Events, Verisoph

1 August 1960 Independence of Benin 0 cit. no story Dahomey, later renamed Benin, becomes independent from France during the wave of African decolonization in 1960. politics ●●●

5 August 1960 Independence of Burkina Faso 0 cit. no story Upper Volta, renamed Burkina Faso in 1984, becomes independent from France. politics ●●●

1 January 1960 Independence of Cameroon 0 cit. no story French Cameroon becomes independent; the southern British Cameroons joined it in 1961 to form a federal republic. politics ●●●

13 August 1960 Independence of the Central African Republic 0 cit. no story The Central African Republic becomes independent from France, formerly the colony of Ubangi-Shari. politics ●●●

11 August 1960 Independence of Chad 0 cit. no story Chad becomes independent from France, with Francois Tombalbaye as its first president. politics ●●●

30 June 1960 Independence of the Democratic Republic of the Congo 0 cit. no story The Belgian Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister, followed quickly by the Congo Crisis. politics ●●●

15 August 1960 Independence of the Republic of the Congo 0 cit. no story The French Congo becomes the independent Republic of the Congo with Brazzaville as its capital. politics ●●●

16 August 1960 Independence of Cyprus 0 cit. no story Cyprus becomes an independent republic after British rule, under a power-sharing constitution between Greek and Turkish Cypriots. politics ●●●

17 August 1960 Independence of Gabon 0 cit. no story Gabon becomes independent from France, the last of the French Equatorial African states to do so in August 1960. politics ●●●

7 August 1960 Independence of Ivory Coast 0 cit. no story Ivory Coast becomes independent from France under Felix Houphouet-Boigny. politics ●●●

26 June 1960 Independence of Madagascar 0 cit. no story Madagascar becomes independent from France as the Malagasy Republic. politics ●●●

22 September 1960 Independence of Mali 0 cit. no story After the short-lived Mali Federation with Senegal collapses, the Republic of Mali proclaims its full independence. politics ●●●

28 November 1960 Independence of Mauritania 0 cit. no story Mauritania becomes independent from France as the Islamic Republic of Mauritania. politics ●●●

3 August 1960 Independence of Niger 0 cit. no story Niger becomes independent from France with Hamani Diori as its first president. politics ●●●

1 October 1960 Independence of Nigeria 0 cit. no story Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, becomes independent from Britain. politics ●●●●

4 April 1960 Independence of Senegal 0 cit. no story Senegal signs the independence agreement with France as part of the Mali Federation, becoming a separate republic when the federation split in August 1960. politics ●●●

1 July 1960 Independence of Somalia 0 cit. no story British Somaliland and the Italian-administered trust territory unite as the independent Somali Republic. politics ●●●

27 April 1960 Independence of Togo 0 cit. no story French Togoland becomes the independent Togolese Republic. politics ●●●

5 July 1960 to 25 November 1965 Congo Crisis 0 cit. no story The newly independent Congo collapses into secession, UN intervention, and Cold War proxy struggle, with Prime Minister Lumumba murdered. Mobutu's 1965 coup ends the crisis and begins three decades of dictatorship. politics / war ●●●

13 November 1960 to 29 December 1996 Guatemalan Civil War 0 cit. no story Leftist guerrillas fight US-backed military governments for 36 years. State violence, including genocidal campaigns against Maya communities, accounts for most of the roughly 200,000 dead. politics / war ●●●

13 February 1960 Gerboise Bleue 0 cit. France detonates its first atomic bomb in the Algerian Sahara, becoming the fourth nuclear power. The test fulfills de Gaulle's demand for an independent deterrent outside American control. politics / war ●●●●

c. July 1960 Sino-Soviet split 0 cit. The alliance between the Soviet Union and China breaks down over ideology and leadership of the communist world, and Khrushchev withdraws Soviet advisers from China in 1960. Open polemics follow and the two powers become rivals. politics ●●●●

