The activity of the African working class was determined by the significant quantitative and qualitative changes that took place during the war years.

Already on the eve of the war, in individual African countries where there were a significant number of extractive and manufacturing enterprises, such as the Union of South Africa, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, and the Belgian Congo, the African proletariat constituted a compact mass.

The development of industry during the war years led to a noticeable increase in the number of industrial workers. The ruin of the peasantry led to the expansion of the reserve army of labor.

Many thousands of workers were used by the warring powers to serve various military needs in the Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Northern and Southern Rhodesia.

No less serious were the qualitative changes that took place during the war in the working class of Africa. Racial discrimination and the "color barrier" policy pursued by the colonialists before the war led to the fact that Africans were used mainly as laborers.

Having ceased to be an arena of confrontation between East and West, this region has lost its strategic importance in the system of foreign policy coordinates of the leading powers, and the experience of their political and economic cooperation with African countries has undergone a critical reassessment. Steps have been taken to overcome the extremely costly nature of assistance provided to African States on a bilateral and multilateral basis.

In this regard, both in Africa and beyond its borders, extremely pessimistic moods began to spread regarding not only the distant, but also the immediate prospects of the region, and scenarios for the development of the situation that had an apocalyptic tone were proposed. The concept of “Afropessimism” has firmly entered the international political lexicon, which has been supported and is supported by many serious arguments.

The source of "Afro-pessimism" was, first of all, the disastrous economic situation of the vast majority of countries in the region. Today, the continent, home to more than 11% of the world's population (600 million people), accounts for only about 5% of world production. Of the 53 African countries, 33 belong to the group of the world's least developed countries (LDCs).

Of particular concern is that although Africa's share of international economic assistance to developing countries was 38% in the early 1990s (17% in 1970) and fluctuates by present stage between 15 and 20 billion dollars a year, the fall in GDP per capita on the continent for the period 1980 - 1992. reached 15%.

At the end of the 50s, 12% of the state budget in Senegal, 23% in Niger, 28% in Mauritania, 34% in Mali, and in Cape Verde (ROZM) - 70% were executed from external financing. On average, in countries south of the Sahara, external financing of state budgets was carried out at about 11% of their GDP, while in countries of North Africa and the Middle East this figure was only 1.2%, in Asia - 0.7%, in countries of Latin America-0.4%.

Thus, despite the massive economic assistance, Africa lagged behind not only the developed industrial states, but also the majority of developing countries that experienced a period of rapid economic recovery. If in the 40s the main indicators economic development Ghana and South Korea were the same, and the per capita income in Nigeria was higher than in Indonesia, then by the end of the 60s any comparisons became useless.

Despite the efforts of the world community, it is not possible to solve the problem of hunger. From time to time, food shortages became dramatic in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Angola, Rwanda, Zaire, and Sierra Leone. The problem of refugees has also taken on an extraordinary scale. In Africa, there are almost 50% of the global number of refugees (more than 7 million people) and 60% of displaced persons (20 million people) Modern international relations. / Under. ed. A.V. Torkunov. -- M.: "Russian Political Encyclopedia" (ROSSPEN), 1999.

Numerous internal and interstate conflicts in various parts of Africa have extremely unfavorable consequences for international security interests. During the post-colonial period, 35 armed conflicts were recorded on the continent, during which about 10 million people died, most of of which are civilians. The weakening of the military-political intervention in the affairs of Africa by the superpowers initially led to a decrease in the number and intensity of conflicts in the region, but soon the old feuds resumed and new feuds broke out, in which the struggle of various political forces was no longer masked by the confrontation between East and West, but was widely fueled by traditional ethnic , confessional and clan contradictions, social costs of reforms.

In the 1960s, military operations were conducted on the territory of more than a dozen African states. Particularly great destruction of war and armed ethnic conflicts brought to Angola, Ethiopia, Liberia, Mozambique, Somalia, Chad, Mauritania, Senegal, Western Sahara, Sudan, Uganda, Mali, Burundi and Rwanda. Overcoming their consequences will require several decades, and the likelihood of relapses of confrontation remains high.

In this regard, “Afropessimists” believe that the socio-economic and political characteristics of the African continent doom the vast majority of countries in the region to constant instability, and the high probability of a new round of crisis development also blocks international efforts to overcome this situation. In general, in their opinion, Africa was, is and will be a "source of increased danger" in the system international relations.

