This story starts with me being proven wrong.

OK, well really it starts at least several decades ago. But my interaction with it starts with me being proven wrong.

I was trying to determine which year saw the most countries gain independence. I was pretty sure that it would be 1991, the year the USSR collapsed. A big empire falling apart into lots of little countries certainly seems like it would get the record, plus it was helped along by the breakup of Yugoslavia.

But when I checked, it turns out there was a different year where a big empire also fell apart into lots of little countries: 1960, when loads of African countries declared independence from France, as well as some from Belgium and the British Empire. And at least by one reasonable count of new nations, 1960 surpasses 1991.

It’s not always 100% clear how many countries gained independence in a given year. Sometimes this is because self-proclaimed countries declared independence but were largely unrecognized – in 1991 this includes Transistria, among others. Another question is whether a new country is actually the same as a preexisting one – in 1991, that would be whether Russia counts as the same place as the USSR. You could just go with UN membership, but that would exclude e.g. Vatican City, and (in 1991 at least) Switzerland.

Given all these complications, I’m making a list based on the sources trusted by Our World in Data,¹ which mostly agree with each other.

For 1991, 17 countries came into existence (listed here by their current names):

1. Russia
2. Estonia
3. Latvia
4. Lithuania
5. Ukraine
6. Belarus
7. Armenia
8. Georgia
9. Azerbaijan
10. Turkmenistan
11. Tajikistan
12. Kyrgyzstan
13. Uzbekistan
14. Kazakhstan
15. Croatia
16. Slovenia
17. North Macedonia

While in 1960, it’s 18 countries (again, listed by their current names):

1. Mali
2. Senegal
3. Benin
4. Mauritania
5. Niger
6. Ivory Coast
7. Burkina Faso
8. Togo
9. Cameroon
10. Nigeria
11. Gabon
12. Central African Republic
13. Chad
14. Congo
15. Democratic Republic of the Congo
16. Somalia
17. Madagascar
18. Cyprus

So what happened in 1960? Basically, the French colonial empire in Africa collapsed all at once. Algeria, which France had always tried to hold more closely than the rest of Africa, was embroiled in a guerilla war for independence. French President Charles De Gaulle tried to respond by forming the rest of France’s African lands into a nominally more equal “French Community”.

In December 1959, De Gaulle agreed that members of the French Community were allowed to leave, which opened the floodgates. Cameroon declared its independence on January 1, 1960, followed by over a dozen other nations across the continent.

And France wasn’t alone. Imperialism in Africa was becoming harder and harder to maintain, and the European powers were losing their political will to enforce it. British Prime minister Harold Macmillan gave a speech in Cape Town in February, where he declared “The wind of change is blowing through this continent.” Nigeria would declare independence from Britain on October 1^st, and the Congo (the future DRC) from Belgium on June 30^th.

Appropriately enough, one (partially recognized) country declared independence in both 1960 and 1991.  Somaliland declared independence from Britain on June 26^th, 1960 and officially became part of Somalia 5 days later on July 1^st. In 1991, they adopted a new declaration of independence in the context of the Somali Civil War.

In both years, many of these newly independent countries fell into political instability and violence – as so many such countries do. And neither the imperial forces that held a hold over Africa nor Eurasia definitely entirely dissolved in the course of a single year. But 1991 is such a significant milestone in modern world history. In my opinion at least, 1960 deserves such a place in our minds, too.

Coming Soon: We still use Roman money