26 September 1960 The Kennedy-Nixon televised debate 0 cit. The first televised presidential debate reached a large national audience and highlighted the growing power of television in politics. It marked a shift toward the visual image in American campaigns. culture / politics ●●●

3 February 1960 The Wind of Change Speech 0 cit. Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a wind of change was blowing through Africa. The speech signaled Britain's acceptance that decolonization could not be stopped. politics ●●●●

1 October 1960 Nigerian Independence 0 cit. Britain's most populous African colony became independent. Its transition was part of a rapid wave that ended British rule across most of Africa within a few years. politics ●●●

1 February 1960 Greensboro sit-ins spark a wave of protest 0 cit. Four Black college students sat at a segregated lunch counter and refused to leave, launching sit-ins across the South. The nonviolent tactic drew thousands of young people into the civil rights movement. politics / society ●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre kills anti-pass protesters 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a peaceful crowd protesting the pass laws, killing 69 people, many shot in the back. The massacre drew global condemnation and pushed the liberation movement toward armed struggle. politics / society ●●●

c. 1960 The City of London and Wall Street form a linked financial axis 0 cit. Deep ties between London's financial district and New York markets, including the growth of the eurodollar market from the late 1950s, kept Anglo-American finance closely joined. These are documented commercial arrangements, not a secret cabal. economy / politics ●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre 0 cit. South African police shot dead sixty-nine unarmed protesters demonstrating against the pass laws. The massacre drew world condemnation and pushed the anti-apartheid movement toward armed struggle. politics / society ●●●

3 February 1960 Macmillan's Wind of Change speech 0 cit. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a wind of change was blowing through Africa as nationalism grew. The speech signalled that Britain accepted the coming end of its African empire. politics ●●

1960 The Year of Africa 2 cit. Seventeen African colonies gained independence in a single year, most of them French. It marked the high point of the post-war wave of decolonization on the continent. politics ●●●●

30 June 1960 to 1961 Congo independence and the Lumumba crisis 0 cit. Belgium granted the Congo independence with little preparation, and the country fell into crisis within days. Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba was overthrown and murdered in early 1961 with Belgian and Western involvement. politics / war ●●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria becomes independent 0 cit. Nigeria gained independence from Britain as Africa's most populous nation. Its federation joined together very different regions inside borders inherited from colonial rule. politics ●●

24 September 1960 Creation of the International Development Association 0 cit. The IDA was established to lend to the poorest countries on concessional terms, with low or no interest and long repayment periods. It became the World Bank's main channel for aid to low-income nations. economy / politics ●●●●

c. 1960 African states expand schools after independence 0 cit. Newly independent African nations rushed to expand schools as a path to development and nationhood. Enrolment grew fast, but funding gaps, exam bottlenecks and colonial-era curricula limited results. politics / society ●●●

c. 1960 UNESCO drives global literacy and access goals 0 cit. UNESCO ran world literacy programs and gathered comparable education data across nations. It helped spread the idea that schooling is a universal right that states should guarantee. politics / society ●●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre by South African police 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting pass laws outside a police station in Sharpeville, killing 69 people and wounding over 180, many shot in the back while fleeing. The massacre drew international condemnation and prompted the United Nations to pass its first resolution against apartheid. It became one of the most cited examples of police violence enforcing apartheid policy. politics ●●●

1960 Year of Africa: seventeen African nations gain independence 0 cit. In a single year, seventeen African countries, most of them former French and Belgian colonies including Congo, Nigeria, and Senegal, achieved independence. The rapid wave reflected both sustained anti-colonial pressure and colonial powers' calculations about the cost of continued rule after World War Two. Many of the new states inherited borders and economic structures designed for colonial extraction rather than self-government. politics ●●●

c. 1960 The Year of Africa: seventeen colonies become independent 0 cit. Seventeen African countries, most of them former French colonies plus Nigeria, Somalia, and others, gained independence in 1960 alone. Nearly all retained the currency, legal codes, civil service structures, and trade relationships built under colonial rule, so political sovereignty arrived well before, or often without, corresponding economic independence. This is the peak year of the broader 1945-1975 wave of decolonization. politics ●●●

