White-minority government declares Rhodesia independent unilaterally

Kenya became independent after years of anticolonial organizing and the brutal Emergency, during which Britain detained hundreds of thousands and used forced resettlement, torture, and executions. The...

An uprising led by the Afro-Shirazi Party and allied forces overthrew the Zanzibar sultanate and its government. The revolution followed a narrow electoral victory by parties associated with Arab...

Tanganyika and Zanzibar formed the United Republic of Tanganyika and Zanzibar, renamed Tanzania later that year. The union followed Zanzibar’s revolution and reflected Cold War security concerns as...

Northern Rhodesia became the independent Republic of Zambia after decades of African labor organizing and opposition to the Central African Federation, which had privileged white settler political...

Singapore became an independent republic after its separation from Malaysia. The split followed political conflict over federal power, communal politics, and competing visions of multiracial...

British Guiana became independent as Guyana. The new government inherited a society shaped by plantation slavery, indenture, racialized labor, and British colonial rule. Independence followed a...

The Bechuanaland Protectorate became the Republic of Botswana. Independence followed constitutional negotiations and an election, but the country remained economically dependent on South Africa and...

Basutoland became the Kingdom of Lesotho, a sovereign state surrounded by South Africa. The territory’s borders and political economy reflected colonial and settler expansion; many Basotho men...

The UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 2145, terminating South Africa’s mandate over South West Africa (later Namibia) and placing the territory under UN responsibility. South Africa rejected...

Barbados became independent after more than three centuries of British rule. The change followed labor organizing, the growth of universal suffrage, and constitutional reform. Independence created a...