Colonial Africa Map (1884–1960)
From the 1884 Berlin Conference to the independence wave of 1960, almost every African territory was claimed by a European colonial power. This page maps which Europeans controlled which parts of the continent.
The Powers and Their Territories
At the height of colonization in 1914 the European partition was effectively complete. Britain and France held the largest territories; Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain claimed the rest. Only Ethiopia (which defeated Italy at Adwa in 1896) and Liberia (founded by freed American slaves in 1847) remained independent.
- British Empire: Egypt, Sudan, British East Africa (Kenya, Uganda), Tanganyika (after 1919), Northern and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia, Zimbabwe), Nyasaland (Malawi), Bechuanaland (Botswana), Basutoland (Lesotho), Swaziland (Eswatini), Union of South Africa, Nigeria, Gold Coast (Ghana), Sierra Leone, Gambia, British Somaliland
- French Empire: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco (protectorate), French West Africa (Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Benin, Guinea), French Equatorial Africa (Chad, CAR, Congo-Brazzaville, Gabon), Madagascar, Comoros, French Somaliland (Djibouti)
- Belgian Empire: Belgian Congo (DRC), Ruanda-Urundi (Rwanda, Burundi) after 1919
- Portuguese Empire: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe
- Italian Empire: Libya, Eritrea, Italian Somaliland; briefly occupied Ethiopia (1936–1941)
- Spanish Empire: Spanish Sahara (Western Sahara), Spanish Morocco, Spanish Guinea (Equatorial Guinea)
- German Empire (until 1919): Togoland, Kamerun, German East Africa, German South West Africa — redistributed as League of Nations Mandates after World War I
The Wave of Independence
Most African colonies achieved independence between 1956 (Sudan, Morocco, Tunisia) and 1980 (Zimbabwe), with the great surge during the 'Year of Africa' 1960 when 17 colonies became independent in a single year. Eritrea (1993), Namibia (1990) and South Sudan (2011) were later additions.
Lasting Impact on the Map of Africa
Modern African borders almost exactly mirror colonial boundaries — drawn at the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference without consulting African peoples. This has produced enduring challenges: ethnic groups split across borders, hostile groups forced together, and economically unviable shapes (Gambia inside Senegal, the long Caprivi Strip in Namibia, the bottleneck shape of Congo-Brazzaville). The African Union has held the colonial borders constant since independence to prevent endless boundary wars.