c. 1960 Jacques Foccart's Africa cell formalized inside the Elysee 0 cit. Jacques Foccart, an aide to Charles de Gaulle, built a personal network of intelligence contacts, business figures, and African heads of state that ran French Africa policy largely outside normal diplomatic channels for three decades. This network, later termed Foccart's cellule africaine, negotiated defense pacts, arranged financial and political backing for allied leaders, and organized interventions, and gave rise to the term Françafrique for the resulting web of ties between France and its former colonies. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 OHADA-style continuity: francophone Africa keeps French civil law 0 cit. Newly independent French African states retained the French civil code and colonial-era statutes largely intact at independence, along with judges and civil servants trained in French legal institutions. This continuity was later formalized in 1993 with the Organisation for the Harmonization of Business Law in Africa (OHADA) treaty, which explicitly modeled a shared commercial code for 17 mostly former French colonies on French legal concepts, keeping business law tied to Paris-trained legal tradition decades after independence. economy / politics ●●

c. 1960 Privy Council remains final court of appeal for many Commonwealth states 0 cit. Many former British colonies, including Caribbean and African states, kept the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London as their court of final appeal for years or decades after independence, rather than establishing fully independent top courts. Several Caribbean nations continue this arrangement into the 2020s, an enduring example of judicial sovereignty lagging well behind flag independence. politics ●

1 October 1960 Nigeria's independence retains British common law and colonial borders 0 cit. Nigeria became independent from Britain with its legal system built on English common law and its territory unchanged from colonial-era borders that had joined together over 250 distinct ethnic groups under a single administration. Both the legal framework and the borders persisted after independence, and the tensions from combining diverse regions inside boundaries drawn for administrative convenience are widely cited as a contributing factor in the 1967-1970 Biafran civil war. politics ●●

c. August 1960 Cyprus independence file destruction 0 cit. In the run-up to Cypriot independence on 16 August 1960, British administrators destroyed or shipped out files relating to the suppression of the EOKA insurgency and colonial security operations. Cyprus later appeared among the territories whose withheld records surfaced in the migrated archives at Hanslope Park. politics / war ●●

c. October 1960 Nigeria independence file destruction 0 cit. Ahead of Nigerian independence on 1 October 1960, colonial officials in Lagos and other stations destroyed files considered too sensitive to leave behind, following the same instructions applied across Britain's African territories. Surviving correspondence about the process later formed part of the evidence used to reconstruct how Operation Legacy operated colony by colony. politics ●

January 1960 End of the Mau Mau Emergency 1 cit. The colonial government formally lifted the State of Emergency after nearly eight years, during which police, Special Branch, the GSU's colonial-era precursor units, and military forces killed an estimated 11,000 or more Mau Mau fighters and detained roughly 150,000 to 320,000 Kenyans, figures drawn from British colonial records and later historical research. The Emergency left the Kenya Police with an institutional legacy of counter-insurgency and mass detention. politics / war ●●●

c. 1 January 1960 Kitson publishes Gangs and Counter-Gangs 0 cit. Frank Kitson published an account of his Mau Mau-era operations describing the recruitment and use of counter-gangs against insurgents. The book made his methods available as doctrine to a wider British military and police audience and marked the first public codification of the informer-and-counter-gang approach developed in Kenya. politics / war ●●

31 July 1960 Malayan Emergency declared over 0 cit. The colonial government formally declared the Malayan Emergency over after twelve years of counterinsurgency against the Malayan Communist Party's guerrillas. British and Malayan officials credited Special Branch's intelligence-led approach, built on informant networks and population control, as the decisive element of the campaign, and the "Malayan model" was subsequently studied and exported to other British counterinsurgency efforts. politics / war ●●

