MAPS OF HISTORY · DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA · BATTLES AND EVENTS · Independence of NigeriaDecolonization of Africa · TURNING POINT · 1960
Independence of Nigeria (1960)
On the Decolonization of Africa map as “Lagos — Nigeria at midnight”
1 Oct 1960 — The Union Jack comes down over Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Its federation joins three regions and 250 peoples. That scale makes Nigeria the continent’s great federal experiment, while making its divisions a deep fault line.
When 1 Oct 1960 Type Turning point Chapter Year of Africa (chapter 5 of Decolonization of Africa)Atlas The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994 TURNING POINT · THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA, 1945–1994 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1: reviewed historical components · UN General Assembly: Eritrea federation, 11 September 1952 · Natural Earth v5.1.2: 1:10m countries · Natural Earth: Katanga and Nigerian state reference boundaries · UN Operation in the Congo: Katanga secession and reintegration · UN: former Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories · UN: Rhodesia and Nyasaland federation, 1953–1963 · UN: trust territories and their agreements
Source details Cliopatria contributors / Seshat Global History Databank. CC BY 4.0 · Explicit record/component selection; documented nearby-date proxies, intersections and unions. Known compound-name and end-date errors excluded. UN General Assembly resolution 617 (VII). Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced Natural Earth. Public domain · Full source coordinates retained; African extraction; Egypt self-touching ring repaired with negligible area delta; explicit historical unions. Natural Earth. Public domain · Complete selected source units; dissolved unions and internal boundary extraction, no coordinate simplification. United Nations Peacekeeping. Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced United Nations; territorial successions and independence dates. Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced United Nations. Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced United Nations Dag Hammarskjöld Library. Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced The maps are reconstructed from published sources. Explicit records provide historical unions and changed colonial units; inherited outer boundaries use the closest reusable reference from the source vintage.
War hatches mark affected administrative reporting regions. They do not trace exact fronts or the extent of controlled territory. Each layer records its source selection and boundary dates.
This inherited snapshot summarises the labelled year or interval. Its nominal slider date does not mean that every independence or conflict listed had already occurred on that day.
The annual 1960 view shows the independent year-end Senegal/Mali arrangement, rather than a separate map of the short-lived Mali Federation in June–August. Southern Cameroons remains British. The closest available Nigeria extent comes from 1961 and already includes Northern Cameroons.
proxy: 1960–1963; source Katanga province before 2015 division · proxy: Before 1964; contemporary source outline · proxy: Country/territory reference; conflict dates follow the chapter · proxy: Natural Earth v5.1.2 contemporary reference · reconstruction: 1945–1962; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1945–1994; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1952–1993; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1953–1963; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1960–1961 source difference · reconstruction: 1960–1994; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: Before 1964; contemporary source outline · vector: 1936–1986; used through 1985 · vector: 1949–1952 source; reused through 1966 · vector: 1958–1959 Spanish Sahara extent; reused for the disputed territory after 1975 · vector: 1958–1968 · vector: 1960 source; carried back to 1945 · vector: 1961–1968 source; nearest reference for independent Nigeria in 1960 · vector: 1963–1975 source; nearby-date exterior reference for 1945–1994 · vector: 1969–1986; reused as pre-unification geographic proxy
Layer records and reconstruction methods
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