Military history of Africa
Africa is a continent of many regions with diverse populations speaking thousands of different languages and practicing an array of cultures and religions.
The Empire ruled vast territories from today's western Yemen, Djibouti, southwestern Saudi Arabia, eastern Sudan, most of Eritrea and the north and central part of present-day Ethiopia.
The European Age of Discovery brought Europe's then superpower the Portuguese empire to the coast of East Africa, which at the time enjoyed a flourishing trade with foreign nations.
The wealthy southeastern city-states of Kilwa, Mombasa, Malindi, Pate and Lamu were all systematically sacked and plundered by the Portuguese.
Nevertheless, Tristão still opted to storm and attempt to conquer the city, although every officer and soldier in his army opposed this, fearing certain defeat if they were to engage their opponents in battle.
[7] Over the next several decades Somali-Portuguese tensions would remain high and the increased contact between Somali sailors and Ottoman corsairs worried the Portuguese who sent a punitive expedition against Mogadishu under João de Sepúlveda, which was unsuccessful.
This agitation, coupled with an international system that was increasingly hostile to colonialism, led killed to a process of decolonization that was often violent.
Colonial security forces were reinforced by regular troops from the metropolitan power and the insurgent groups were hampered by a lack of military equipment and training, as well as the absence of a friendly adjoining country offering sanctuary.
The Polisario Front began a struggle in 1973 for the independence of Western Sahara against Spain and then Morocco, when the North African country invaded.
Many states have experienced civil wars: including Rwanda, Sudan, Angola, Sierra Leone, Congo, Liberia, Ethiopia and Somalia.
Sierra Leone's civil war was ended with the restoration of ousted civilian government by British and Nigerian forces.
Therefore, the coastal areas have many resources to support the needs of large armies and the moderate-to-hot climate makes the movement of forces across vast stretches of land very feasible.
North Africa has been the source of both cultural and economic interactions as well as military rivalries that became famous wars in history.
Ancient Greece and the armies of Alexander the Great (336 BC–323 BC) invaded and conquered some parts of North Africa and his generals set up the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt.
Each century has seen the invasion of North Africa by various peoples, empires, nations and religions, and each in turn yielded its wars and conflicts.
During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Egyptian army broke through the Bar Lev Line, invading the Israeli-held Sinai Peninsula, resulting in UN cease-fire after United Nations Security Council Resolution 338, 339 and 340, which finally led to strategic and political gains for Egypt and Israel.
Its coastal plain is hemmed in by mountain ranges which make the movement of large armies difficult and cumbersome and favor local forces that resist.
Both Germany and Italy were defeated by the forces of Great Britain and its allies, and Italian East Africa was placed under British military administration.
During its socialist period, Somalia had the largest military on the continent on account of its friendship with the Soviet Union and later partnership with the United States.
The Kanem-Bornu Empire (9th century–19th century) of ancient Chad stretched to parts of modern southern Libya, eastern Niger, northeastern Nigeria, and northern Cameroon until it was overwhelmed by attacks and wars from the Fula people, Baggara, Kanembu people, the Ouaddai Kingdom and the Sokoto Caliphate.
Muhammad al-Amin al-Kanemi and his descendants helped the Mais of Bornu to successfully defend the empire against many assaults.
However, the Sudanese warlord Rabih az-Zubayr eventually conquered Bornu at the end of the 19th-century, expelling al-Kanemi's descendants.
This was made possible geographically because West Africa's coast is on the Atlantic Ocean, making it both open to cultural and trade influences, as well as to conquest by sea.
West Africa is rich in many precious metals, minerals and products, which invites the interest and competition of outside powers and influences.
The most notable wars and conflicts in Southern Africa were those between the colonial powers of Europe who fought to dominate and control the African people of Southern Africa as well as the wars between the British and the white Boers, also known as Afrikaners, who were mostly the descendants of earlier colonists introduced by the Dutch East India Company.
During World War I, the Union formed a South African Overseas Expeditionary Force to fight for the Allies.
Altogether, 334,000 men volunteered for full-time service in the South African Army during WWII, including some 211,000 whites, 77,000 blacks and 46,000 "coloureds" and Asians), with nearly 9,000 killed in action.
Modern conflicts involving South Africa's predominantly Afrikaner government raged as a result of its controversial apartheid policy, led by Umkhonto we Sizwe, military wing of the African National Congress, and the Azanian People's Liberation Army, which received training and armament from communist states such as the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China.
The conflict escalated into major conventional warfare in 1984; between 1987 and 1988 South African, Cuban, and Angolan armies fought the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale: Africa's largest single engagement since World War II.
The Rhodesian Bush War (1966–1979) saw the conservative white minority government in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) toppled by nationalist guerrillas.
