Abstract
Towards the end of their rule, the colonial powers increased investments in socio-economic development and these efforts, in combination with increasing export revenues, set Africa on a pathway towards socio-economic progress. However, the economic structures of the gate-keeping states, which transitioned from the colonial to the independent regimes, proved to be fundamentally weak. The agricultural sector was characterized by low productivity and industrialisation never took off. The economies were narrow in scope and crumbled as world market prices fell while oil prices surged. The initial development optimism that prevailed during the independence movements and first decades as free nations, turned into crisis and development pessimism. Neither political leaders nor the state apparatus could prevent the collapse.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
Idi Amin was the dictator of Uganda 1971–1979. He was deposed by Ugandan rebels acting together with Tanzanian army officers. During his rule he persecuted and murdered hundreds of thousands of people, political opponents and members of the acholi and lango ethnic groups.
Bibliography
Austin, Gareth (2010) ‘African economic development and colonial legacies’, International Development Policy Series 1, available at http://poldev.revues.org/78.
Bates, Robert (1981) Markets and states in tropical Africa: The political basis of agricultural policies, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Birmingham, David, and Martin Phyllis (1998) History of Central Africa: The contemporary years since 1960, London: Longman.
Bowden S. et al. (2008) ‘Measuring and explaining poverty in six African countries: A long-period approach’, Journal of International Development, 20(8): 1049–1079.
Cooper, Frederick (1996) Decolonisation and African society: The labour question in French and British Africa, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cooper, Frederick (2002) Africa since 1940: The past of the present, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Frankema, E., E. Green, and E. Hillbom (2016) ‘Endogenous processes of colonial settlement: The success and failure of European settler farming in sub-Saharan Africa’, Revista de Historia Economica-Journal of Iberian and Latin American Economic History, 34(2): 237–265.
Freund, B. (2016) The making of contemporary Africa: The development of African society since 1800, London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Gardner, Leigh (2012) Taxing colonial Africa: The political economy of British Imperialism, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hillbom, Ellen (2012) ‘Botswana: A development-oriented gate-keeping state’, African Affairs, 111(442): 67–89.
Hillbom, Ellen, and Jutta Bolt (2018) Botswana—A modern economic history: An African diamond in the rough, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Iliffe, J. (1979) A modern history of Tanganyika, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mamdani, Mahmood (1996) Citizen and subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late-colonialism, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Meredith, Martin (2005) The state of Africa: A history of fifty years of independence, Johannesburg and Cape Town: Jonathan Ball Publishers.
Moradi, Alexander (2008) ‘Confronting colonial legacies—Lessons from human development in Ghana and Kenya, 1880–2000’, Journal of International Development, 20(8): 1107–1121.
Nugent, Paul (2010) ‘States and social contracts in Africa’, New Left Review, 63: 35–68.
Phimister, Ian (1988) An economic and social history of Zimbabwe, 1890–1948: Capital accumulation and class struggle, London: Longman.
Schraeder, P. J. (2004) African politics and society: A mosaic in transformation, London: Macmillan.
Sender, John, and Sheila Smith (1986) The development of capitalism in Africa, London: Methuen.
Spear, T. T. (1997) Mountain farmers: Moral economies of land & agricultural development in Arusha & Meru, Berkeley: University of California Press.
Tignor, Robert L. (1998) Capitalism and nationalism at the end of empire, Princeton: Princeton University Press.
World Bank (2018) World Bank Indicators. https://data.worldbank.org/indicator.
Wrong, M. (2000) In the footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the brink of disaster in Mobutu’s Congo, London: Fourth Estate Limited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Hillbom, E., Green, E. (2019). The Expansion and Crisis of the Gate-Keeping State 1950–1985. In: An Economic History of Development in sub-Saharan Africa . Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14008-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-14008-3_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-14007-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-14008-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)