11.4 Independence in Africa and the Middle East

Notes

Most African nations won independence between the late 1950s and the 1970s, and the modern Middle East took shape.

• Ghana, led by Kwame Nkrumah, won independence from Britain in 1957, mostly through peaceful protest. It was the first colony in West Africa to do so and a model for others.
• Kenya (1963) won independence after the violent Mau Mau uprising against British rule; Jomo Kenyatta became its leader. Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a long war.
• 1960 was called the "Year of Africa" because 17 nations became independent.
• Challenges included colonial borders, civil wars, military coups, Cold War interference and economies built on a few exports.
• South Africa imposed apartheid (legal racial segregation) from 1948. Nelson Mandela of the African National Congress was imprisoned for 27 years, freed in 1990, and elected president in 1994 in the first all-race elections.
• Israel was founded in 1948, leading to wars with Arab states and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. The conflict over land continues.
• Oil made the Middle East strategically important. The Iranian Revolution (1979) replaced the U.S.-backed shah with an Islamic republic led by Ayatollah Khomeini.