12 January 1960 The State of Emergency Ends 0 cit. The government lifted the State of Emergency after more than seven years, with the forest revolt long since crushed and most detainees released or dead. In the same period the first Lancaster House conference in London opened the path toward African majority rule. The end of the Emergency shifted the struggle from the forests to constitutional negotiation. Many former fighters and detainees emerged to find their land gone and loyalists in control. politics ●●

30 June 1960 Congo independence and the fall of Lumumba 0 cit. The Belgian Congo became independent with Patrice Lumumba as its first prime minister. Within weeks the state fell into crisis with an army mutiny, the secession of Katanga, and foreign intervention. Lumumba was removed and, in January 1961, killed; later inquiries pointed to Belgian and Western complicity, and Belgium formally expressed regret in 2002. politics / war ●●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria gains independence from Britain 0 cit. Nigeria, Africa's most populous territory, became independent from Britain as a federation of regions. Its size and mix of peoples made it a major test case for post-colonial nation-building. Regional and ethnic tensions would later erupt into the Biafran civil war. politics / society ●●

21 March 1960 Sharpeville massacre in South Africa 0 cit. South African police opened fire on a crowd protesting the apartheid pass laws, killing 69 people, many shot in the back. The killings drew global condemnation and pushed the ANC and PAC toward armed resistance. The date is now marked internationally as a day against racial discrimination. politics / society ●●

January 1960 The Brussels Round Table Conference 0 cit. Belgian officials and Congolese leaders met in Brussels and agreed on a rapid timetable for independence, set for later that year. The speed left little time to build institutions, train administrators, or resolve regional rivalries. Critics have argued the rushed handover helped set the stage for the crisis that followed. diplomacy / politics ●●

30 June 1960 Congolese independence and Lumumba's speech 0 cit. The Congo became independent, with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister and Joseph Kasa-Vubu as president. At the ceremony Lumumba delivered a defiant speech denouncing the injustices of colonial rule, angering Belgium and unsettling Western governments. Independence arrived amid high hopes and deep fragility. politics / society ●●●

5 July 1960 The Force Publique mutiny 0 cit. Days after independence, Congolese soldiers mutinied against their remaining Belgian officers, demanding Africanization and better pay. The revolt spread and order broke down, prompting Belgium to send troops in the name of protecting its citizens. The mutiny opened the wider Congo Crisis. politics / war ●●

11 July 1960 Katanga secedes under Tshombe 0 cit. The mineral-rich Katanga province declared independence under Moïse Tshombe, backed by Belgian troops, Union Minière money, and foreign mercenaries. The secession cut the new government off from its richest source of revenue. It became the central battleground of the Congo Crisis and drew in the United Nations. politics / war ●●●

14 September 1960 Mobutu's first coup and the sidelining of Lumumba 0 cit. After President Kasa-Vubu and Prime Minister Lumumba tried to dismiss each other, army chief Joseph-Désiré Mobutu seized power in a coup and neutralized both. Lumumba was placed under house arrest, guarded by UN and Congolese troops. Western governments, viewing Lumumba as a Soviet-leaning threat, welcomed his removal. politics / war ●●

1960 The missile gap that wasn't 0 cit. In the late 1950s and the 1960 campaign, politicians warned of a 'missile gap' in which the Soviets supposedly outbuilt American nuclear forces. Eisenhower doubted it, and U-2 and satellite intelligence soon showed the United States was ahead, not behind. A documented case of a threat claim that outran the evidence while driving weapons spending. politics / war ●●

8 November 1960 The 1960 election 0 cit. John F. Kennedy narrowly beats Vice President Richard Nixon in one of the closest elections of the century, helped by the first televised presidential debates. At 43 he becomes the youngest man elected president, taking office as the Cold War security state stood at its peak. politics / society ●●

