This survival struggle continued for another three hundred years, down
to the beginning of the present century, reaching its highest level of
intensity between 1914 and 1945, with contestants from all of the
continents taking an active part. In this present round the contestants
are nations and empires, organized in ever-changing alliances. Some of
the contestants are old, scarred and battle weary. Others are young and
vigorous, recent entrants in the planet-wide contest for pelf,
possessions and power.
During the later years of the struggle, after war's end in 1945,
erstwhile dependencies and colonies of the disintegrating European
empires declared their independence, joined the United Nations as
sovereign states and played active parts in the battle for survival.
African development typifies the process during the later phases of
western civilization. When voyaging and discovery became a leading
activity of European nations around 1450 A.D. northern Africa was
directly involved, but the bulk of the continent--Equatorial
Africa--remained almost entirely untouched. After 1870 the pattern was
dramatically altered as British, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German and
Italian forces moved inland, staking out their claims.
Division of Africa among the great powers reached its culmination when
this process was completed, about 1910, when the whole vast continent of
Africa excepting Ethiopia, Egypt and South Africa had been parcelled out
among the rival European empires.
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