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Operation Overlord began on June 6, 1944. In case the invasion ended in failure, Eisenhower left a document that said: “The infantry, air force and navy have done everything that courage and commitment to duty command. If you look for those responsible for the failure, then I alone am guilty. Fortunately, this "explanatory note" was not needed. Rapidly developing the offensive, the Allied troops liberated Paris on August 25, 1944. A characteristic feature of Eisenhower as a military commander was his desire to take into account primarily military, rather than political considerations when making decisions. The fact is that although the USSR and the Western allies acted together against fascist Germany, they perfectly understood that after the end of the war their political interests would be different. Therefore, each of the parties wanted to get ahead of the other in the liberation of the most strategically important countries and territories. Eisenhower is still accused by many in the United States of refusing to storm Berlin and thereby allowing Soviet troops to do so. Meanwhile, Eisenhower was aware that the throw of the troops of the Western Allies to Berlin could lead to defeat, heavy losses. Based on these considerations, he decided that the Soviet army was in a better position to storm Berlin.

After the capitulation of Nazi Germany, Eisenhower was appointed commander in chief of the American occupation forces in Germany, and in June 1945 he returned to the United States. His popularity in the country was unusually great. During Eisenhower's tour of the United States, millions of people took to the streets to greet him. Even then, many advised him to go into politics, but at first he refused this path. In June 1948, he became rector of one of the largest universities in the United States - Columbia. However, Eisenhower failed to end his military career.

The Cold War has begun. In April 1949, the US and its allies created NATO. Eisenhower turned out to be the most suitable candidate for the post of commander-in-chief of the armed forces of NATO. He fully shared the goals of NATO and believed that Western countries should create a powerful military-political bloc that would resist the threat of the spread of communist ideology. Staying in Europe as commander of the armed forces of NATO (1950-1952) can be considered the beginning of Eisenhower's political career. The two main parties in the United States, the Democratic and the Republican, in view of Eisenhower's enormous popularity, sought to secure his consent to the nomination for the presidency of the country. Convinced that he would be supported by the majority of voters, Eisenhower finally agreed to participate in the elections as the Republican candidate.

After resigning from his post and resigning from the army, Eisenhower actively led his election campaign. His victory in the 1952 elections was impressive: almost 55% of voters cast their votes for him. Dwight Eisenhower was President of the United States for two terms - from 1953 to 1961. Formulating the concept of his presidency, he said that the country needed a period of calm and unification after the upheavals of World War II. In the field of domestic policy, he pursued a moderate course. On the one hand, he did not expand the social programs that existed in the previous decade, when the country was ruled by Democrats. But, on the other hand, he did not allow them to be reduced, as many Republicans wanted. Eisenhower curbed the rapid growth of military spending, realizing the danger of increasing the influence of the military-industrial complex. This was connected with his "new look" at the country's defense policy. Eisenhower said that every gun made, every ship launched, was a steal from those who were hungry and had no clothes.

Related to this approach to defense was Eisenhower's conception of US foreign policy. Since the president insisted on the need to reduce the size of the army, it was necessary to propose a military strategy that would correspond to the task of protecting against a possible attack by the USSR. Such a strategy was developed and received the ominous name of "massive retaliation." Its essence boiled down to the fact that the United States does not bind itself with an obligation to resist communism anywhere in the world. The United States can respond to the actions of the USSR in one place in another, where it considers it most appropriate, using nuclear weapons if necessary. “Only strength can help,” Eisenhower said, “weakness cannot help, it can only beg.” At the same time, he also understood the dangerous consequences of such a line.

In general, s areas of foreign policy, Eisenhower showed great flexibility, skillfully combining overt propaganda steps and covert operations. So, in December 1953, he came up with the Atoms for Peace program, which involved the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. On the other hand, Eisenhower actively used the CIA for covert subversive operations against countries where disloyal US governments were in power. The most striking example was the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in Iran in 1953 and the left-wing government of Arbenz in Guatemala in 1954. However, Eisenhower did not allow the United States to be drawn into any new war. Eight years of his presidency, after he brought about an end to the war in Korea, passed without the use of American troops anywhere in the world.

Relations with the USSR during the Eisenhower presidency developed very unevenly. Periods of some easing of tension were replaced by the threat of the outbreak of war. The greatest progress was made during the 1959 visit to the United States by the head of the Soviet state, Nikita Khrushchev. Then for the first time there was a real prospect of reaching an agreement on arms control. An agreement was reached on a new meeting for this purpose between Eisenhower and Khrushchev in Paris. However, two weeks before the meeting, on May 1, 1960, an American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft was shot down over the territory of the USSR. The flights of these aircraft were carried out for several years, but the USSR did not have weapons capable of bringing them down. Eisenhower knew about these flights and allowed them, being sure that it would not be possible to prove their espionage activities. However, when the plane was shot down, the pilot ejected and told about his mission. After that, Khrushchev refused to meet with Eisenhower.

