MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Burkina Faso

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Burkina Faso, on the map of history

What was Burkina Faso before it was Burkina Faso? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Burkina Faso · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Burkina Faso · The Cold War, 1945–1991

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Burkina Faso (Upper Volta) · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Upper Volta — renamed Burkina Faso, “land of upright people,” in 1984 — won independence from France in 1960. Poor, landlocked and Sahelian, it endured a long cycle of coups; the most famous brought the radical young Thomas Sankara to power in 1983, before his assassination in 1987. A small state emblematic of the interior colonies’ poverty and instability.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →