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The Golden Age of Exploration, Europeans began to sail south around the continent of Africa in an attempt to reach the wealth of silks and spices found in India and China.
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European traders began to sell Africans guns and European made goods in exchange for slaves.
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by the early 1800s, they were colonizing or taking over another country for the resources it can provide.
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By 1900 Europe had grabbed nearly all of Africa.
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In the mid 1900s inspired by the events of World War II Africans began to seriously rebel against colonization.
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In 1910 South Africa was granted independence from Great Britain.
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The Kikuyu people of Kenya began a political organization in the 1920s to fight for freedom from Great Britain.
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The only country to remain uncolonized was Ethiopia though Italy did invaded the country in 1930.
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In Ghana in the 1940s Kwame Nkrumah introduced the idea of Pan-Africanism which was a belief in the unity of all Black Africans worldwide.
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In 1948, white South Africans known as Afrikaners made apartheid law. Apartheid is a policy of legal separation based on race. Under apartheid, black South Africans were forced to live and work where whites demanded
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Sudan gained its independence from Great Britain in 1956.
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After independence, the people in the south rebelled against northern rule leading to two civil wars from 1956 to 1972 and from 1983 to 2005.
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Ghana would gain its independence in 1957.
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In 1960 Nigeria became independent after a fierce struggle against the British.
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Belgium Congo became independent in 1960
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Belgium Congo became independent in 1960
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Independence came to Rwanda in 1962 after which violence broke out and the Hutu took control.
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It took years but Kenya became independent in 1963.
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In 1964, Mandela was arrested and sentenced to life in prison for his actions. Mandela would not be silenced and continued to protest from prison.
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The country was unable to create a stable, fair government. As a result, in 1965 Joseph Mobutu seized power.
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In 1976 the Igbo people tried to declare themselves independent.
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F.W. de Klerk was elected president of South Africa in 1989. de Klerk realized that apartheid could not continue.
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In 1990, he announced the end of apratheid and released Nelson Mandela from prison.
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In 1993, Mandela and de Klerk were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in ending apartheid.
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In 1994, South Africa held its first open elections in which Nelson Mandela was elected the new president.
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The country continued to experience violence until 1994 when Hutu began to engage in genocide against the Tutsi people.
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In 2010, people in Tunisia began to agitate for a more democratic government.
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In 2011, Sudan recognized South Sudan’s independence.
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In 2011, President Ben Ali resigned and a democratic government was elected. Similar victories occurred in Algeria and Morocco.
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Qaddafi was captured and killed in 2011, and a new government was elected.
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He was forced to resign in 2011.
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Mubarak was replaced by a Islamic fundamentalist government led by Mohammed Morsi in 2012.
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Morsi’s term was short because in 2013, his government was overthrown by the military.