African Wars The period after the Second World War saw the decolonization of Africa and the establishment of many new nations. But these new states often degenerated into conflict with their neighbors, internal uprisings and revolutions, as well as ethnic and religious clashes. The conflicts in Africa often mirrored global tensions as the Cold War reached its peak and both the Soviet Union and the United States vied for African allies and supporters. For example, Angola was the site of civil war in which both the U.S. And the U.S.S.R. played an active part. The combination of problems which surfaced as a result of decolonization along with the geopolitical situation of the Cold War led to a number of situations in which ethnic and tribal rivalries, political ideology, and economic forces created conflicts throughout Africa.

As Africa was colonized in the 18th and 19th centuries the Europeans imposed upon the native Africans artificial geopolitical structures; which began to disintegrate as the Europeans decolonized African in the post-WWII period. Prior to colonization, the situation in Africa could be described as "one of widespread regionalized or localized low intensity conflict." (Clayton 1999, p.2) In other words...

This situation, which was put on hold during the European occupation, resurfaced soon after their withdrawal as ethnic and tribal groups fought for power in the vacuum left behind.
And as the different groups fought for control of the various nations of Africa, both the Soviet Union and the United States sought to gain influence. Although not directly part of the Cold War's ideological struggle, the various tribal, ethnic, and religious conflicts that had been suppressed during colonization reemerged with the Cold War opponents taking sides. For instance, in Rhodesia there was a combination of anti-colonialism and Cold War ideology when the nationalist movement "imbued with Marxist revolutionary theories…adopted the 'armed struggle' as their route to power in 1962..." (Wood 2011, p.185)

A similar blending of ethnic rivalry, ideology and anti-colonialism took place in the nation of Angola where the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola, MPLA, began as an anti-colonial organization based among the Ambundu tribe and transformed, with the help of the Soviet Union, into a Communist government. Another anti-colonial group, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola, FNLA opposed the MPLA but was virtually defeated. However an FNLA splinter group, the…