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    Welcome to the Country Studies section of the web site.  Here you will find information on various African nations that were directly or deeply affected by the North African Campaign of World War II.
    Each entry has a map of the nation as it stands today and a listing of its name, capital, current leader, what nation(s) it belonged to as a colony, when it gained its independence, and from whom.  This listing is followed by a brief story regarding the nation and how World War II affected it, its people, and its standing as a nation or colony.

Please use the table below to navigate the page.

Country Name: Egypt
Capital: Cairo
Current Leader: President Mohammed Hosni Mubarak
Colonially controlled by: Great Britain
Date of Independence: February 28, 1922
Granter of Independence: Great Britain¹

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Country Name: Eritrea
Capital: Asmara
Current Leader: President Isaias Afworki²
Colonially controlled by: Italy,³ Ethiopia
Date of Independence: May 24, 1993
Granter of Independence: Ethiopia⁴ 

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Country Name: Ethiopia
Capital: Addis Ababa
Current Leader: President Negasso Gidada
Colonially controlled by: Italy (occupied)
Date of Independence: Occupied from 1936-1941
Granter of Independence: Italy (liberated from 1941)⁵ 

    Eithiopia, once reffered to as Abyssinia, was traditionally ruled by Emperor Haile Selassie until its fall in 1936 to Italian forces under Marshal Pietro Badoglio.  The population was "ruthlessly oppressed"⁶ by the Italian governor-general and viceroy of the region, Rodolfo Grazaiani, who followed Badoglio in May of 1936.  As a result, a violent uprising ensued but was unsuccessful.⁷  Ethiopia was used during the war as a staging area for attacks on the Sudan, Kenya, and British Somaliland despite lingering civil unrest in the region.  In 1941, Ethiopia was liberated by the Gideon Force, a group of combined British and Ethiopian forces, during the East African campaign.  Haile Selassie regained the throne of Ethiopia later that year.⁸

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Country Name: Libya
Capital: Tripoli
Current Leader: Revolutionary Leader Col. Muammar Abu Minyar al-Qadhafi (De facto leader)
Colonially controlled by: France, Italy
Date of Independence: December 24, 1951
Granter of Independence: Italy⁹

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Country Name: Tunisia
Capital: Tunis
Current Leader: President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali
Colonially controlled by: France
Date of Independence: March 20, 1956
Granter of Independence: France¹⁰

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Country Name: Morocco
Capital: Rabat
Current Leader: King Mohamed VI
Colonially controlled by: France
Date of Independence: March 2, 1956
Granter of Independence: France¹¹

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Country Name: Algeria
Capital: Algiers
Current Leader: President Abdelaziz Bouteflika
Colonially controlled by: France
Date of Independence: July 5, 1962
Granter of Independence: France¹²

All maps courtesy of The World Factbook 2001 published by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America.  For the full citation, please click here.