Modern African History
MIT OpenCourseWare's survey of 19th and 20th century Africa traces the European conquest of the continent and the workings of colonial rule, including its economic and cultural effects on African societies. Lectures follow the rise of African nationalism through labor strikes and guerrilla wars that ended colonial governments, then turn to postcolonial states: development politics, the civil wars in Rwanda and Liberia, the AIDS epidemic, and South African apartheid up to 1994. A closing section covers entrepreneurship in the postcolonial era and China's growing economic role on the continent. The course includes readings, lecture notes, and assignments from MIT's undergraduate history curriculum, freely downloadable with no certificate attached. It suits anyone wanting a structured, source-based grounding in modern African political and economic history rather than a single-region case study.