The Sun Never Sets

Established in 1885, the Bechuanaland Protectorate was initially considered temporary by the British, to be handed over to Rhodesia or the new Union of South Africa. The extent of Bechuanaland’s subordination to South African interests was revealed in 1950, when the British government barred Seretse Khama, grandson of the powerful King Khama III, from the chieftainship and exiled him. This was to appease the apartheid South African government, which objected to Khama’s marriage to a white Englishwoman. Khama’s supporters began organising politically and he was allowed to return from exile, becoming leader of the Botswana Democratic Party. Bechuanaland achieved self-government in 1965 and Seretse Khama was elected the first president of the Republic of Botswana in 1966.
In 1916, during World War I, French and British troops invaded the German colony of Kamerun and divided it between themselves to administer. British rule marked a period of neglect, as they were more concerned with other areas of Africa and an influx of Nigerian settlers caused resentment in Cameroon. In February 1961, the southern part of British Cameroon decided to unite with the former French colony, creating the Federal Republic of Cameroon, while the north voted to join the Federation of Nigeria. Border disputes with Nigeria continued into the 1990s, coming to a head over the Bakassi Peninsula, which was formally transferred to Cameroon in 2008.
While technically still part of the Ottoman Empire, Egypt was occupied by the British military in 1882 to protect their financial interests and ward off nationalist uprisings. This “veiled protectorate” lasted until 1914, when the Ottomans joined the Central Powers in World War I and Britain declared a formal protectorate. In 1922, the British government issued the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence, but the Anglo-Egyptian treaty of 1936 allowed them to station troops in defence of the Suez Canal, a crucial sea route to India. After World War II, Egypt sought to modify this treaty but it was not until after the Suez Crisis in 1956 that the last British forces withdrew. The modern Republic of Egypt dates to 1952, when the monarchy under King Farouk was overthrown by the Free Officers Movement.
During the 1800s, Europeans settled in the Kingdom of Swaziland, which was made a protectorate of the Transvaal Colony in 1894 and, after 1906, a High Commission Territory. The British had intended to incorporate Swaziland into South Africa, but this nation’s intensification of racial discrimination induced them to prepare Swaziland for independence instead. Political activities intensified in the 1960s and traditional leaders formed the Imbokodvo National Movement, which in 1964 won all 24 elective seats on the first legislative council in which Swazis could participate. The British government agreed to discuss a new constitution and Swaziland became independent in 1968. In 2018, King Mswati III announced its renaming as the Kingdom of Eswatini to mark the fiftieth anniversary of independence.
The Gambia was administered as part of British West Africa from 1821 until 1843. For several periods it was subordinate to the Sierra Leone Colony, but became its own entity with a permanently appointed Governor by 1888. Gambia’s territorial boundaries were disputed by British authorities and French colonists in Senegal, until an 1889 Paris conference established its present-day borders. In 1900, Britain imposed indirect rule and divided it into 35 chiefdoms, but the real power was held by the British governor in Bathurst (now Banjul). Political parties were late in developing, but by 1960 several were demanding independence. Believing that the territory would eventually merge with Senegal, Britain issued revised constitutions in 1954, 1960 and 1962, finally granting Gambia independence in 1965.
In 1821, the British government began seizing privately held lands along the Gulf of Guinea. They purchased and incorporated Danish and Dutch territories, while also invading local kingdoms such as the Ashanti and Fante confederacies. The Ashanti people had previously controlled much of this territory and were often in conflict with the colonists, leading to a 1900 uprising. By 1901, the British had established a colony incorporating all of the Gold Coast. Following World War II, nationalists demanded increased autonomy and from 1951–55 local leaders shared power with Britain. By 1956, British Togoland was merged with the Ashanti and Fante protectorates to create one colony, which achieved independence as Ghana in 1957. As the first colony in sub-Saharan Africa to do so, Ghana’s example fuelled independence movements across the continent.
Established in the late 19th century, the East Africa Protectorate became the Kenya colony in 1920, named after the region’s tallest mountain. Under British rule, indigenous populations such as the Masai were confined to reserves or forced into compulsory labour, while the fertile uplands were reallocated to European farmers. Political pressure groups developed from the 1920s and, during World War II, Kenya became the first East African territory to include an African on its Legislative Council. The Mau Mau uprising from 1952–60 was a revolt against British colonial rule marked by extreme violence. A coalition government formed in 1962 and the following year Kenya became self-governing. In 1964, the Republic of Kenya achieved independence with Jomo Kenyatta as its first president.
The territory of the Basotho people was under British control from 1868, administered from the Cape Colony in present-day South Africa. This led to popular uprisings such as the Gun War of 1880–81 and, as a result, Basutoland was brought under the direct authority of Queen Victoria in 1884. The British established a system of dual rule, granting considerable power to local chiefs. In the early 1930s, they attempted to reduce the number of chiefs, but nationalist movements increased after World War II and three major political parties emerged. In 1955, the Basutoland Council obtained the right to control their own internal affairs and the territory became self-governing a decade later. Lesotho achieved independence from Britain in 1966 under the leadership of Moshoeshoe II.