May 1960 The U-2 incident exposes American spy flights 0 cit. Soviet air defenses shoot down an American U-2 spy plane deep inside Soviet territory and capture its pilot, Francis Gary Powers. Washington first denied the mission, then was caught out when Moscow produced the pilot. The affair wrecked a planned Paris summit and hardened tensions. politics / technology / war ●●

c. 1960 The Sino-Soviet split fractures the communist world 0 cit. Ideological and national rivalry drives Communist China and the Soviet Union apart, ending their alliance and by 1969 leading to armed border clashes. The split shattered the image of a single monolithic communist bloc and later opened the way for Nixon's opening to China. diplomacy / politics ●●

September 1960 Washington targets Patrice Lumumba in the Congo 0 cit. Congo's first elected prime minister, Patrice Lumumba, is dismissed in a power struggle months after independence and placed under threat. The US Senate's Church Committee later found that the CIA had plotted to assassinate him, including a scheme to poison him, though he was ultimately killed in January 1961 by Katangan separatists with Belgian involvement. His removal cleared the path for army chief Mobutu. politics / war ●●●

11 July 1960 Katanga secedes with mining money behind it 0 cit. Days after Congolese independence, the mineral-rich province of Katanga declared itself a separate state under Moise Tshombe, backed by Belgian troops and, many accounts hold, by Union Miniere, which kept paying taxes to the breakaway regime. The secession helped trigger the crisis that ended with the killing of Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba. It is a stark case of foreign mining interests shaping the politics of a newly free country. economy / politics / war ●●●

14 September 1960 OPEC forms to push back 0 cit. Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela founded the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to coordinate policy and stop foreign firms from setting prices at will. It marked producing states organizing to claim more of the value of their own oil. Over the following years OPEC helped shift control of production and pricing away from the Western majors. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 The CFA franc survives independence contested 0 cit. As French colonies win independence around 1960, most keep the CFA franc rather than launching their own currencies. Monetary agreements kept the peg to France, the reserve-deposit rule, and a French seat on the central banks. Supporters point to low inflation and stability; critics argue it kept newly independent states from controlling their own money and locked in a dependent relationship with the former ruler. economy / politics ●●●

14 December 1960 Resolution 1514 declares an end to colonial rule 0 cit. The General Assembly passed the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, known as Resolution 1514. It stated that all peoples have the right to self-determination and called for a swift end to colonialism. The vote gave the growing bloc of newly independent nations a charter for their cause and turned the UN into an arena for decolonization. politics / society ●●●

c. January 1960 The General Assembly speaks for all but decides little 0 cit. As decolonization swelled the membership, the General Assembly became a global forum where every nation had one vote and an equal voice. Yet its resolutions were only recommendations, not law. The design left the many gathered in the Assembly to debate while the few on the Security Council held the power to act. politics / society ●●

14 July 1960 The UN sends ONUC into the Congo crisis 0 cit. Days after Congolese independence, the UN launched ONUC, one of its largest early peacekeeping operations, as the country fractured and the mineral-rich Katanga province seceded. The mission was caught between Cold War rivals and Belgian mining interests. What began as help for a new nation drew the UN into a crisis it could neither control nor cleanly resolve. politics / war ●●●

August 1960 Houphouet-Boigny's Cote d'Ivoire and French tutelage 0 cit. Felix Houphouet-Boigny led Cote d'Ivoire to independence and tied it tightly to France in the network of postcolonial ties known as Francafrique. He welcomed French troops, business and advisers and built a stable, market-friendly, pro-Western state. His country was a showcase anchor of French influence in West Africa. economy / politics ●●

January 1960 The Lancaster House conferences 0 cit. In a series of conferences in London beginning in 1960, Britain and Kenyan delegates negotiated the path to majority rule and a new constitution. The talks conceded an African elected majority and set the framework for independence, while exposing rifts between the KANU and KADU parties over central versus regional power. The settlement shaped Kenya's first constitution and its early political map. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 1960 Willing Buyer, Willing Seller 0 cit. At the Lancaster House talks the British insisted that the transfer of the White Highlands respect settler property rights, so land moved by purchase on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis rather than by expropriation to the landless. The independence constitution protected private property and required compensation for any land taken. This principle meant the dispossessed had to buy back land their families had lost, and only those with money or credit could take part. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 The Colour Bar on the Highlands Falls 3 cit. By 1959-60 the formal racial barrier that had reserved the Highlands for whites was coming down, and Africans and Indians could in principle buy land there. That was a real end to the legal white preserve. But it was not restitution: buyers still needed money, credit, an available seller and board approval. The land question moved from open race law into market purchase, title, debt and political access. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●●●

