MAPS OF HISTORY · DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA · MAPS BY YEAR · 1945The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994 · THE MAP IN 1945
Map of Africa in 1945
The colonial map · decolonization
Africa in 1945: The colonial map. The map shows who held what: French-ruled, British-ruled, Portuguese, Belgian, Spanish & Italian-ruled.
1945 · THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA, 1945–1994 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · Cliopatria v0.2.1: reviewed historical components · US Air University: Libya historical regions and post-1943 administrations · Natural Earth v5.1.2: 1:10m countries · UN: former Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories · UN: British Togoland administration and 1956 termination · 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. US Air University / US Government Publishing Office. 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. 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.
Gold Coast and British Togoland appear as one British administrative grouping. The internal trust-territory line is omitted because the downloaded extracted boundary is noncommercial-only.
Source-driven colours correct Libya, Eritrea and former Italian Somaliland to show their postwar British/French administrations. The inherited lesson prose has not been rewritten.
The eastern edge shows a reconstructed British Palestine envelope and Transjordan, rather than a present-day Israeli state.
proxy: Before 1964; contemporary source outline · proxy: Natural Earth v5.1.2 contemporary reference · reconstruction: 1945 · reconstruction: 1945 using 1949 armistice and Palestinian geographic references · reconstruction: 1945–1951 using 1945 Spanish and 1956 Moroccan records · reconstruction: 1945–1958; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1945–1960; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1945–1962; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: 1945–1994; contemporary source perimeter · reconstruction: Before 1964; contemporary source outline · vector: 1936–1986; used through 1985 · vector: 1943–1959 source; used before 1957 · vector: 1943–1959 source; used through 1960 · vector: 1945–1957 · vector: 1945–1957 source; used 1945–1951 · vector: 1960 source; carried back to 1945 · 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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