The African continent was a colony of European powers until the second half of the 20th century. Its independence was due to the occurrence of World War II, which took place in Europe between 1939 and 1945. An event that involved many countries, including European nations that held exploration territories on the African continent.
After the conflict, Europe was very weak in the political and economic sphere. The weakening of nations has resurrected movements in the struggle for independence in all African colonies. During the 1960s, protests multiplied and many European countries peacefully granted independence to the colonies. However, the independence of some territories came about after prolonged clashes between natives and colonizers.
The former colonies were transformed into autonomous countries, however, the partition of the territory was carried out by European nations, which did not consider the ethnic differences that existed before the colonization. In this way, the territories stipulated by the colonizers separated peoples with the same historical-cultural characteristics and grouped rival ethnic groups.
This initiative produced political instability, which resulted in several conflicts between rival ethnic groups. Faced with this situation, minorities continued to be repressed by majority groups, as was the case in the colonial period.
The continent is currently fragmented into 53 independent countries. The incidence of tribal conflicts and neocolonialism make political and economic instability in the region difficult.
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By Eduardo de Freitas
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
FREITAS, Eduardo de. "Decolonization of Africa"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/descolonizacao-africa.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
