Contextual Determinants of Electoral System Choice - Ã bo Akademi

and Western Sahara belonged to Spain, and Mozambique, Sao Tome & Principe,Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau were under Portuguese rule. In theseventeenth century, the Netherlands became a major colonial power, possessingterritories in coastal Latin America, Africa and South East Asia. Indonesia andSuriname proclaimed independence from the Netherlands in 1949 and 1975respectively.The United Kingdom possessed the largest colonial empire. More than 50 nationshave received their independence either directly from Britain or from League ofNations mandate under British administration. Today, most of these countriesbelong to the Commonwealth of Nations. The British conquest of colonies beganin the early seventeenth century with the colonization of North America and someCaribbean islands. By the end of the nineteenth century, large parts of Africa, theCaribbean, the South Pacific, Middle East and South Asia were under British rule.France became Britain’s main competitor during the dominant era of imperialexpansion, between the 1770s and the 1920s. France possessed colonies mainly inAfrica and South Asia. 26 countries have received independence directly fromFrance. The major part of British and French Africa was decolonized in the 1960s.The French empire in South Asia ended in the 1950s, whereas the Britishterritories in the Caribbean and the South Pacific were granted independencebetween 1962 and 1983.The Philippines achieved independence in 1946 after half a century underAmerican rule. Other sovereign states that have formerly been ruled by the UnitedStates are the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands and Belau.Former Australian territories are Nauru and Papua New Guinea, whereas WesternSamoa declared independence from New Zealand after having been administeredas a trust territory. Belgium’s colonial empire was located in Central Africa,consisting of Belgian Congo, Burundi and Rwanda. These countries becameindependent in 1960 and 1962. Libya received independence in 1951 from Italy.The Somali Republic was founded in 1960 as a merger from British Somaliland,which became independent from Britain, and Italian Somaliland, which becameindependent from the Italian-administered UN trusteeship. Germany and Japan lostall their territories by the end of World War II to the allied powers (Derbyshire andDerbyshire 1989: 765-772).104