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Visual History of the World
(CONTENTS)
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The Contemporary World
1945 to the present
After World War II, a new
world order came into being in which two superpowers, the United
States and the Soviet Union, played the leading roles. Their
ideological differences led to the arms race of the Cold War and
fears of a global nuclear conflict. The rest of the world was also
drawn into the bipolar bloc system, and very few nations were able
to remain truly non-aligned. The East-West conflict came to an end
in 1990 with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the consequent
downfall of the Eastern Bloc. Since that time, the world has been
driven by the globalization of worldwide economic and political
systems. The world has, however, remained divided: The rich nations
of Europe, North America, and East Asia stand in contrast to the
developing nations of the Third World.

The first moon landing made science-fiction dreams reality in the
year 1969.
Space technology has made considerable progress as the search for
new
possibilities of using space continues.
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Africa since the Independence of its Nations
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SINCE 1945
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see also: United Nations member states -
Angola,
Benin,
Botswana,
Burkina Faso,
Burundi,
Cameroon,
Cape Verde,
Central African Republic,
Chad,
Comoros,
Congo,
Cote d'Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Djibouti,
Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
Gabon,
Gambia,
Ghana,
Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau,
Kenya,
Lesotho,
Madagascar,
Malawi,
Mali,
Mauritania,
Mauritius,
Mozambique,
Namibia,
Niger,
Nigeria,
Rwanda,
Sao Tome and Principe,
Senegal,
Seychelles,
Sierra Leone,
Somalia,
South Africa,
Sudan,
Swaziland,
Tanzania,
Togo,
Uganda,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe
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The nations of Sub-Saharan Africa that became independent after 1957
have continued to suffer the consequences of their continent's
experience of colonialism. The optimism of the early years of
independence soon gave way to repeated military coups, violent
conflicts, and popular disillusionment with promises to end poverty and
improve living conditions. Other problems faced in parts of the region
include drought and famines, limited access to drinking water, and
the alarming growth of HIV/AIDS since the 1980s. These problems are
compounded by authoritarian and frequently corrupt regimes.
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Southern Africa
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With the exception of Zambia, the anticolonial liberation struggle in
southern Africa was both protracted and bloody. An apartheid system was
established in Rhodesia.
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In the Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique, the struggle for
independence took more than a decade. In Angola, three divergent
liberation movements led an armed struggle against the colonial rulers
beginning in 1961.
In 197s Portugal allowed the Communists under 6
Agostinho Neto to form an independent state.
Neto, supported by the USSR
and Cuba, sought to establish a socialist people's republic but was
opposed by the US-backed UNITA resistance forces under Jonas Savimbi.
After 1987, Neto's successor Jose Eduardo dos Santos abandoned Marxism
and began to negotiate with Savimbi. Since 2002 a precarious peace has
held.
Mozambique became independent in 1975, and the Communists under
1 Samora
Machel attempted to set up a socialist system while fighting against
rebel groups backed by the apartheid regimes of Rhodesia and South
Africa.
Machel's successor 2 Joaquim Alberto Chissano, president since
1986, won free elections in 1994 and 1999.
Zambia belonged to the British-administered Central African Federation
from 1953 to 1963 as Northern Rhodesia, along with Southern Rhodesia
(now Zimbabwe) and Nyasaland (now Malawi).
After Zambia's independence
in 1964, Premier 8 Kenneth Kaunda became the country's president.

6 Agostinho Neto, communist and poet, 1973
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1 The president
of Mozambique, Samora Machel, October 10, 1986
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2
The President at the ballot box: Joaquim Chissano, December 1, 2004
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8
The first president of Zimbabwe,
Kenneth David Kaunda
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He
nationalized large parts of the economy and in 19-2 established a
one-party system. In 1991 multiparty elections were held anc Kaunda lost
to 3 Frederick Chiluba, who survived attempted coups in 1997 and
1998.
Levy Mwanawasa succeeded him in 2002.