After leaving the White House, Eisenhower outwardly remained out of politics, although he constantly monitored the situation in the country. He did not approve of the policies of his successors, Presidents Kennedy and Johnson, but considered it necessary to support them in matters that concerned US national security. In 1968, already seriously ill, he turned to the Republican Party with a proposal to nominate Richard Nixon, who was vice president in the Eisenhower administration, as a presidential candidate. Dwight Eisenhower died on March 28, 1969.

Dwight Eisenhower made a great contribution to the victory over Nazi Germany. In many ways, it was thanks to the glory of the brilliant commander that he won the presidential elections in 1952 and 1956. and entered the post-war history of the United States as one of the most popular presidents of the country. There is still lively discussion about Eisenhower's significance as a politician.

Not being a political genius, Eisenhower solved the main problem facing him as President of the United States. During the period of fierce confrontation between the USA and the USSR, he still managed to avoid an armed clash between East and West. Over time, it also became apparent that some of the ideas he expressed in the field of domestic policy and. international relations have retained their relevance and are used by many US politicians to this day.

By the beginning of the XX century. most of the African continent was subjugated by the colonial powers. This happened primarily as a result of the different economic and military-technical capabilities of capitalist Europe and pre-capitalist, predominantly early-class and pre-class African societies. In addition, many African countries by the end of the XIX century. were weakened by devastating droughts and epidemics. A terrible sleeping sickness devastated vast areas in Tropical Africa, starvation and disease killed up to a third of the population of present-day Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Anglo-Boer War 1899-1902 and the First World War (see the articles "Boers" and "The First World War") completed the colonial division of these parts of the continent; Independence (largely formal) was preserved only by Ethiopia and Liberia. Colonial domination in Africa, as in the rest of the world (see article "Colonialism and the collapse of the colonial system"), had mixed consequences. For all its pronounced exploitative essence, colonialism also acted as a creative force in the spheres of the economy, education, medicine, contributed to the political awakening of the local population, the emergence of new, political forms of anti-colonial protest. True, at that time the so-called feudal nationalism still retained its strength, independent African-Christian churches and sects were widespread, representing a kind of combination of some ideas and principles of Christianity and traditional, pre-colonial African beliefs and religions. It was on their basis that mass movements were organized at that time, resulting in an open armed struggle against the colonialists. Often such movements were led by ordinary people who considered themselves messiahs, prophets, called to liberate their people from foreign oppression. Sometimes leaders of tribes or large tribal associations became leaders. Such "messiahs", "prophets", leaders were at the head of the most massive anti-colonial uprisings of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the uprisings of the Ndebele and Shona tribes of 1896-1897. in Rhodesia, Herero and Nama 1904 in South West Africa, Maji-Maji ("big water" or "magic potion" in Swahili) 1905-1907. in the territory of present-day Tanzania, dervishes 1899-1920. in Somalia.

The interwar years were for most African countries a time of economic growth, associated primarily with the expansion and increase in production for export. At the same time, Africa became increasingly dependent on world markets for raw materials and was affected by economic downturns in the world. The consequences of the world crisis of 1929-1933 were especially tangible, when in the African colonies the income from exports and foreign trade as a whole was noticeably reduced, many small and medium-sized enterprises and companies went bankrupt. During these years, the positions of foreign capital strengthened in Africa, and new giant colonial companies arose.

Participation in the Second World War markedly changed the economic, domestic political and socio-psychological situation in many countries of Tropical and South Africa (see article "World War II"). The rapid development of energy began, large hydroelectric power stations were built: Owen Falls in Uganda, Kariba on the Zambezi River in Northern and Southern Rhodesia, a system of hydroelectric power stations on the Lualaba and Lufira rivers in the Belgian Congo, etc. Oil and gas fields, iron, copper, manganese and uranium ores, bauxites, phosphates, other types of raw materials. In some countries, primarily in South Africa and Southern Rhodesia, the manufacturing industry developed rapidly. The influx of foreign capital increased, especially from the USA, and later, in the 1960s, from Germany and Japan. At the same time, in South Africa, Southern Rhodesia, Kenya, the Portuguese colonies and in some possessions of other countries, the authorities pursued a self-reliance policy and actively supported local white entrepreneurs and farmers.

The mother countries felt that changes were brewing in Africa, but they were not yet ready to give up control of their African possessions. In England, Portugal, Belgium, large-scale plans for the development of African colonies were adopted, but they took into account the interests of the metropolises themselves, the white communities in Africa, to a much greater extent than the interests of its indigenous population.

Yet change was becoming a reality. The social and class composition of the African population was changing. Only from 1945 to the beginning of the 50s. the number of wage workers in tropical and southern Africa has grown from 4 million to 7.5 million people. The migrations (movements) of temporary workers from deep rural areas to areas of rapidly developing mining and export agricultural production have noticeably expanded and increased. For example, in 1957, out of 325 thousand people employed in the gold and coal mines of South Africa, 217 thousand were temporary workers who came to work from Mozambique, Northern and Southern Rhodesia; in turn, in Southern Rhodesia, out of 610,000 hired workers, more than 50% were from neighboring African countries.