However, despite the seriousness of the threats of a regional and global scale, noted on African continent, the world order emerging at the turn of the third millennium will be determined not only by those factors that are quite obvious today, but also by new promising trends.

Positive changes have been made possible primarily by the settlement of major armed conflicts in Africa. The liquidation of the apartheid regime in South Africa had a beneficial effect on the situation in the southern part of the continent. The protracted political struggle in Namibia, Mozambique and Angola has ceased. Relations between Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania have normalized. With the granting of independence to Eritrea, the long-term civil war in Ethiopia ended, but now clashes between Ethiopia and Eritrea are already taking place at the interstate level.

The solution of the problems, which for a long time caused the main hotbeds of tension on the African continent and around it, turned out to be partial, insufficient to create an atmosphere of regional security. By the mid-1990s, the situation in many areas, which were previously considered only as potential zones of local confrontation, sharply escalated.

The situation in the Great Lakes region developed especially dramatically. Contradictions between the Hutus and Tutsis, which go deep into colonial history, spilled out beyond the borders of Rwanda and Burundi, where these peoples live. Many states of the subregion were involved in the conflict to one degree or another.

Tensions persist in Somalia, where, against the background of the actual collapse of the state, the opposing factions continue their attempts to achieve military and political superiority. The mediation efforts of neighboring states in a number of cases helped to reduce the level of confrontation, but the peace agreements repeatedly reached by the parties to the conflict were not respected.

It should be noted that the persistence of the military-political confrontation is closely linked to the arms race on the African continent, which increases instability in domestic politics and interstate relations. Among the developing countries of Africa, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Ethiopia, Angola and Nigeria possessed the greatest military power by the end of the 70s. The main part of the armored forces of the continent was concentrated in the armies of these countries, most of military aviation and fleet. In nine more countries (Somalia, Kenya, Sudan, Tunisia, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Zaire) the military potential reached the sub-regional level, allowing active hostilities beyond their borders.

The picture of the high instability of the military-political situation in many parts of Africa is supplemented by the almost universal unsettledness of the situation of national minorities, separatist tendencies, manifestations of religious intolerance, and interstate disagreements fueled by plans for sub-regional hegemony by some African leaders. Therefore, in almost all parts of the continent, there are not only real, but also potential "hot spots" that can become the most serious obstacle to the economic revival and overcoming the backwardness of African countries.

However, the situation in the "hot spots" of the African continent in last years did not remain unchanged. Thanks to the actions of the UN, the efforts of the OAU and individual states, in a number of cases positive changes have been achieved.

A major peacekeeping operation in Mozambique has been successfully completed. The process of national reconciliation in South Africa proceeded without significant complications. Peaceful solutions were found to the territorial dispute between Chad and Libya over the Aouzu strip, the question of the status of Walvis Bay. It was possible to prevent the escalation of internal conflicts in Lesotho, Swaziland, the Central African Republic, the Comoros, as well as territorial disputes between Nigeria and Cameroon, Eritrea and Yemen, Namibia and Botswana.

The examples cited are convincing evidence that the resolution of conflicts in Africa, although difficult, is quite feasible even in a relatively short time frame. It is also important that the process of peacemaking, which began in connection with specific conflicts, is harmoniously combined with global trends in overcoming confrontation. The signing of an agreement on the creation of a nuclear-free zone in Africa is evidence of the interest of African countries in strengthening international and regional security. There is a growing desire to increase control over the proliferation of weapons and to achieve the prohibition of their most deadly types on the continent. In this regard, assessing the situation in the "hot spots" of Africa solely through the prism of "Afro-pessimism" would be unjustified Lebedev M.M. Africa in modern world. - St. Petersburg: Peter, 2003 ..

A characteristic feature of the buildup of efforts to establish and maintain peace on the African continent was the broad involvement of the world community, and especially the member states of the UN Security Council. It is symptomatic that during this period 40% of UN peacekeeping forces were operating in Africa. But today the desire of the African countries themselves to participate in the processes of settlement and peacemaking is becoming more and more active.

An important phenomenon in international relations in Africa was the beginning of the formation of a special OAU mechanism designed to ensure the prevention and settlement of conflicts. According to the documents of the Cairo summit of the OAU, it is based on the principles of non-interference in the internal affairs of states, respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity, settlement of conflicts through negotiations, mediation and mutual consultations. The approximate ($1 million) amount of annual deductions from the OAU for the needs of a special peacekeeping corps has also been determined.