As a reaction to the independence of Zambia, the radical white settlers'
party of Southern Rhodesia declared their nation
7 independent despite
the protests of Great Britain.

3
Frederick Chiluba
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7
Prime Minister Ian Smith (middle) signs the Southern
Rhodesian
Declaration of Independence,
November 11,1965
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In 1970 Rhodesia was declared a republic,
and Ian Smith installed an apartheid regime similar to that in South
Africa.
This was resisted by the African liberation forces îf
ZAPU under 4 Joshua Nkomo and ZANU under
5 Robert Mugabe.
As surrounding
countries were drawn in, the struggle desta bilized the region. Through
British mediation, negotiations took place in 1978-1979 between Smith's
government and the liberation movements (who merged in 1976 to become
the Patriotic Front). After guarantees for the white settlers, ZANU won
elections held in February 1980. Rhodesia became the independent
Republic of Zimbabwe on April 18,1980, and since then Mugabe has been
president. Subsequently competition occurred between Mugabe and Nkomo.
Since 2000 he has received much international criticism due to his tacit
support for the occupation of white-owned farms by black veterans of the
liberation movements. All opposition is brutally suppressed and the
population is thought to be close to starvation.
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4 Joshua Nkomo, 1978
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5
The Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe,
April 2, 2005
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South Africa
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In South Africa, a harsh apartheid regime ruled until 1990. In 1994,
after a period of relatively peaceful political upheaval, Nelson
Mandela, the formerly imprisoned leader of the opposition movement,
became the first black president of South Africa.
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The white government of South Africa began implementing comprehensive
apartheid laws in 1949 that segregated the black majority from the white
minority and sought to reserve power for the latter. The apartheid
policy of racial segregation was implemented through the creation of
reservations, or "homelands," which were intended to prevent black
Africans from entering the white-inhabited areas. In 1950 the African
National Congress (ANC) began a campaign of civil disobedience and
sought to activate mass resistance.
Faced with violent repression from
the security forces, the ANC fell increasingly under the influence of Nelson Mandela as the militant faction increasingly prevailed over the
moderate pacifists. In 1960 there were riots and reprisals in the black
townships, notably the "Sharpeville Massacre," in which scores of black
demonstrators were killed by police. In the aftermath the government
outlawed the ANC. From then on the ANC operated as an underground
organization using guerrilla tactics. In 1964 several ANC leaders,
including Mandela, were sentenced to life in prison.
In 1966 Prime Minister 12 Hendrik Verwoerd (1958-1966) was assassinated.
His successor, Balthazar J. Vorster, enlarged the security apparatus and
in 1976 several hundred blacks were killed during the uprising of the
Soweto township. Such atrocities brought growing international criticism
and isolation on the South African regime.
After 1978, under external
pressure, Vorster's successor 11 Pieter Botha abolished many of the
apartheid laws while increasing the de facto repression of the black
population.

12
Hendrik Verwoerd, who was assassinated in Capetown in 1996
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11
Pieter Willem Botha
gives a speech,
February 1989
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After bloody 10,
13 uprisings in 1985-1986, he declared a
national state of emergency.

10
Police operation using guns, tear gas, and dogs in the poverty-stricken
black township of Soweto, near Johannesburg, May 12, 1986
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13
Demonstration in Middelburg against the
apartheid regime, March 9, 1986
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Not until Botha's successor 14 Willem de
Klerk came to power in 1989 was the ban on the ANC lifted. Negotiations
began, paving the way for apartheid's abolition. De Klerk organized a
peaceful transition to democracy with Mandela, who had by then been
released from imprisonment.
In 1993, a new constitution was agreed upon, and in 1994 the first
elections with black participation took place. The ANC won with a clear
majority and Mandela became president. He pursued a policy of
reconciliation. In 1999, he was succeeded by his former comrade-in-arms
and vice president, 9 Thabo Mbeki. Mbeki was reelected with a huge
majority in elections held in 2004.