1960 Willing Buyer, Willing Seller for the Highlands 2 cit. At the Lancaster House talks the British insisted that the Highlands change hands by purchase on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis, with settlers paid market value and their property rights written into the independence constitution. This ruled out giving the land back to those it had been taken from. The dispossessed would have to buy their land again, and only those with money, credit, or connections could take part, a point stressed in accounts of the loyalist land inheritance. diplomacy / economy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 No Uhuru Without Kenyatta 0 cit. As Kenya moved toward independence, the Kenya African National Union made Kenyatta's release its central demand, campaigning under the slogan that there could be no uhuru, or freedom, without him. Though still in restriction, he was elected KANU president in absentia in 1960. The campaign fused his personal fate with the nation's, cementing his standing as the indispensable founding leader. politics ●●

1 July 1960 British Somaliland and Italian Somaliland unite as the Somali Republic 0 cit. British Somaliland gained independence on 26 June 1960 and, five days later, joined the former Italian Somaliland, which became independent on 1 July, to form the united Somali Republic. The union was rushed and celebrated as a first step toward Greater Somalia. Legal and administrative differences between the British-run north and Italian-run south were papered over, and northern grievances about the terms surfaced quickly. politics / society ●●●

May 1960 The Corfield Report and the official story 0 cit. In 1960 the government published F. D. Corfield's official history of the origins of Mau Mau, which blamed Kenyatta and cast the oath as a return to primitive savagery. The report leaned on the lurid oath descriptions that the colonial state had promoted throughout the Emergency. Later historians, among them Bruce Berman, David Anderson, and Caroline Elkins, read Corfield as the state's self-justifying account rather than a reliable record. It remains a key source for understanding how the colonial government wanted the oath, and the whole rebellion, to be seen. politics / society / war ●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria's peaceful transfer of power 0 cit. Nigeria, Britain's largest African colony, moved to independence through constitutional conferences and elections without a war against settlers. Like the rest of West Africa it had no white minority occupying the farmland. The calm handover underlines that Kenya's violence came from its settler question, not from decolonisation itself. politics ●●

c. 1960 Kenya's settlers too few to rule alone 0 cit. At their peak around independence Kenya's white settlers numbered roughly 60,000 against several million Africans, a far smaller share than in South Africa or Rhodesia. They controlled land and the Legislative Council but had nowhere near the numbers to hold the whole country by force. This weakness meant that when Britain moved toward majority rule, the settlers could not mount a Rhodesian-style breakaway. politics / society ●●●

February 1960 Macmillan's 'Wind of Change' signals British retreat 0 cit. British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan told South Africa's parliament that a 'wind of change' was blowing through Africa and that Britain would back African majority rule. The speech told Kenya's settlers that London would not defend a white-minority state on their behalf. Without British backing and without the numbers to stand alone, their position was untenable. diplomacy / politics ●●

January 1960 The Lancaster House conferences chart the handover 0 cit. In a series of conferences at Lancaster House from 1960 to 1963, Britain, African leaders and settler representatives negotiated the constitution for an independent Kenya. Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod accepted the principle of African majority rule at the first conference. The talks fixed a managed transfer of power rather than a settlement won on the battlefield. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 The Lancaster House formula 0 cit. The conferences followed a recurring pattern. Britain sat around the table with local nationalist parties and, in settler colonies, with European minorities, and hammered out an independence constitution. The formula repeated familiar elements: a wider franchise moving toward majority rule, power-sharing arrangements, safeguards for minorities, and in settler colonies protections for land and private property. The same clauses reappeared from Nairobi to Salisbury. diplomacy / politics ●●