But the contours of the regional security system look rather vague so far. Its contractual structure, criteria for functioning and interaction with UN peacekeeping forces are still amorphous. The stumbling block for African peacekeeping is the lack of material resources, and most importantly, the lack of mutual trust in the relations of many neighboring states and the ambitions of their leaders.

In this regard, the provision of international assistance to Africa in the creation of an inter-African peacekeeping force is gaining relevance. However, it is hampered by the presence of certain differences between the US and France - the two largest Western partners of African countries.

The differences between the American and French approaches to the problem were clearly manifested at the international conference held in Dakar. France is in favor of maintaining its direct military presence in West Africa (5 military bases) and training with the participation of a large French contingent of a special peacekeeping corps (MARS) from representatives of seven French-speaking countries of the subregion. This plan is different from American project, providing for the creation of a peacekeeping corps of a different configuration (ASRK). In the process of forming ASRK, a battalion has already been trained from the armed forces of Senegal and Uganda. In the near future, it is also planned to connect battalions from Ghana, Malawi, Mali, Tunisia and Ethiopia to them. Thus, the fundamental difference between the French and American ideas about the possibilities of participation of African states in peacekeeping operations on the continent is the orientation, on the one hand, to subregional, and, on the other, to transcontinental scales.

The idea of ​​creating an African Rapid Deployment Force as a whole fits into the global strategy for the decentralization of peacekeeping. But when they are implemented, it is necessary to ensure that the UN Security Council retains the role of the main peacekeeping instrument, clearly defining in each specific case the procedure for using military contingents and the control of their actions by the UN.

Peace and normalization of the situation are preconditions for improving the economic and social situation on the African continent. At the same time, cautious optimism about overcoming military conflicts is largely due to the improvement in the main indicators of economic growth, which has recently been characteristic of most African states.

Decolonization. The colonial empires before the Second World War were unshakable, the situation changed after the war.

In 1947 Great Britain recognized the independence of India, Pakistan, Burma, Ceylon and other colonies. France persisted in trying to keep the colonies, but was defeated in the colonial wars in Vietnam (1945-1954) and Algeria (1954-1962). The Italian colonies were taken under UN tutelage and then gained independence.

In the Middle East after the collapse Ottoman Empire Egypt gained independence in 1936, and Iraq in 1931. On the territory of the former Palestine, the struggle for the creation of an Arab state continued.

The process of decolonization has shifted to Africa. 1960 was named the Year of Africa. Several dozen nation-states have been created in place of French and British colonies in tropical (sub-Saharan) Africa. In 1970, Angola and Mozambique won their independence. The process of decolonization culminated in the creation of an independent Namibia (1990).

Reasons for the collapse colonial system:

Improvement of the world situation in connection with the victory of democracy over fascism and totalitarianism;

The unwillingness of the peoples of the colonies to live in captivity;

The USSR and the USA opposed colonialism;

The weakening of the colonial powers made it an unbearable burden for them to maintain their empires.

In the post-war world, the problem of decolonization was associated with the choice of a socialist or capitalist path of development, the center of which was India and China. In most African countries, military dictatorships or authoritarian-monarchist regimes have come to power.

The choice of the development path and the speed of transformations depended on regional cultural and civilizational features, of which there were three in Asia and Africa:

1. Asia-Pacific Region (APR) with Confucian traditions (China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore).

2. Indo-Buddhist-Muslim region(India, Pakistan, Southeast Asia).

3. Arab-Muslim region(Middle East, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Maghreb countries).

Japan. After the defeat in the war, radical reforms were carried out in Japan. They were carried out with the assistance and at the initiative of the American occupation authorities:

- agrarian reform- the land was transferred to the peasants, the clan of landowners and usurers was liquidated;

- adoption of a new constitution- the institute of emperors was preserved, but the constitution deprived him of the "divine sign", defined his role as "reigns, but does not rule";

- multi-party parliamentary system approved with the dominant Liberal Democratic Party.

In the early 50s. Japan remained an agro-industrial country. Three decades later, it has become an advanced industrial power. Japan became a rich and prosperous state, the center modern science and advanced technologies, the world's second largest economy after the United States.

