ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the issue of decolonization—the process of nationalist struggle that caused the European empires to give up their African colonies—from the perspective of Africans. Decolonization has come to be known by various names—"the fall of colonialism", "regaining independence and sovereignty by African states", the "liberation movements", "struggle for independence", "nationalists' struggle", and "the anticolonial period in Africa". The continent-wide process of African decolonization can be roughly divided into three phases: 1900s–1920s, 1920s–1940s, and 1940s–1970s. West Africa generally had few European settlers, so the nationalists had a somewhat easier pathway to independence. The process of decolonization was influenced by the policies and attitudes of each of the great global empires. France's decolonization was bloody and bitter whereas Britain's was relatively peaceful, if not painless. The other colonial powers, Portugal and Belgium, pursued their own colonial policies.
