Abyssinia to Zona Al Sur Del Draa [antikvár]

FOREWORD After World War II, the map of Africa began to change slowly, first in 1951 when Libya became independent, then more perceptibly in 1956 when Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia were added to the ranks of New States, thus making a total of eight independent states on the continent. These developments hardly affected either the textbooks or the maps on which we relied. Beginning in March 1957, however, the map-making of Africa became a chaotic nightmare, initiated by the independence of the Gold Coast under the new name of Ghana. In the following ten years thirty-two more colonial territories in Africa attained their independence, accompanied by a bewildering substitution of traditional names for colonial names in some states, an acronym in at least one case of the merger of two states, changes in the names of some cities, and even changes in the names of some remaining colonies. External boundaries were changed in many cases as territories were moved from the jurisdiction of one state to another. Internal boundaries changed, then changed again. One new map followed another, and the continuity of changes was lost as new names and boundaries appeared suddenly to replace former ones. Dr. Eugene Kirchherr, Professor of Geography at Western Michigan University, has brought order to the perplexing confusion. Certainly, he would be the last to assume that stability in either the names or boundaries has now come to Africa. But he does recognize that some effort has to be made sometime to explain the situation, and the end of a decade of constant untidiness seemed as good a time as any. His purpose, however, involves more than merely creating a map of contemporary accuracy. He also gives a history of the changes, thus providing a handy reference work to explain the sequence of changing names of political territories which have appeared in the last decade. We are pleased to include this study in the Monograph Series on Cultural Change. Claude S. Phillips, Jr. Director, Institute of International and Area Studies Western Michigan University January, 1968