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14
Frederik Willem de Klerk, April 27, 2004
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9 The third free election, ten years
after the end of apartheid:
President
Thabo Mbeki casts his
vote in Pretoria on April 14, 2004
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Nelson Mandela
A onetime lawyer sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964, Nelson Mandela
became the international face of black resistance to apartheid.
In
February 1985 he refused release from prison and demanded instead the
abolition of racial segregation.
He was finally released after 26 years
in prison as the apartheid regime began to crumble.
In negotiations with
the government, Mandela secured the nonviolent handover of power, and he
was subsequently elected president.
He and former president de Klerk
shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993.
Mandela continues to enjoy
worldwide respect as an international mediator.

Nelson Mandela,
a statesman respected
throughout the world,
December 27,
2004
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Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela
Main
president of South Africa
in full Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, byname Madiba
born July 18, 1918, Umtata, Cape of Good Hope, S.Af.
black nationalist and first black president of South Africa (1994–99).
His negotiations in the early 1990s with South African Pres. F.W. de
Klerk helped end the country’s apartheid system of racial segregation
and ushered in a peaceful transition to majority rule. Mandela and de
Klerk were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1993 for their
efforts.
Early life and work
The son of Chief Henry Mandela of the Madiba clan of the Xhosa-speaking
Tembu people, Nelson Mandela renounced his claim to the chieftainship to
become a lawyer. He attended South African Native College (later the
University of Fort Hare) and studied law at the University of the
Witwatersrand; he later passed the qualification exam to become a
lawyer. In 1944 he joined the African National Congress (ANC), a
black-liberation group, and became a leader of its Youth League. That
same year he met and married Evelyn Ntoko Mase. Mandela subsequently
held other ANC leadership positions, through which he helped revitalize
the organization and oppose the apartheid policies of the ruling
National Party.
In 1952 in Johannesburg, with fellow ANC leader Oliver Tambo, Mandela
established South Africa’s first black law practice, specializing in
cases resulting from the post-1948 apartheid legislation. Also that
year, Mandela played an important role in launching a campaign of
defiance against South Africa’s pass laws, which required nonwhites to
carry documents (known as passes, pass books, or reference books)
authorizing their presence in areas that the government deemed
“restricted” (i.e., generally reserved for the white population). He
traveled throughout the country as part of the campaign, trying to build
support for nonviolent means of protest against the discriminatory laws.
In 1955 he was involved in drafting the Freedom Charter, a document
calling for nonracial social democracy in South Africa. His
antiapartheid activism made him a frequent target of the authorities; in
March 1956 he was banned (severely restricted in travel, association,
and speech), and in December he was arrested with more than 100 other
people on charges of treason that were designed to harass antiapartheid
activists. Mandela went on trial that same year and eventually was
acquitted in 1961. During the extended court proceedings, he divorced
his first wife and married Nomzamo Winifred Madikizela (Winnie
Madikizela-Mandela).
Underground activity and the Rivonia Trial
After the massacre of unarmed black South Africans by police forces at
Sharpeville in 1960 and the subsequent banning of the ANC, Mandela
abandoned his nonviolent stance and began advocating acts of sabotage
against the South African regime. He went underground (during which time
he became known as the Black Pimpernel for his ability to evade capture)
and was one of the founders of Umkhonto we Sizwe (“Spear of the
Nation”), the military wing of the ANC. In 1962 he went to Algeria for
training in guerrilla warfare and sabotage, returning to South Africa
later that year. On August 5, shortly after his return, Mandela was
arrested at a road block in Natal; he was subsequently sentenced to five
years in prison.
In October 1963 the imprisoned Mandela and several other men were
tried for sabotage, treason, and violent conspiracy in the infamous
Rivonia Trial, named after a fashionable suburb of Johannesburg where
raiding police had discovered quantities of arms and equipment at the
headquarters of the underground Umkhonto we Sizwe. Mandela’s speech from
the dock, in which he admitted the truth of some of the charges made
against him, was a classic defense of liberty and defiance of tyranny.
