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Samori Toure was the founder of the Wassoulou Empire, an Islamic state in present-day Guinea that resisted French colonial rule in West Africa from 1882 until Touré's capture in 1898. |
After the fall of the major West African empires, various kingdoms existed in what is now Guinea. Fulani Muslims migrated to Futa Jallon in Central Guinea, and established an Islamic state from 1727 to 1896, with a written constitution and alternate rulers. The Wassoulou or Wassulu Empire was short-lived (1878–1898), l... |
===Colonial era=== |
European traders competed for the cape trade from the 17th century onward and made inroads earlier. Slaves were exported to work elsewhere. The traders used the regional slave practices. |
Guinea's colonial period began with French military penetration into the area in the mid-19th century. French domination was assured by the defeat in 1898 of the armies of Samori Touré, Mansa (or Emperor) of the Ouassoulou state and leader of Malinké descent, which gave France control of what today is Guinea and adjace... |
France negotiated Guinea's present boundaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with the British for Sierra Leone, the Portuguese for their Guinea colony (now Guinea-Bissau), and Liberia. Under the French, the country formed the Territory of Guinea within French West Africa, administered by a governor general r... |
===Independence (1958)=== |
President Ahmed Sékou Touré was supported by Communist states, and in 1961, visited Yugoslavia. |
In 1958, the French Fourth Republic collapsed due to political instability and its failures in dealing with its colonies, especially Indochina and Algeria. The founding of a Fifth Republic was supported by the French people, while French President Charles de Gaulle made it clear on 8 August 1958 that France's colonies ... |
In response to the vote for independence, the French settlers in Guinea were quite dramatic in severing ties with Guinea. ''The Washington Post'' observed how brutal the French were in tearing down all that they thought were their contributions to Guinea: "In reaction, and as a warning to other French-speaking territor... |
===Post-colonial rule (1958–2008)=== |
Subsequently, Guinea quickly aligned itself with the Soviet Union and adopted socialist policies. This alliance was short-lived, however, as Guinea moved towards a Chinese model of socialism. Despite this, the country continued to receive investment from capitalist countries, such as the United States. By 1960, Touré h... |
Throughout the 1960s, the Guinean government nationalised land, removed French-appointed and traditional chiefs from power, and had strained ties with the French government and French companies. Touré's government relied on the Soviet Union and China for infrastructure aid and development, but much of this was used for... |
Monument to commemorate the 1970 military victory over the Portuguese raid. The key objective not accomplished by the Portuguese raid was the capture of Ahmed Sékou Touré. |
On 22 November 1970, Portuguese forces from neighbouring Portuguese Guinea staged Operation Green Sea, a raid on Conakry by several hundred exiled Guinean opposition forces. Among their goals, the Portuguese military wanted to kill or capture Sekou Touré due to his support of the PAIGC, an independence movement and reb... |
In 1977, a declining economy, mass killings, a stifling political atmosphere, and a ban on all private economic transactions led to the Market Women's Revolt, a series of anti-government riots started by women working in Conakry's Madina Market. This prompted Touré to make major reforms. Touré vacillated from supportin... |
Sékou Touré died on 26 March 1984, after a heart operation in the United States, and was replaced by Prime Minister Louis Lansana Beavogui, who was to serve as interim president, pending new elections. The PDG was due to elect a new leader on 3 April 1984. Under the constitution, that person would have been the only ca... |
U.S. President Jimmy Carter welcoming Ahmed Sékou Touré outside the White House, Washington, D.C., 1979 |
Conté immediately denounced the previous regime's record on human rights, releasing two hundred and fifty political prisoners and encouraging approximately two hundred thousand more to return from exile. He also made explicit the turn away from socialism. This did little to alleviate poverty, and the country showed no ... |
In 1992, Conté announced a return to civilian rule, with a presidential poll in 1993, followed by elections to parliament in 1995 (in which his party—the Party of Unity and Progress—won 71 of 114 seats.) Despite his stated commitment to democracy, Conté's grip on power remained tight. In September 2001, the opposition ... |
In 2001, Conté organized and won a referendum to lengthen the presidential term, and in 2003, he began his third term, after elections were boycotted by the opposition. In January 2005, Conté survived a suspected assassination attempt while making a rare public appearance in the capital of Conakry. His opponents claime... |
In 2000, Guinea became embroiled in the instability which had long blighted the rest of West Africa, as rebels crossed the borders with Liberia and Sierra Leone. It seemed for a time that the country was headed for civil war. Conté blamed neighbouring leaders for coveting Guinea's natural resources, though these claims... |
===Recent history=== |