Changes also affected the African village, but here they happened much more slowly. In many countries, in a kind of "zones of stagnation", the village lived, as it were, in a frozen past, the way of life of pre-class and early class societies was preserved. At the same time, the increase and modernization of agricultural production, especially production for export, gradually swayed the multi-million rural masses. In Western and Equatorial Africa, Uganda, Tanganyika, and other countries and regions with a severe tropical climate, where large European settlements did not develop, only the Africans themselves could ensure the increased growth of agricultural production - the need of the time. And this required a radical restructuring of archaic social relations, systems of land ownership and land use, agriculture and cattle breeding. It is no coincidence that in the "non-white" colonies, back in the interwar years, the authorities began to encourage the development of African farms based on private land ownership and land use, the production of export crops in them. The situation gradually changed in the white colonies, where control over the independent economic activity of Africans for a long time was especially tough. In the 50-60s. in them - not without pressure from the gaining strength of African anti-colonial organizations and supporters of a more flexible, liberal African policy in the mother countries themselves - numerous restrictions and bans on the activities of Africans in agriculture and other areas were lifted, and the development of private African land ownership and land use was encouraged. Such measures were supposed to eventually lead to the creation in the African village of a middle class, which, along with the emerging African bourgeoisie, was seen as a future social ally of the metropolises after their withdrawal from Africa became inevitable.

The African bourgeoisie at that time was represented mainly by merchants, owners of small enterprises, medium-sized farms and plantations. But really wealthy people also appeared: in countries such as the Ivory Coast, the Gold Coast, Nigeria, Liberia, in the 50s. there was already a fairly large layer of wealthy African planters.

In many countries, spending on education increased, which was not least due to the growing needs of colonial authorities, foreign companies and local European entrepreneurs in skilled labor (to import it into Africa from other countries of the world, even from Asia, as was done in the XIX century). - the beginning of the 20th century, it became unprofitable), in people capable of performing the work of a petty official, teacher, nurse. Measures to expand education, regardless of their main goals, led to the elimination of almost universal illiteracy and ignorance, accelerating the formation of a national African intelligentsia. Africans began to think independently, their understanding of the world around them changed. From among such petty officials, teachers of primary and secondary schools, etc. many leaders of the struggle for independence came out.

Africa's path to political liberation has not been easy. In many countries, the anti-colonial struggle had to be waged with arms in hand. At the end of the 40s. in Madagascar, in the 50s. powerful anti-colonial uprisings swept across Kenya and Cameroon. In the early 60s. some African organizations in South Africa, in particular, the African National Congress, banned by the authorities in 1960, went over to the armed struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa (see the article "Boers" and the story "Apartheid"). The underground military organization Spear of the Nation was led by Nelson Mandela. Soon he and a number of other leaders of the underground were captured, Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment.

At the same time, large anti-colonial organizations appeared in many countries, using non-violent means and methods of struggle. They were associations of various political parties and groups, ethnic and cultural associations, trade unions and enjoyed mass support from the population. The Democratic Rally of Africa, established in French West and Equatorial Africa, had over 1 million members. Tens and hundreds of thousands of members numbered the National Council of Nigeria and Cameroon, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon, the Union of Africans of Kenya, the National Union of Africans of Tanganyika, the National Congress of Uganda, the African National Congress of Northern Rhodesia, etc. The names of many organizations contained the word "national" (although there were no nations as such yet), which meant that they considered themselves to be the spokesmen for the interests of all national and ethnic groups, the entire population of their countries. Some anti-colonial leaders like Kwame Nkrumah saw the future of Africa in its unity.

The anti-colonial organizations of Africa also had their own internal problems. Various forces participated in the struggle for independence, including feudal and purely ethnic, tribal, which primarily sought power, to establish (or restore) conservative, stagnant and even reactionary orders. Ethnic, regional differences and rivalry affected. So it was in Nigeria, the Belgian Congo, Kenya, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Rwanda, Burundi, Southern Rhodesia and other countries.

Most of the countries of Tropical and South Africa achieved independence in the second half of the 1950s and 1970s. The year of Africa is called 1960, when 17 new independent states appeared on its map at once. But very soon after the noisy festivities on this occasion, it becomes clear that the most difficult is yet to come: the problems that arose in pre-colonial and colonial times remain, new, no less complex problems are just emerging.

The first independent government of the former Belgian Congo (now Zaire), led by Patrice Lumumba, did not last long. He tried to pursue an independent foreign and domestic policy, to limit the arbitrariness of foreign monopolies. There was a military mutiny in the Congo, Lumumba was killed, a civil war broke out, claiming hundreds of thousands of lives. The UN tried to stop the bloodshed. In the Congo, "blue helmets" (UN troops) were introduced, and the famous UN Secretary General Dag Hammarskjöld died there under still unclear circumstances. The "Time of Troubles" in the Congo ended with the establishment of the military dictatorship of General Mobutu, who later became the first president of Zaire.

In independent Nigeria, the aggravation of inter-ethnic, inter-regional and inter-party rivalry against the background of the most difficult economic situation led to a bloody internecine war of 1967-1970. This was followed by frequent changes of civil and military governments, the still ongoing search for the optimal form of state-political structure.

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