Formerly part of the Ottoman Empire, Libya was an Italian colony from 1911–43 and became embroiled in the North African Campaign during World War II. By February 1943, the last German and Italian forces had been defeated and the British Military Administration of Libya was established. While the areas of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica remained under British administration, the French controlled Fezzan. By 1949, the Emirate of Cyrenaica was created and only Tripolitania remained under direct British control. In 1951, Cyrenaica, Tripolitania and Fezzan were united under King Idris I, who was overthrown in a military coup led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 1969. He was killed during the 2011 Libyan Civil War, after which rival authorities competed for dominance until a ceasefire in 2020.
In 1891, the British first established control over present-day Malawi, which was called the British Central Africa Protectorate from 1893 and Nyasaland from 1907. Under the colonial regime, roads and railways were built and the cultivation of cash crops by European settlers was introduced, but little was done to enhance the welfare of the African majority. From 1903, an educated African elite became increasingly politically active and the forced federation of Nyasaland with Southern and Northern Rhodesia in 1953 caused civil unrest. The failure of existing political parties to prevent this spurred a more militant generation of leaders, including Hastings Kamuzu Banda, who became the first prime minister of an independent Malawi in 1964 following the dissolution of the unpopular federation.
Formerly a French colony, British Mauritius was established after the island was seized during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810. The British administration brought rapid social and economic changes, including the abolition of slavery in 1835. From the 1920s, conflicts grew between the Franco-Mauritian elite who controlled the sugar plantations and Indian labourers, eventually resulting in the Mauritius Labour Party in 1936. Legislative Council elections in 1948 marked Mauritius' first steps toward self-rule and the independence movement strengthened in the 1960s. In 1965, British authorities divided the Chagos Archipelago from Mauritian territory to create the British Indian Ocean Territory, forcibly expelling the local population. Mauritius achieved independence in 1968, but the Chagos Archipelago has yet to be restored.
A German colony from 1884 until their defeat in World War I, South West Africa was awarded by a 1920 League of Nations mandate to Britain, administered by the Union of South Africa (itself a former British colony). South African direct rule extended to the Kunene and Okavango rivers and the apartheid government’s racial segregation laws were applied to the local population. The struggle for independence became an armed conflict in 1966, after repeated petitions to the United Nations and International Court of Justice since 1947 had been unsuccessful. Namibia achieved independence in 1990, when Sam Nujoma was democratically elected as the country’s first president, although the town of Walvis Bay remained under South African control until 1994.
British influence in the region began in 1807, increasing under the auspices of the Royal Niger Company and reaching its current territorial boundaries with the merging of the Southern and Northern Nigeria Protectorates in 1914. In the early 20th century, Britain established a system of indirect rule, with local government left in the hands of traditional chiefs but subject to European authority. To prevent opposition, the British adopted a divide-and-rule policy that kept Nigerian groups separate from each other. However, Britain struggled to maintain control after World War I, as political activities focused primarily on ending colonial rule. A national party, the Nigerian Youth Movement, emerged in 1934 and its members won the Legislative Council elections. After 1940, political activities were broadened to include the wider populace and Nigeria was granted independence in 1960.
British involvement in the Seychelles dates back to 1794, although they did not assume control until 1810 and the territory was formally ceded by a French treaty in 1814. Seychelles remained a dependency of Mauritius until 1903, when it became a separate British colony. The British, like the French before them, used the island to exile political prisoners from Zanzibar, Egypt, Cyprus and Palestine. World War I caused great hardship with the disruption of essential trade and the local population felt neglected by Britain. A Legislative Council was introduced in 1948, but it was not until 1970 that Seychelles received a new constitution, including universal suffrage and a governing council with an elected majority. Self-government was granted in 1975 and independence within the Commonwealth in 1976.
In the late 18th century, the Sierra Leone peninsula was identified by British philanthropists as a place for repatriating freed slaves who had fought on their side in the American Revolution. The first inhabitants of Freetown arrived in 1787 and a Crown Colony was established in 1808. The Sierra Leone Colony was made part of British West Africa in 1821, with its capital in Freetown. Following World War II, members of the public began advocating for independence and a 1951 constitution granted majority rule under an elected government, led by Milton Margai of the Sierra Leone People’s Party. A decade later, in 1961, Sierra Leone became an independent state within the Commonwealth.
In the mid-19th century, the Somali peninsula became an arena of competition between Britain, Italy and France. British Somaliland became a protectorate in 1884, when the British took control from the Egyptians, primarily using the territory to supply their garrison in Aden (present-day Yemen). In 1920, the British suppressed a resistance movement mounted by the dervishes and the territory was later occupied by Italian forces during World War II. In 1960, the two separate colonies of British and Italian Somaliland were united as the independent Somali Republic, but subsequent civil wars have highlighted enduring divisions within the country. A new constitution was passed in 2012, reforming Somalia as a federation.