Conté remained in power until his death on 23 December 2008. Several hours following his death, Moussa Dadis Camara seized control in a coup, declaring himself head of a military junta. Protests against the coup became violent, and 157 people were killed when, on 28 September 2009, the junta ordered its soldiers to att... |
On 3 December 2009, an aide shot Camara during a dispute over the rampage in September. Camara went to Morocco for medical care. Vice-President (and defense minister) Sékouba Konaté flew back from Lebanon to run the country, in Camara's absence. After meeting in Ouagadougou on 13 and 14 January 2010, Camara, Konaté and... |
The presidential election was held on 27 June, with a second election held on 7 November, due to allegations of electoral fraud. Voter turnout was high, and the elections went relatively smoothly. Alpha Condé, leader of the opposition party Rally of the Guinean People (RGP), won the election, promising to reform the se... |
In late February 2013, political violence erupted in Guinea after protesters took to the streets to voice their concerns over the transparency of the upcoming May 2013 elections. The demonstrations were fueled by the opposition coalition's decision to step down from the electoral process, in protest at the lack of tran... |
The political violence also led to inter-ethnic clashes between the Fula and Malinke, the base of support for President Condé. The former mainly supported the opposition. |
On 26 March 2013, the opposition party backed out of the negotiations with the government, over the upcoming 12 May election. The opposition said that the government had not respected them, and had not kept any promises they agreed to. |
The 2019–2020 Guinean protests against the rule of Alpha Condé |
On 25 March 2014, the World Health Organization said that Guinea's Ministry of Health had reported an outbreak of Ebola virus disease in Guinea. This initial outbreak had a total of 86 cases, including 59 deaths. By 28 May, there were 281 cases, with 186 deaths. It is believed that the first case was Emile Ouamouno, a ... |
The 2019–2020 Guinean protests were a series of bloody protests and mass civil unrest in Guinea against the rule of Alpha Conde that first broke out on October 14, 2019 against constitutional changes. More than 800 were killed in violent clashes. |
After the 2020 Guinean presidential election, Alpha Condé's election to a third term was challenged by the opposition, who accused him of fraud. Condé claimed a constitutional referendum from March 2020 allowed him to run despite the two-term limit. |
====2021 coup==== |
On 5 September 2021, in an apparent coup d'état, Lieutenant Colonel Mamady Doumbouya seized control of state television and declared that President Alpha Conde’s government had been dissolved and the nation’s borders closed, an announcement that came after hours of heavy gunfire erupted near the presidential palace. By... |
The United Nations, European Union, African Union, and ECOWAS (which suspended Guinea's membership), immediately denounced the coup, and called for President Condé's unconditional release. Similar responses came from various neighboring and Western countries (including the United States), and also from China (which rel... |
==Government and politics== |
Alpha Condé, the former President of Guinea |
Guinea is a republic. The president is directly elected by the people and is the head of state and the head of government. The unicameral National Assembly is the legislative body of the country, and its members are directly elected by the people. The judicial branch is headed by the Supreme Court of Guinea, the highes... |
Guinea is a member of many international organizations, including the African Union, Agency for the French-Speaking Community, African Development Bank, Economic Community of West African States, World Bank, Islamic Development Bank, IMF, and the United Nations. |
===Political culture=== |
Former President Alpha Condé derived support from Guinea's second-largest ethnic group, the Malinke. Guinea's opposition was backed by the Fula ethnic group, who account for around 33.4 percent of the population. |
===Executive branch=== |
The president of Guinea is normally elected by popular vote for a five-year term; the winning candidate must receive a majority of the votes cast to be elected president. The president governs Guinea, assisted by a council of 25 civilian ministers, appointed by him. The government administers the country through eight ... |
===Legislative branch=== |
The National Assembly of Guinea, the country's legislative body, did not meet from 2008 to 2013, when it was dissolved after the military coup in December. Elections have been postponed many times since 2007. In April 2012, President Condé postponed the elections indefinitely, citing the need to ensure that they were "... |
The 2013 Guinean legislative election was held on 24 September 2013. President Alpha Condé's party, the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG), won a plurality of seats in the National Assembly of Guinea, with 53 out of 114 seats. The opposition parties won a total of 53 seats, and opposition leaders denounced the official ... |
===Foreign relations=== |
====Before 2021 coup==== |
=====International organizations===== |
Guinea is a member of the United Nations General Assembly, the African Union, and the West African regional economic and political bloc, ECOWAS. |
=====United States===== |
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