MAPS OF HISTORY · DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA · MAPS BY YEAR · December 1961The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994 · THE MAP IN DEC 1961
Map of Africa in December 1961
Sierra Leone & Tanganyika · decolonization
Africa in December 1961: Sierra Leone & Tanganyika. Since 1960, 2 territories changed status on this map: Sierra Leone and Tanzania.
DEC 1961 · THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA, 1945–1994 These maps are reconstructed from published sources · US Foreign Relations: Southern Africa, 1969–1976 · 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
Source details US Department of State; published diplomatic records. Historical factual evidence; text and images not reproduced 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 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.
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: 1960–1994; 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: 1963–1975 source; nearby-date exterior reference for 1945–1994 · vector: 1969–1986; reused as pre-unification geographic proxy
Layer records and reconstruction methods
What changes on the map
On the ground a liberation war followed by a civil war that became internationalized Eritrea’s thirty-year struggle for independence, 1961–91 Related maps
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