THE WORLD ATLAS

Chapter · Cold War and Decolonization

The Year of Africa

The world in 1960

In 1960 the world is split by the Cold War between the American-led West and the Soviet-led Communist bloc, each armed with hydrogen bombs and racing into space. In May, the Soviets shoot down an American U-2 spy plane, wrecking a summit in Paris.

Meanwhile the European empires are rapidly dissolving: seventeen African countries, including Nigeria, Congo and most of French Africa, win independence in what is called the 'Year of Africa'. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan speaks of a 'wind of change' blowing through the continent. The newly independent Congo immediately plunges into crisis. China, under Mao Zedong, is suffering a catastrophic famine caused by the Great Leap Forward and is breaking with the Soviet Union. Western Europe and Japan are booming, Cuba's revolutionary Fidel Castro is turning toward Moscow, and in November John F. Kennedy is elected US president. Television, jet airliners and consumer goods are spreading across rich countries.

Open the map in 1960

The great powers

Region by region

Southern Africa

The Belgian Congo became independent on 30 June 1960 under President Joseph Kasa-Vubu and Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba, but within weeks the army mutinied, Katanga seceded under Moise Tshombe, UN troops arrived, and Colonel Joseph Mobutu seized power in September. Madagascar gained independence under Philibert Tsiranana. In South Africa, police killed 69 protesters at Sharpeville in March, and Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd's apartheid government wins a referendum to become a republic. Britain still rules the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Kenya and Tanganyika, and Salazar's Portugal holds Angola and Mozambique.

Northern Africa

Most of French West and Equatorial Africa becomes independent in 1960, including Senegal (Leopold Senghor), Mali (Modibo Keita), Ivory Coast (Felix Houphouet-Boigny), Niger and Chad, along with French-run Cameroon, while Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, becomes independent from Britain on 1 October under Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, and Somalia unites in July. Algeria is still fighting a brutal independence war against France. Gamal Abdel Nasser leads Egypt, joined with Syria as the United Arab Republic, and begins the Aswan High Dam; Kwame Nkrumah makes Ghana a republic, and Emperor Haile Selassie survives a coup attempt in Ethiopia in December.

Europe

Europe is divided by the Iron Curtain: West Germany under Chancellor Konrad Adenauer is in NATO and booming, while Walter Ulbricht's East Germany, in the Warsaw Pact, is losing citizens through Berlin, a flow the Berlin Wall will stop in 1961. The six-nation European Economic Community is rivalled by the new European Free Trade Association. Charles de Gaulle leads France's Fifth Republic, which tests its first atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara; Elizabeth II reigns in Britain, Khrushchev rules the Soviet Union, and Cyprus becomes independent in August. Franco and Salazar still rule Spain and Portugal.

Middle East & South Asia

India is led by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, a founder of the Non-Aligned Movement, and signs the Indus Waters Treaty with Pakistan, which is ruled by General Ayub Khan. Ceylon elects Sirimavo Bandaranaike, the world's first female prime minister. A military coup in May overthrows Turkey's government, Abd al-Karim Qasim rules revolutionary Iraq, and the Shah rules Iran; in September, oil-producing states found OPEC in Baghdad. David Ben-Gurion leads Israel, whose agents capture Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina.

Northern & Central Asia

Soviet Central Asia is home to the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from which Sputnik was launched in 1957 and Yuri Gagarin will fly in 1961, and Khrushchev's Virgin Lands campaign has ploughed up millions of hectares of Kazakh steppe for wheat. The Semipalatinsk site hosts Soviet nuclear tests, and giant dams are being built in Siberia. Mongolia, under Yumjaagiin Tsedenbal, stays firmly in the Soviet camp as Moscow withdraws its advisers from China in July 1960.

East Asia

The People's Republic of China, under Chairman Mao Zedong, with Liu Shaoqi as head of state and Zhou Enlai as premier, is in the depths of a famine caused by the Great Leap Forward that will kill tens of millions. The Sino-Soviet split breaks into the open, and Tibet has been under direct Chinese control since the 1959 uprising sent the Dalai Lama into exile in India. In Japan, mass protests against the US security treaty force Prime Minister Kishi Nobusuke to resign, and Ikeda Hayato begins a plan to double incomes. South Korea's April Revolution topples Syngman Rhee, Kim Il-sung rules North Korea, and Chiang Kai-shek rules Taiwan.

Southeast Asia

Vietnam is divided between Ho Chi Minh's Communist North and Ngo Dinh Diem's US-backed South, where the National Liberation Front (Viet Cong) is founded in December 1960; neighbouring Laos is torn by a coup and civil war. Indonesia's Sukarno rules under 'Guided Democracy' and demands Dutch-held West New Guinea. Malaya, under Tunku Abdul Rahman, ends its long Communist Emergency, Singapore is self-governing under Lee Kuan Yew, Prince Sihanouk leads Cambodia, and Field Marshal Sarit Thanarat rules Thailand under King Bhumibol.

Northern North America

Canada, under Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, is a NATO and NORAD ally of the United States, with radar lines across the Arctic to watch for Soviet bombers. In Quebec, Jean Lesage's election in June 1960 begins the 'Quiet Revolution'. Alaska became the 49th US state in 1959, and Greenland, now a county of Denmark, hosts the large US air base at Thule.

Southern North America

President Dwight D. Eisenhower's America is the world's richest society; Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959, and in November 1960 John F. Kennedy narrowly defeats Richard Nixon. Black students' sit-ins in Greensboro energise the civil rights movement. Fidel Castro's Cuba nationalises American property and turns to the Soviet Union, and the US imposes a trade embargo in October. Mexico is governed by Adolfo Lopez Mateos of the long-ruling PRI, and dictators such as Trujillo and the Somoza family still rule parts of the Caribbean and Central America.

Northern South America

Brazil inaugurates its futuristic new capital, Brasilia, on 21 April 1960 under President Juscelino Kubitschek, and Janio Quadros wins the October election. Venezuela, under the democrat Romulo Betancourt, co-founds OPEC. Colombia is governed by Alberto Lleras Camargo under the National Front power-sharing deal, Victor Paz Estenssoro returns to power in Bolivia, and the Guianas remain under British, Dutch and French rule.

Southern Cone

On 22 May 1960 the Valdivia earthquake, the most powerful ever recorded (magnitude 9.5), devastates southern Chile, governed by President Jorge Alessandri. Argentina is led by Arturo Frondizi, with Peron in exile and his movement banned, and Israeli agents abduct Eichmann from Buenos Aires in May. Paraguay is ruled by the dictator Alfredo Stroessner, and Uruguay by a collective National Council of Government; the Treaty of Montevideo creates a Latin American free-trade association.

Australasia & Oceania

Australia, under the long-serving Prime Minister Robert Menzies, is a close US ally and still keeps its 'White Australia' immigration policy; it governs Papua and New Guinea. New Zealand elects Keith Holyoake as prime minister in November 1960, and Western Samoa is preparing for independence in 1962. Hawaii has just become a US state, and the Dutch still hold West New Guinea.

Events

  1. NATO founded; Communists win the Chinese Civil War
  2. Soviet Union launches Sputnik; Ghana becomes independent
  3. Cuban Revolution brings Fidel Castro to power
  4. Sharpeville massacre in South Africa (March)
  5. U-2 incident wrecks the Paris summit (May); Valdivia earthquake in Chile
  6. Seventeen African states gain independence; Congo Crisis begins
  7. OPEC founded in Baghdad (September)
  8. John F. Kennedy elected US president (November)

Moments of this period

Wars of this period

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Sources