(His speech garnered international attention and acclaim and was
published later that year as I Am Prepared to Die.) On June 12, 1964, he
was sentenced to life imprisonment, narrowly escaping the death penalty.
Incarceration
From 1964 to 1982 Mandela was incarcerated at Robben Island Prison, off
Cape Town. He was subsequently kept at the maximum-security Pollsmoor
Prison until 1988, when, after being treated for tuberculosis, he was
transferred to Victor Verster Prison near Paarl. The South African
government periodically made conditional offers of freedom to Mandela,
most notably in 1976, on the condition that he recognize the newly
independent—and highly controversial—status of the Transkei Bantustan
and agree to reside there. An offer made in 1985 required that he
renounce the use of violence. Mandela refused both offers, the second on
the premise that only free men were able to engage in such negotiations
and, as a prisoner, he was not a free man.
Throughout his incarceration, Mandela retained wide support among
South Africa’s black population, and his imprisonment became a cause
célèbre among the international community that condemned apartheid. As
South Africa’s political situation deteriorated after 1983, and
particularly after 1988, he was engaged by ministers of Pres. P.W.
Botha’s government in exploratory negotiations; he met with Botha’s
successor, de Klerk, in December 1989.
On Feb. 11, 1990, the South African government under President de
Klerk released Mandela from prison. Shortly after his release, Mandela
was chosen deputy president of the ANC; he became president of the party
in July 1991. Mandela led the ANC in negotiations with de Klerk to end
apartheid and bring about a peaceful transition to nonracial democracy
in South Africa.
Presidency and retirement
In April 1994 the Mandela-led ANC won South Africa’s first elections by
universal suffrage, and on May 10 Mandela was sworn in as president of
the country’s first multiethnic government. He established in 1995 the
Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which investigated human
rights violations under apartheid, and he introduced housing, education,
and economic development initiatives designed to improve the living
standards of the country’s black population. In 1996 he oversaw the
enactment of a new democratic constitution. Mandela resigned his post
with the ANC in December 1997, transferring leadership of the party to
his designated successor, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela and Madikizela-Mandela
had divorced in 1996, and in 1998 Mandela married Graca Machel, the
widow of Samora Machel, the former Mozambican president and leader of
Frelimo.
Mandela did not seek a second term as South African president and was
succeeded by Mbeki in 1999. After leaving office Mandela retired from
active politics but maintained a strong international presence as an
advocate of peace, reconciliation, and social justice. He is a founding
member of the Elders, a group of international leaders established in
2007 for the promotion of conflict resolution and problem solving
throughout the world. In 2008 Mandela was feted with several
celebrations in South Africa, Great Britain, and other countries in
honour of his 90th birthday.
Mandela’s writings and speeches were collected in I Am Prepared to
Die (1964; rev. ed. 1986), No Easy Walk to Freedom (1965; updated ed.
2002), The Struggle Is My Life (1978; rev. ed. 1990), and In His Own
Words (2003). His autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, was published in
1994.
Encyclopaedia Britannica
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see also: United Nations member states -
Angola,
Benin,
Botswana,
Burkina Faso,
Burundi,
Cameroon,
Cape Verde,
Central African Republic,
Chad,
Comoros,
Congo,
Cote d'Ivoire,
Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Djibouti,
Equatorial Guinea,
Eritrea,
Ethiopia,
Gabon,
Gambia,
Ghana,
Guinea,
Guinea-Bissau,
Kenya,
Lesotho,
Madagascar,
Malawi,
Mali,
Mauritania,
Mauritius,
Mozambique,
Namibia,
Niger,
Nigeria,
Rwanda,
Sao Tome and Principe,
Senegal,
Seychelles,
Sierra Leone,
Somalia,
South Africa,
Sudan,
Swaziland,
Tanzania,
Togo,
Uganda,
Zambia,
Zimbabwe
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