Economic growth named Japanese "economic miracle" which was facilitated by a number of factors:

Japan borrowed and used foreign scientific and technical experience and inventions;

Japan was ahead of many countries in the automation of production and in the introduction of robots, which did not lead to the dismissal of a large contingent of workers;

Many Japanese companies adhered to a lifetime recruitment of the workforce;

Own improvements and exactingness to the quality of products provided the Japanese business with a leading place in the world in the production of video, audio and radio equipment, cars and other goods;

Japan saw an influx of American capital and technology;

The main reason for the economic well-being of Japan is hard work, high work ethic, work culture, corporate discipline, respect for elders and other norms of Japanese behavior dating back to Confucian traditions.

China. In 1946, the Civil War began in China - Chiang Kai-shek, with the army of the Kuomintang party, advocated capitalist modernization along the Western model, on the one hand, and Mao Zedong, at the head of the Communist Party and its army, the PLA (People's Liberation Army of China) - for building socialism and communism.

won the civil war communist party China, October 1, 1949 in Beijing, Mao Zedong proclaimed the formation of the People's Republic of China.

Reforms:

Elimination of landownership, but soon - the beginning of collectivization;

Nationalization of industry;

Liquidation of private property in the countryside;

In the field of industry, plans have been adopted for the accelerated development of production in violation of technical standards, technological processes and sectoral proportions;

- "communization" Agriculture, which had negative consequences;

1966-1976 - "cultural revolution".

The new modernization of Deng Xiaoping (state and party leader of the CPC, in 1978 - third vice chairman of the CPC, chief of staff of the PLA):

The dissolution of the communes, the return of the land to the peasants;

Legalization of trade, opening of markets;

Granting independence to enterprises, their entry into the foreign market;

Development of small and medium private sector in industry and trade;

The emergence of opportunities for foreign investment to enter the world market;

The concept of "building socialism with Chinese characteristics" and building a "medium-prosperous society" has been developed.

The consequences of the CPC reforms were mainly Negative consequences. In the future, the growth of the Chinese economy was facilitated by the following factors: China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO). This led to the opening of the domestic market for foreign goods and contributed to the promotion of Chinese products to foreign countries. China became in the 1990s. the largest object of investment of foreign capital. According to a number of indicators of the volume of production, China by the end of the 90s. came out on top in the world.

In terms of territory (more than 30 million km2), Africa is the largest of the main geographic regions of the world. And in terms of the number of countries, it is also far ahead of any of them: Africa now has 54 sovereign states. They are extremely different in area and number of inhabitants. For example, Sudan, the largest of the countries in the region, occupies 2.5 million km2, slightly inferior to Algeria (about 2.4 million km2), followed by Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Chad, Ethiopia, South Africa (from 1 million to 1 ,Smlnkkm2), while many African island nations (Comoros, Cape Verde, Sao Tome and Principe, Mauritius) are only 1,000 to 4,000 km2, and Seychelles even less. Such are the differences between African countries and in terms of population: from Nigeria with 138 million to Sao Tome and Principe with 200 thousand people. And by geographic location a special group is formed by 15 landlocked countries (Table 6 in Book I).
A similar situation for political map Africa was formed after the Second World War as a result of the process of decolonization. Prior to this, Africa was usually referred to as the colonial continent. Indeed, by the beginning of the 20th century. she was, in the words of I. A. Vitver, literally torn to pieces. They were part of the colonial empires of Great Britain, France, Portugal, Italy, Spain, and Belgium. Back in the late 1940s. only Egypt, Ethiopia, Liberia and the Union of South Africa (dominion of Great Britain) could be attributed to the number of at least formally independent countries.
In the process of decolonization of Africa, three successive stages are distinguished (Fig. 142).
At the first stage, in the 1950s, the more developed countries of North Africa - Morocco and Tunisia, which were previously French possessions, as well as the Italian colony of Libya, gained independence. As a result of the anti-feudal and anti-capitalist revolution, Egypt was finally freed from English control. After that, Sudan also became independent, formally considered a co-ownership (condominium) of Great Britain and Egypt. But decolonization also affected Black Africa, where the British colony of the Gold Coast, which became Ghana, and the former French Guinea were the first to achieve independence.
Most of these countries came to independence relatively peacefully, without armed struggle. At a time when the United Nations has already adopted common decision about decolonization, the mother countries could not behave in Africa in the old way. Nevertheless, they tried their best to at least somehow slow down this process. An example is France's attempt to organize the so-called French Community, which, as autonomies, included almost all former colonies, as well as trust territories (before World War I, they were German colonies, then they became mandated territories of the League of Nations, and after World War II UN Trust Territories). But this Community proved to be short-lived.
The second stage was 1960, which in the literature was called the Year of Africa. During this year alone, 17 former colonies, mostly French, became independent. It can be said that since that time the process of decolonization in Africa has become irreversible.
At the third stage, after 1960, this process was actually completed. In the 1960s After an eight-year war with France, Algeria achieved independence. Almost all British colonies, the last colonies of Belgium and Spain, also received it. In the 1970s the main event was the crash colonial empire Portugal, which took place after the democratic revolution in this country in 1974. As a result, Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and the islands became independent. Some more former possessions of Great Britain and France gained independence. In the 1980s English Southern Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) was added to this list, and in the 1990s. – South West Africa (Namibia) and Eritrea.