Britain first established Cape Colony in 1795, supplanting the Dutch East India Company and securing a vital sea route to the East. Territorial conflict between the Dutch and British was a constant throughout the next century, most notably in the Anglo-Boer War of 1889–1902, as settler populations forcibly supplanted African inhabitants. Although the Union of South Africa had its own government from 1910, it was still regarded as a British colony until becoming a republic in 1961. The election of the National Party in 1948 marked the beginning of apartheid, which formalised and amplified existing systems of racial segregation. After a long and sometimes violent struggle by the African National Congress and other anti-apartheid activists, Nelson Mandela was sworn in as South Africa’s first democratically elected president in 1994.
From the 19th century Sudan was conquered by the Egyptians, who defeated the Mahdist uprising in 1899 with the help of British forces. Subsequent sovereignty over Sudan was nominally shared between Britain and Egypt, but the condominium ensured effective British control. During this period of colonial rule, British administrators divided the country into two distinct regions to the north and south. The Egyptian revolution of 1952 toppled the monarchy and demanded the withdrawal of British forces from Egypt and Sudan. The Republic of Sudan achieved independence in 1956 and a period of civil war eventually led to the declaration of South Sudan as an independent state following a 2011 referendum. Continued internal conflict between government and opposition forces led to countless casualties and displaced refugees, with a peace deal agreed in 2020.
From the 19th century Sudan was conquered by the Egyptians, who defeated the Mahdist uprising in 1899 with the help of British forces. Subsequent sovereignty over Sudan was nominally shared between Britain and Egypt, but the condominium ensured effective British control. During this period of colonial rule, British administrators divided the country into two distinct regions to the north and south. The Egyptian revolution of 1952 toppled the monarchy and demanded the withdrawal of British forces from Egypt and Sudan. The Republic of Sudan achieved independence in 1956 and a period of civil war eventually led to the declaration of South Sudan as an independent state in 2011. Omar al-Bashir’s brutal 30-year military dictatorship of Sudan came to an end in 2019, following popular protests and a coup d’etat.
Part of German East Africa prior to World War I, present-day Tanzania was invaded by forces from the British Empire and Belgian Congo during the East Africa Campaign, although German resistance continued until 1918. After the war, the League of Nations formalised control of Tanganyika Territory by the British, who placed it under United Nations trusteeship in 1947. With increasing politicisation in the 1950s, Julius Nyerere led the Tanganyika African National Union to victory in the country’s first elections in 1961. The island of Zanzibar, which had been ruled by the Sultanate of Oman and was made a British protectorate in 1890, signed an act of union with Tanganyika in 1964 to create the modern state of Tanzania.
At the outset of World War I, British and French colonial troops invaded Togoland and secured the unconditional surrender of the Germans, who had previously colonised the area. From 1916, the western part of the colony was administered by Britain and the eastern part by France, with both placed under United Nations trusteeship in 1946. After 1947, the Ewe people in southern Togoland demanded that either their territories or the whole of Togoland should be brought under a common administration. British Togoland was rapidly advancing toward self-government and, following a plebiscite vote in 1956, was incorporated into the Gold Coast. Together, the Gold Coast and Togoland were renamed Ghana and achieved independence in 1957. French Togoland became independent as Togo in 1960.
The Uganda Protectorate was established in 1894, after the Imperial British East Africa Company transferred its administration rights over Buganda to the British government. Local chiefs were granted nominal control and land rights, as long as they remained subordinate to colonial interests. British control was gradually extended north and east of the Nile, and by 1914 Uganda’s boundaries had been fixed. Cash crops, including coffee and cotton, were introduced to fuel global trade. With the rise of African nationalism, Uganda achieved independence in 1962, but was subject to ongoing internal power struggles. Idi Amin seized power following a 1971 coup and his violent dictatorship was ended by the Ugandan-Tanzanian war in 1979.
Northern Rhodesia was formed in 1911 by amalgamating two protectorates that had been administered by the British South Africa Company. The country was regarded chiefly as a source of labour for gold and copper mines in Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). When governance was transferred to the Colonial Office in 1924, the British sought to strengthen their regional influence through white settlement. Despite widespread popular protest, Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland were combined in the Central African Federation in 1953. A new generation of leaders advocated for independence and, led by Kenneth Kaunda, split off from Congress in 1958 to found the Zambia African National Congress and its successor, the United National Independence Party. As a result of this pressure, Zambia became an independent country in 1964.
Southern Rhodesia was established as a self-governing British Crown Colony in 1923, having earlier been administered by Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company, for whom the colony was named. Southern Rhodesia became one of the most prosperous and heavily settled of Britain’s African colonies, with extensive gold reserves and a system of white minority rule that led to racial discrimination. The Rhodesian government issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence in 1965, but the settler state was not internationally recognised and subject to external sanctions and internal armed struggle. After an interim period of British control, in 1980 Zimbabwe achieved formal independence and majority rule under President Canaan Banana.