Guyana becomes independent after labor and anticolonial organizing

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...

Ian Smith’s white-minority government issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain to block majority rule. The declaration preserved settler political power over a Black African...

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...

The Eastern Region declared itself the Republic of Biafra amid massacres, displacement, military coups, and a crisis of trust in Nigeria’s federal state. Many Igbo residents supported secession as...