As a result, there are no longer colonies on the vast African continent. And as for some of the islands that still remain in colonial dependence, their share in the area and population of Africa is measured in hundredths of a percent.
However, all this does not mean that the course of decolonization in the third stage was only peaceful and mutually agreed upon. Suffice it to say that in Zimbabwe the national liberation struggle of the local population against the racist regime established here by the white minority lasted a total of 15 years. In Namibia, which after the Second World War was actually illegally annexed to South Africa, the national liberation struggle, including the armed one, lasted 20 years and ended only in 1990. Another example of this kind is Eritrea. This former Italian colony, under British control after the war, was then incorporated into Ethiopia. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Eritrea fought for its independence for more than 30 years, and only in 1993 was it finally proclaimed. True, five years later, another Ethiopian-Eritrean war broke out.
At the beginning of the XXI century. in Africa there is, perhaps, only one country whose political status has not yet been finally determined. This is Western Sahara, which until 1976 was the possession of Spain. After Spain withdrew its troops from there, the territory of Western Sahara was occupied by neighboring countries claiming it: in the north - Morocco, and in the south - Mauritania. In response to such actions, the Popular Front for the Liberation of that country proclaimed the creation of an independent Saharan Arab Democratic Republic(SADR), which has already been recognized by dozens of countries around the world. Today, he continues the armed struggle with the Moroccan troops still in the country. The conflict around SADR can be seen as one of the most striking examples of territorial disputes, which are so numerous in Africa.
It is quite natural that in the process of decolonization very large changes took place in the state system of African countries.
In terms of the form of government, the vast majority of independent states in Africa (46) belong to presidential republics, while there are very few parliamentary republics on the continent. There were relatively few monarchies in Africa before, but still Egypt, Libya, and Ethiopia belonged to them. Now there are only three monarchies left - Morocco in the north of Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland - in the south; they are all kingdoms. But at the same time, it must be borne in mind that even behind the republican form of government, military regimes are often hidden here, and often changing, or even openly dictatorial, authoritarian regimes. In the mid 1990s. out of 45 countries in sub-Saharan Africa such regimes took place in 38! This is largely due to internal reasons - the legacy of feudalism and capitalism, extreme economic backwardness, low cultural level of the population, tribalism. But along with this, an important reason for the emergence of authoritarian regimes was the confrontation between the two world systems that lasted for many decades. One of them sought to consolidate the capitalist order and Western values ​​in the young liberated countries, and the other - socialist. We must not forget that in the 1960s-1980s. Quite a few countries of the continent proclaimed a course towards a socialist orientation, which was abandoned only in the 1990s.
An example of an authoritarian regime is Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya, although this country was renamed by him in 1977 into the Socialist Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (from the Arabic al-Jamahiriya, i.e., "the state of the masses"). Another example is Zaire during the long reign (1965–1997) of the founder of the ruling party, Marshal Mobutu, who was eventually ousted from his post. The third example is the Central African Republic, which in 1966-1980. led by President J. B. Bokassa, who then proclaimed himself emperor, and the country - the Central African Empire; he was also deposed. Quite often, Nigeria, Liberia and some other African states are also included among the countries with successive military regimes.
The opposite example - the victory of the democratic system - is the Republic of South Africa. At first this country was a British dominion, in 1961 it became a republic and withdrew from the Commonwealth, led by Great Britain. The country was dominated by a racist white minority regime. But the national liberation struggle led by the African National Congress led to the victory of this organization in the elections to the country's parliament in 1994. After that, South Africa again returned to the world community, as well as to the Commonwealth.
In terms of the form of administrative-territorial structure, the vast majority of African countries are unitary states. There are only four federal states. These are South Africa, which consists of nine provinces, Nigeria, which includes 30 states, Comoros, which includes four island districts, and Ethiopia (consisting of nine states), which became a federation only in 1994.
However, it should be taken into account that African federations differ significantly from, say, European ones. V. A. Kolosov even identifies a special, Nigerian type of federation, to which in Africa he refers Nigeria and Ethiopia, calling them young highly centralized federations with unstable authoritarian regimes. They are characterized by weak local self-government and the intervention of the center "from above" in many affairs of the regions. Sometimes in the literature one can also come across the assertion that South Africa is actually a unitary republic with elements of federalism.
The main political organization in Africa, uniting all the independent states of the continent, was the Organization of African Unity (OAU), established in 1963 with its center in Addis Ababa. In 2002, it was transformed into the African Union (AU), for which the European Union can be considered a model. Within the framework of the AU, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government, the AU Commission, the African Parliament have already been created, the creation of the Court and the introduction of a single currency (afro) are planned. The goals of the AU are to maintain peace and accelerate economic development.

