MAPS OF HISTORY · The Decolonization of Africa · THE QUIZ
The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994 · TEST YOURSELF
The quiz
5 questions from the atlas’s Field Exam, free to try. Answer, then read the verdict — every answer is an argument, not a flashcard.
Seventeen states became independent in the single year 1960 above all because —
France’s 1956 loi-cadre had already devolved power to African ministers, so independence was the last step of a transfer largely made; the collapse of de Gaulle’s Community turned autonomy into full independence across French Africa at once.
Why was Algeria’s decolonization so much more violent than Ghana’s or Nigeria’s?
The settler equation: where Europeans had put down roots, property and political weight, majority rule meant losing everything, so they fought. The same logic made Kenya, Rhodesia and South Africa violent — and Ghana, with few settlers, peaceful.
The OAU’s 1964 resolution on borders decided that —
Africa’s leaders chose to freeze the borders inherited from empire — a conservative bargain that almost certainly prevented continent-wide secession wars, at the cost of locking peoples inside artificial states. It is debated to this day.
The Congo Crisis is best understood as —
A colony left unprepared, a copper secession bankrolled by Belgian mining interests, an elected premier murdered with Western connivance when he turned to Moscow — the crisis is the clearest case of African self-rule subordinated to Cold War and corporate interests.
What finally forced South Africa to give up its occupation of Namibia?
At Cuito Cuanavale (1987–88) South Africa’s largest offensive was fought to a standstill, shattering the myth of white military invincibility. The negotiated linkage — Cuban withdrawal from Angola for Namibian independence — freed the last colony in 1990.
THE OTHER 10 QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED ON THE MAP
“Click the border where the tide stopped for good.” 10 of the Field Exam’s questions can’t be asked on paper — you answer them by finding the place on the living map, and the exam stamps your rank when you’re done.
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