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The African Union is a geo-political entity almost covering the entirety of the African continent, with Morocco being the exception. Its origins are the Union of African States, an early confederation that was established by Haile Selassie and Kwame Nkrumah in the 1960s, as well as subsequent attempts to unite Africa, including the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was established on May 25, 1963, and the African Economic Community in 1981. Critics argued that the OAU in particular did little to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens from their own political leaders, often dubbing it the "Dictators' Club".〔(African Union replaces dictators' club ), BBC, 8 July 2002〕 The idea of creating the AU was revived in the mid-1990s under the leadership of Libyan head of state Muammar al-Gaddafi: the heads of state and government of the OAU issued the Sirte Declaration (named after Sirte, in Libya) on September 9, 1999 calling for the establishment of an African Union. The Declaration was followed by summits at Lomé in 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African Union was adopted, and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for the implementation of the African Union was adopted. During the same period, the initiative for the establishment of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), was also established. ==Scramble for Africa== (詳細はnatural resources and huge amount of manpower the continent had to offer to their Empires. However, the strong rivalry between European powers such as Great Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Portugal, meant the reality soon dawned that no one nation was powerful enough to outdo all the others, and take complete control of the continent. Instead, they carved the continent up between them, scrambling for control of as much territory as possible, and attempting to prevent their rivals from obtaining favourable regions. The European powers essentially maintained control of their territories as colonies until the second half of the 20th century, when changes in European policy and thinking, led to releasing of control over their African colonies, and the creation of independent nations across the continent took place between the 1950s and 1970s. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of the African Union」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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