There were general problems:

• lack of own political experience;
• preservation of the traditional basis of society - tribal ties, community-clan structures of self-government;
• the presence of borders determined not by ethnic or natural factors, but by the colonial conquests of Europeans, and the preservation of this position after independence. As a result, kindred peoples and tribes turned out to be separated by state borders, and those at war with each other were united into one state, which led to bloody tribal clashes and civil wars that continue up to the present day;
• search for models of optimal political structure and economic development;
• the influence of the Cold War atmosphere on the educated elite that came to power. This influence was manifested in the fact that the West supported some odious regimes in Africa, as they opposed the spread of communist ideology. In particular, even the slightest hint that the power in the country could pass into the hands of the communists, in fact, one hundred percent guaranteed the support of the United States for any dictators. The latter acted almost exclusively in tribal, clan, personal, foreign interests, but not in the interests of the people of their states.

Having gained independence, the peoples of Africa acquired the right to choose their own politicians, but in reality they often turned out to be demagogues, concerned only with power and their own influence.

In the process of modernization, the achievements that African countries have achieved while being in colonial dependence turned out to be practically not used. The decision of African leaders to abandon many of the achievements of the colonial past of their countries was explained by the fact that the former mother countries were declared an ideological enemy, communication with which was impossible in principle.

Socialist way of development

The desire for national independence required a policy less dependent on the former mother countries. Such a policy pushed African states to choose an alternative development model. An example of such a model during this period was Soviet Union.

Many African states were headed by national leaders who considered themselves anti-imperialists, socialists and friends of the USSR, especially if the Soviet Union provided them with any assistance. Such politicians include Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Sekou Touré in Guinea, Modibo Keito in Mali, and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.

Pro-Soviet leaders sought to put an end to the backwardness of their countries, in which agriculture prevailed over industry; they introduced central planning, took a course towards industrialization, reduced imports or completely abandoned them. In the absence of resources and proper conditions, at best, these experiments ended in nothing, and at worst, they led to terrible cataclysms: devastation, famine, civil war.

Many historians see colonialism as the main reason for the backwardness of African countries.

The key issue for African states was the question of what it takes to turn poor countries into prosperous ones. to the coming XXI century it was to be answered whether this required only a simple copying of economic methods, or whether such a process would affect both the cultural and social environment.

Ghana

Algeria

In the process of decolonization of Africa, the most acute problem was the territories where many Europeans lived. First of all, we are talking about the French colony of Algiers.

Sub Sahara

Republic of South Africa (South Africa)

The state policy of South Africa was apartheid, which in translation from Aurikaans (Boer language, one of the 11 official languages ​​in South Africa) means "separate residence." The ideological basis of apartheid was racism, which divided people into higher (full) and lower (inferior). The country had laws on resettlement by racial groups, on separate services, and the white population was assigned the primary right to vote in elections.

In the 1950-1970s. the main task of the political leaders of the Republic of South Africa was to protect the “white state” in the country and the racial system, condemned throughout the world.

By the end of the 1970s. South Africa, in essence, consisted of two communities that were extremely hostile to each other.

In the early 1980s the government, under pressure from increasing anti-apartheid and fear of chaos, began to repeal racist laws. The liquidation of this regime took place peacefully in 1994. As a result of the first free elections a black majority government headed by N. Mandela came to power.