April 1960 Sierra Leone Constitutional Conference 0 cit. In late April and early May 1960 Sir Milton Margai led a Sierra Leonean delegation to Lancaster House, where Britain agreed to grant independence. The date was set for 27 April 1961. Siaka Stevens broke with the delegation and refused to sign, objecting to a secret defence pact with Britain and to the decision not to hold elections before independence. diplomacy / politics ●●●

January 1960 First Lancaster House Conference on Kenya 0 cit. From January to February 1960 Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod chaired the first Kenya conference and conceded the principle of eventual African majority rule. The new constitution opened a path to an African majority in the legislature and ended the White Highlands as a whites-only preserve. It broke the settlers' political grip and is often treated as the turning point in Kenya's decolonisation. diplomacy / politics ●

February 1960 Settlers split over the 1960 settlement 0 cit. The 1960 concessions divided Kenya's white settlers. Michael Blundell led moderates who accepted a multiracial future through his New Kenya Group, while hardliners accused him of surrender. When Blundell returned to Nairobi, a settler is said to have thrown thirty pieces of silver at him, casting him as a Judas, and critics complained they had been sold down the river. Supporters countered that accepting majority rule was the only realistic course. politics / society ●●

1960 From 'Darkness and Death' to the Man Britain Dealt With 0 cit. In 1960 Governor Patrick Renison publicly branded Kenyatta a 'leader to darkness and death,' the official line that he was too dangerous to free. Within about a year Britain reversed course and chose to negotiate with him, having concluded that a Kenyatta-led Kenya was the safest outcome for its economic and settler interests and its Cold War alignment. The turn was pragmatic calculation, not affection: the same establishment that had jailed and surveilled him now decided he was the manageable option. Historians read the shift as the moment Britain picked the conservative nationalist over the radicals it feared more. diplomacy / politics ●●

c. 1960 The dollar glut and the drain on American gold 0 cit. As dollars piled up abroad through American spending, trade, and overseas bases, foreign holders increasingly claimed gold in exchange, draining US reserves. Central banks set up the London Gold Pool in 1961 to hold the price at thirty-five dollars an ounce, but it collapsed under the pressure in 1968, exposing the strain in the Bretton Woods system. economy / politics ●●

30 June 1960 Congo becomes independent with Patrice Lumumba as prime minister 0 cit. Belgium granted independence to the Congo, and Patrice Lumumba, a nationalist who wanted full economic and political sovereignty, became prime minister after elections, with Joseph Kasavubu as president. Lumumba's independence-day speech openly recounted the abuses of colonial rule in front of the departing Belgian king. Within weeks the country faced army mutiny, the secession of mineral-rich Katanga, and a growing rift between the new leaders. diplomacy / politics ●●●

1 October 1960 Nigeria becomes independent under a conservative federal coalition 0 cit. Nigeria gained independence from Britain with Abubakar Tafawa Balewa as prime minister, leading a coalition built around the conservative Northern People's Congress. The new government kept close ties to Britain and the West and left the colonial economic structure largely intact. More radical nationalist currents were on the margins of the settlement. diplomacy / politics ●

7 August 1960 Ivory Coast becomes independent under Felix Houphouet-Boigny 0 cit. Ivory Coast gained independence from France with Felix Houphouet-Boigny as president, a leader who chose close political, military, and economic ties with Paris. French advisers, troops, and companies stayed on under cooperation agreements. The relationship became a leading example of what critics later called Francafrique, France's continued influence over its former African colonies. economy / politics ●

September 1960 Lumumba is dismissed as Mobutu seizes power in the Congo 0 cit. Amid the Katanga secession and a deepening crisis, President Kasavubu dismissed Prime Minister Lumumba, who disputed the move, leaving the country with rival claims to power. Days later the army chief of staff, Joseph Mobutu, took control in a coup and pushed Lumumba aside. The 1975 United States Senate Church Committee later documented that the CIA had been plotting against Lumumba during this period, including plans to assassinate him. politics / war ●●●

