-JOYCE ORTEGA -ANA LUCIA PACHECO

For many years, the West African region known as the Gold Coast had been a British colony. The Gold Coast had been ruled by the Portuguese, the Dutch, and then the British. Finally Africans would govern it. It would also leave its European name behind and take one that had belonged to an ancient African kingdom-Ghana.

For Africa, the years after World War II were a time of hope. It was a time of liberation from colonial masters. In 1957, Ghana became the first nation to achieve independence in Sub-Saharan Africa. NEW NATIONS IN AFRICA AND INTERNAL STRUGGLES

The independent nations that emerged in Africa after World War II contained hundreds of ethnic groups. Throughout the 1990s, however, most African countries had some kind of elected government in place. Ethnic Conflict and Dictatorship

All-white governments governed South Africa until 1994, even though the great majority of the population is black. This governments enforced the policy of apartheid, a system of strict racial separation, which required that whites, blacks, Asians, and people of mixed ancestry live in separate areas and have their own governing bodies. Under apartheid, only whites could vote. Apartheid

Beginning in the 1980s, a global health crisis developed with the spread of AIDS, a condition caused by the HIV virus that leads to the gradual collapse of the immune system and is fatal. In several African countries, more than a quarter of the adult population is infected. AIDS Crisis

Africa is rich in natural resources such as oil and diamonds, yet Africa remains the poorest continent in the world. The reasons for this poverty include trade practices that are unfair to Africans and poor farming conditions. Poverty

After the Holocaust, many Jews wished for a land they could call their own. That wish became a reality in 1948 with the founding of the State of Israel in the region formerly called Palestina or Judaea. Many Arabs resented and rejected Israel’s control of this land. Neighboring Arab countries attacked Israel in 1948, but Israel fought off these attacks. When Israel was again attacked by Arab forces 1967, Israel took control of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, and parts of Syria and Egypt. While many Israelis and Arabs want peace, it has been difficult to achieve. ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT

Oil is a source of power for most of the world’s factories, electrical systems, cars, and airplanes. Without oil, industrial economies could not function. But the most advanced countries, the ones that depend on oil, do not contain most of the oil on their land. THE IMPORTANCE of OIL in the MIDDLE EAST and the PERSIAN GULF

In 1960, the Middle Eastern oil powers led the way in forming the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). The United States is the world’s largest user of oil. Japan is the world’s second-biggest consumer of oil. Much of the oil consumed by these nations is imported from the Middle East and the Persian Gulf. This is because the Middle East contains 65 percent of the world’s known reserves of oil. Interest in Middle East’s Oil

The three largest countries with the largest reserves of oil in the world are Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Iran, in that order. Iraq was ruled by the socialist Ba’ath Party from 1968 until after Iraq invaded the oil-rich kingdom of Kuwait in 1990, the United States led an international military coalition to drive Iraq’s troops out of Kuwait. But Iraq’s brutal dictator Saddam Hussein, was left in power. Expanding U.S. Role in the Middle East and Persian Gulf