Kabbah in a May 1997 coup. The military junta was overthrown in February 1998 by a Nigerian-led force, and Kabbah returned to office.

Violent conflict between government forces and the RUF continued until a May 2001 disarmament deal secured a long-awaited peace. Sierra Leone and the United Nations (UN) set up a war crimes court in January 2002, and the government and former rebels declared that the war was finally over that same month. Kabbah was reelected in May 2002, but UN peacekeepers remained in the country to ensure a continued peace. In February 2004, the disarmament of more than 70,000 civil war combatants was completed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission established by Kabbah and the UN began holding war crimes trials in June 2004, and in September of the same year the UN handed responsibilities for security in Freetown over to local forces. The country continued to see the growth of peace and political stability in the region after the last UN troops left Sierra Leone in December 2005, ending the organization's tumultuous five-year mission in the country.

 

"Sierra Leone." World History: The Modern Era. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 25 Jan. 2011.

South Africa

One of the continent's most economically developed nations, South Africa finally emerged from decades of political backwardness in the 1990s when a democratic system replaced apartheid rule.

The indigenous peoples of the region that is now South Africa were the San (Bushmen), a hunting and gathering society that occupied the area thousands of years ago. The cattle-herding Khoikhoi—later called Hottentots by Europeans—migrated into the area some 2,000 to 4,000 years ago and were followed by Bantu-speaking peoples from central Africa during the first millennium AD. Among the Bantu-speaking groups were the Xhosa, the Sotho, the Zulu, and the Swazi.

Portuguese explorers were the first Europeans to visit the region. Portuguese navigator Bartolomeu Dias sailed around the Cape of Good Hope in 1488 and stopped briefly at Mossel Bay en route to India. Vasco da Gama landed at St. Helena Bay on the western coast 10 years later, and in the early 16th century, Antonio de Saldanha reached Table Bay, the harbor at the Cape. After a Hottentot attack on a group of Portuguese mariners in 1510, however, the Portuguese opted to bypass the Cape and land further up the eastern coast along what is now Mozambique. The first real European settlement of the area began when a Dutchman, Jan van Riebeeck, established a supply station for the powerful Dutch East India Company—formed in 1602—at Table Bay, thus founding Cape Town. The initial group of some 90 settlers was soon joined by more Dutch pioneers, known as Free Burghers, who were given lands to farm and gradually expanded eastward. A group of about 200 French Huguenots came to Cape Town in 1689 and soon intermarried with the Dutch residents.

The early European settlers, who included Belgians and Germans, needed labor to help develop the lands that they acquired. Hundreds of slaves were brought in from other parts of Africa and also from Malaysia and Java. What started off as a small port-of-call community soon became a permanent, agricultural colony based on a landowner-slave relationship. As expansion continued during the late 1600s and early 1700s, the