Conclusion 1175Movement, which emerged victorious. In Mozambique, too, the left won,
despite assistance to the right by the South African government and a cam
paign of terror. Ordinary people suffered famine and slaughter.
Independence in many cases proved to be no panacea for the new African
nations. Many post-colonial administrations proved unable or unwilling to
provide a decent quality of life to their people. Some new states, like Angola
and Mozambique, and more recently, Sudan, fell into bloody and debilitat
ing civil wars. These conflicts were compounded by the multiplicity of eth
nic groups, tribalism, and a lack of political experience—problems that still
stand as major impediments to the construction of modern political systems
in developing nations. Even with the departure of colonial governments,
European companies still controlled valuable natural resources. Moreover,
some African rulers have abused their power by enriching themselves at the
expense of their people, while adopting, as in the case of Robert Mugabe
(1924- ) of Zimbabwe, anti-colonial rhetoric to justify their plunder.
Appalling poverty and inadequate health care remain daunting challenges.
Conclusion
The end of European overseas empires was accompanied by significant po
litical changes on the European continent as well. The late 1960s brought
waves of student protest in many Western European countries and a move
ment for reform in Communist Czechoslovkia, which threatened Soviet
orthodoxy before being crushed by Russian tanks. Dictatorships subse
quently fell in Greece, Spain, and Portugal. And then, in a dramatic sequence
of remarkable events, Communism collapsed in Central and Eastern Europe
and the Balkans in 1989, followed by the break-up of the Soviet Union itself
in 1991. Europe entered a new age.