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Trust Territories were the successors of the remaining League of Nations mandates and came into being when the League of Nations ceased to exist in 1946. All of the trust territories were administered through the UN Trusteeship Council. The one territory not turned over was South West Africa, which South Africa insisted remained under the League of Nations Mandate, and which eventually gained independence in 1990 as Namibia. The main objection was that the trust territory guidelines required that the lands be prepared for independence and majority rule.
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Trust territories (and administering powers)
Former German Schutzgebiete
- Cameroun (France) and Cameroons (United Kingdom): The French portion achieved independence as the Republic of Cameroon in 1960. The somewhat smaller British portion had been administered in two parts (Northern Cameroons and Southern Cameroons). Following a plebiscite, Northern Cameroons became part of Nigeria in May 1961 and Southern Cameroons joined the Republic of Cameroon in October 1961.
- New Guinea (Australia): The north-eastern section of this island had been a League of Nations mandate, the south-eastern section had been Australian before World War I; after World War II, the two were combined into a unified entity for administrative purposes, although the legal distinction between the Territory of Papua and the Territory of New Guinea was maintained. In 1975, the two entities were legally unified and granted independence as Papua New Guinea. The western half of the island, formerly Dutch and now part of Indonesia, was never part of either territory.
- Ruanda-Urundi (Belgium, effectively linked to the Belgian Congo): Separately gained independence in 1962 as Rwanda and Burundi.
- Tanganyika (United Kingdom): Granted independence in 1961. Federated with the former British (originally shortly German) protectorate Zanzibar in 1964 to form Tanzania.
- Togoland (United Kingdom and France): The French portion became independent as Togo in 1960. The much smaller British portion was merged in 1956 with the British colony of the Gold Coast, which was granted independence as Ghana in 1957.
- Western Samoa (New Zealand): Granted independence in 1962, now known simply as Samoa.
Former (German and/or) Japanese colonies
- Nauru (Australia (in effective administrative control), New Zealand and United Kingdom): Granted independence in 1968.
- Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands (United States): Split into the Republic of the Marshall Islands (1979), the Federated States of Micronesia (1979), the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (1978) and the Republic of Palau (1981). With the exception of the Northern Mariana Islands, which is an American commonwealth, these are all Associated States of the United States.
Former Italian possessions
- Libya (Tripolitania and Cyrenaica administered by United Kingdom; Fezzan administered by France since 1946, cfr. Resident) until its independence as the United Libyan Kingdom on 24 December 1951; only on 10 December 1949 a UN Commissioner was appointed for all Libya, Adrian Pelt (Netherlands; arrived in Tripoli 18 January 1950) to supervise the transition to independence as a single monarchy.
- Somalia (Italy): Granted independence and merged with former British Somaliland, in 1960.
- Eritrea was ruled as a United Nations protectorate between 1941 and 1952
- Ethiopia administered by United Kingdom until December 1944 with the signing of the Anglo-Ethiopian Agreement
Sources and references
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