January 1960 The First Lancaster House Conference sets the terms 0 cit. At the London conference that opened Kenya's path to majority rule, Colonial Secretary Iain Macleod conceded eventual African government but on terms that protected settler property. Land in the White Highlands would change hands by purchase, not restoration, on a willing-buyer, willing-seller basis. The principle set here is that land taken by conquest would have to be bought back at market price. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 Dozens of world leaders among the alumni 0 cit. By the later twentieth century the LSE could count a striking number of former students and staff among the world's heads of state and government. The School's own records list dozens of past presidents and prime ministers among its alumni. This global political reach is often cited as evidence of the founders' aim to shape a governing elite. politics / society ●●

1 July 1960 Ghana becomes a republic with Nkrumah as first president 0 cit. On 1 July 1960 Ghana became a republic and Nkrumah became its first president after a referendum. The new constitution gave him wide executive powers. He used the office to push both national development and a continental Pan-African agenda. politics ●●

April 1960 Release and the Malawi Congress Party 0 cit. Banda is released from detention in April 1960 and takes the leadership of the Malawi Congress Party, formed the previous year to replace the banned Nyasaland African Congress. He is brought into constitutional talks in London on Nyasaland's future. His release turns him from prisoner into the recognized leader of the road to independence. politics ●●

16 August 1960 Cyprus keeps British Sovereign Base Areas at independence 0 cit. When Cyprus became independent, Britain retained two Sovereign Base Areas at Akrotiri and Dhekelia as its own sovereign territory. The bases kept British military airfields and listening stations on the island under direct British control. Cypriot independence therefore came with permanent slices of the island carved out for the former ruler's armed forces. politics / war ●●●

January 1960 The US-Japan Status of Forces Agreement 0 cit. Alongside the revised security treaty of 1960, the United States and Japan sign a Status of Forces Agreement governing American troops in the country. Critics in Japan argue it gives US authorities the first move over crimes committed by service members and limits Japanese prosecution. The agreement has never been formally revised and remains a recurring source of friction, especially in Okinawa. diplomacy / politics ●●

August 1960 Houphouet-Boigny leads Ivory Coast and names the system 0 cit. Felix Houphouet-Boigny becomes the first president of independent Ivory Coast and a pillar of France's African order. In 1955 he had coined the word Francafrique to praise close ties between France and Africa. The writer Francois-Xavier Verschave later turned the term against its makers, using it to name a system of hidden control. diplomacy / politics ●●●

c. 1960 Jacques Foccart runs France's Africa networks 0 cit. From an office at the Elysee Palace, Jacques Foccart manages France's relations with its former African colonies under de Gaulle and Pompidou. He builds a web of personal ties to client presidents, intelligence agents and business figures that operates outside normal diplomacy. His networks become the working machinery of Francafrique. diplomacy / politics ●●●

March 1960 KANU forms around the larger communities 0 cit. As independence neared, nationalist leaders formed the Kenya African National Union, drawing its strongest support from the larger Kikuyu and Luo communities and figures like Tom Mboya and Oginga Odinga, with the detained Kenyatta as symbolic head. KANU favored a strong central state. Its makeup meant that the leading independence party carried an ethnic weight from the beginning. The party's founding is documented fact. politics ●●●

1960 KADU forms for the smaller groups and majimbo 2 cit. Leaders of smaller communities, including Ronald Ngala and Daniel arap Moi, founded the Kenya African Democratic Union to guard the interests of groups such as the Kalenjin, Maasai, Turkana, and coastal peoples against domination by the larger tribes. KADU pushed for majimbo, a federal system with strong regions holding land and local power. The split set the two main parties against each other largely along a big-group and small-group ethnic line. The party and its federal platform are documented. politics ●●●