Decolonisation in Africa

Decolonisation in Africa


The Bandung Conference and the Suez Crisis led to the second phase of decolonisation, which chiefly took place in Africa.


In North Africa, France had to face a serious crisis which began in Algeria with the uprising of the National Liberation Front in 1954. The war then spread to Morocco and Tunisia and eventually even threatened the French Republic itself. The protectorates of Morocco and Tunisia were granted independence in March 1956 without any armed struggle. Algeria, on the other hand, was considered to be an integral part of France, and events took a different turn. It was only after a painful eight-year-long war, which lasted from the 1954 insurrection to the Évian Accords of March 1962, that Algeria became an independent state.

From 1957 onwards, it was the turn of the former British, French, Belgian and Portuguese possessions in sub-Saharan Africa to gradually gain independence.

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