Chapter 20
Unit 5 World History
The Battle of  the Pyramids by Louis-Francois Baron Lejeune. (Public Domain photo. Info can be found here)
Mohandas Gandhi with Muhammad Ali Jinnah. (Public Domain photo. Info can be found here)
One subject that is ignored in history far too often are the movements to break free from colonialism/imperialism in the world after World War II. Many colonies of Western powers were able to break free during this time period and transformed whole continents because of it. Independence movements in Africa were most prominent during this era and we cover a few of the most important of them including the Mau Mau Revolt in Kenya. We later get to South African Apartheid which culminates with the life of Nelson Mandela. Outside of Africa, we talk about a number of other movements including the well-known independence movement in India. Most people know who Gandhi is, but they don’t quite grasp the scope of what he did. On top of that we usually don’t realize just how important the split between India and Pakistan during this time has effected geo-political issues worldwide ever since. For this reason, we cover all of these movements and their effects.

Essential questions

The following questions are meant to be studied during the chapter as possible essay questions for your exam.
Please be ready for any of the following questions.
  1. Did the use of violence to suppress revolts in African countries during the era of anti-colonial revolts tend to work in favor of the Europeans? Why or why not?
  2. In what ways were the anti-colonial revolts in Africa a logical result of the Pan-Africanism movement? Could any of these revolts have worked without that step first?

Chapter Content

Use the following links to find the content you are interested in or use the search bar at the top right to look for specific concepts.

Decolonization of African Nations

Ghana Independence

Mau Mau Uprising

Jomo Kenyatta

The Algerian War of Independence

Other NW African Issues

Independence in Congo

The Congo Crisis

The Rhodesian Bush War

President Robert Mugabe

The Mozambican War of Independence

Portuguese Colonial War

Guinea-Bissau War of Independence

Angolan War of Independence

Angolan Civil War

Child Soldiers

Blood Diamonds

The 1st Liberian Civil War

The Sierra Leone Civil War

Apartheid

Resistance Against Apartheid

Violence Reignites

Opinion Turns On South Africa

South African Response To Pressure

Apartheid Ends

South Africa Under Mandela

Ethnic Issues In E. Africa

Rwanda Becomes More Violent

The Rwandan Genocide

End of the Genocide

Mobutu & the Congo Wars

Class
Resources

The following are a list of helpful resources that can be used in studying for this chapter.

Class Notes

These are the notes that I use for class. All information found in these notes lead directly to the test so they should be used in studying if you want the correct answers. This can only be accessed by students logged into their school account.

Chapter Powerpoint

This link will lead you to the PowerPoint for this unit. Those who missed class can use this to catch up on what was taught in class and what specific concepts to focus on in your studying.

Exam Review

This is the review that should be used to prepare for the exam. All exam questions will be connected directly to this document. Students are expected to answer all questions and are encouraged to know the rest also.

Review Videos

The videos to the right are placed here so that you can find other ways to study if that is your desire. Crash course videos tend to work pretty well for this type of studying as many of the AP World students use them to prep for tests. Please feel free to click on any of the videos in this feed for more info.

This Chapter in the news

Many students don’t realize that history is being debated and rewritten daily. These are stories related to our chapter from the news.

Did The CIA help Catch Mandela?

Teeth that were found in China could possibly rewrite the movement patterns that we teach about when early man left Africa and spread throughout the globe.

Radical Histories of Mandela & King

With all of the years that have passed since they were in leadership roles, people tend to forget how radical these two leaders were at one point in their history.