African independence — domestic and external causes
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Flip to reveal answersWhat were the main domestic social causes of African independence movements?
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Question
What were the main domestic social causes of African independence movements?
Answer
Racial discrimination and daily humiliation under colonial rule — exclusion from senior jobs, clubs and equal treatment regardless of education or ability.
Question
How did colonial economics fuel independence movements?
Answer
Colonies existed to enrich the metropole: cash crops (cocoa, sisal, coffee) were sold at low fixed prices, and profits went to European firms, not African producers.
Question
What is indirect rule, and how did it cause resentment?
Answer
Ruling through African chiefs as junior partners — it gave educated Africans (lawyers, teachers, clerks) almost no real political power, radicalising exactly the elite who became nationalist leaders.
Question
How did European settlers change the character of an independence struggle?
Answer
In settler colonies (Algeria, Namibia) settlers blocked reform to protect their land and status, making peaceful change far harder and pushing movements toward armed struggle.
Question
Give the key figures: Algeria's settler population and the years of its war of independence.
Answer
About one million pied-noirs (European settlers); the Algerian War ran 1954–1962, led by the FLN.
Question
What happened in the Gold Coast in 1948, and why?
Answer
The Accra riots — triggered by unemployed WWII veterans, high prices and lack of political rights; a key domestic trigger for Ghana's independence movement.
Question
What is Pan-Africanism, and what 1945 event sharpened it?
Answer
The idea that all people of African descent share a common struggle and should unite; the 1945 Manchester Pan-African Congress turned this into a direct demand for immediate independence.
Question
Why did WWII weaken the European colonial powers' grip on Africa?
Answer
Britain and France emerged financially exhausted and militarily stretched, with returning African veterans expecting rights, and wartime 'freedom' rhetoric now used against the colonisers themselves.
Question
How did the Cold War both help AND complicate African independence?
Answer
It pressured colonial powers to decolonise (to avoid looking hypocritical) but also meant superpowers armed rival factions (e.g. Soviet/Cuban-backed MPLA vs US/South Africa-backed FNLA/UNITA in Angola), which could prolong conflict.
Question
Why is Ghana's 1957 independence historically significant?
Answer
It was the first sub-Saharan African colony to gain independence, becoming the model and inspiration ('domino effect') for the wave of African independence that followed, including the 1960 'Year of Africa'.
Question
Compare domestic causes in a settler colony (Namibia) vs a non-settler colony (Ghana).
Answer
Namibia: German genocide (1904–08) then South African apartheid rule (from 1948) drove SWAPO's armed struggle from 1966. Ghana: no major settler bloc, so its path to independence was faster and largely peaceful.
Question
What Paper 3 essay skill does this micro-topic emphasise?
Answer
Weighing domestic vs external causes to reach a substantiated judgement in a 'To what extent do you agree...' essay [15] — not just listing causes.
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Full study notes for African independence — domestic and external causes
Topic 10.10 hub
Independence movements in Algeria, Angola, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia and Tanganyika (c.1900–2000)
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