Why were the sides in the Nigerian Civil War so weird? (Short Animated Documentary)

the cold war was filled with civil wars and revolutions and normally those civil wars would see the u.s led west on one side with the communist world on the other but when the nigerian civil war kicked off in 1967 and saw this region break away as the republic of biafra the sides were much less clear the nigerian government was backed by the uk the usa sort of the ussr and israel whereas biafra was backed by the people's republic of china france and also israel and given that both sides were such a confusing mess this raises an obvious question what on earth happened why did the nigerian civil war have such weird sides so like many conflicts in africa during the cold war the roots of the nigerian civil war can be traced back to the end of colonial rule there nigeria gained its independence from britain in 1963 and it was a very diverse country made up of many different peoples whom britain clumped together because it made the map look nicer in the north the largest region in the country the house of fulani people were dominant and they were the ones who made up the majority of nigeria's military and were predominantly muslim the yaruba were the largest group in the southwest and they were the wealthiest in their region house nigeria's current capital and the south east was mostly made up of the iguo people whose land was home to much of nigeria's massive oil reserves long story short after britain left the three groups couldn't decide on where the capital would stay how much autonomy everyone would get and who would be allowed into the army in 1966 there was a military coup shortly followed by a counter coup and honestly a lot of people were purged ethnic violence exploded and hundreds of thousands of igbo people fled to the south east and leaders there opted to break away in 1967. the nigerian leadership didn't accept this and so civil war so why were the supporters of each side so varied well the main supporter of the nigerian government was britain who as their former colonial overlord felt passionately about the well-being of the nigerian state and just kidding it was oil british companies controlled about 90 of nigeria's oil production most of which went to britain and if the biafran republic had gained its independence it may have lost said oil as such the british provided lots of guns and lots of money to the lagos government the us government wasn't too keen on all of the murder going on but it wanted to support britain which meant not really getting involved and despite america's empathy for the igbo if biafra seceded it could have potentially led to other movements bringing up across africa and civil wars tended to see communist support rise which meant that biafra would get no help from the usa like its rivals the soviet government also supported nigeria not for any moral reasons but for political and economic ones the nigerian government was looking for some planes which the ussr certainly had to spare and since britain had refused to provide them that meant that there was money to be made it was also hoped that help in the civil war would improve relations with nigeria which was one of the most influential nations on the continent however the soviets had to be smart about their support since if they became too influential in nigeria they knew that the americans would get involved as such they pressured britain to provide more military aid by threatening to do it themselves if they refused this was a bluff since they didn't actually want to do this but it allowed britain to believe that they were fighting communism in africa when in fact their continued support was keeping the united states uninvolved by making it look like the soviets were failing to win influence in nigeria as for biafra they had three main material supporters france china and israel france supported the igbo mostly because of their deep concern for their well-being and oh wait no it was also oil france much like britain had oil companies in the region and if biafra managed to break away france could have got some of it nigerian victory also worried the french government who saw nigeria as being too large and populous there were concerns that a successful nigeria could influence france's former colonies around it and diminish its clout in the region as for china they had just had a very public falling out with the soviet union and since the ussr was backing nigeria china had to do the opposite and so funneled arms to biafra it also helped china in trying to establish itself as an independent communist leader with his own reach and influence across the world the last country which was deeply involved was israel israel was in a tough spot since politically siding with the nigerian government would have helped to improve relations with the rest of the continent since up until this point the vast majority of independent african states opposed israel due to the palestine conflict domestically though the israeli people supported the igbo and so israel's government opted to help both in the end the support for biafra did little and in 1970 it was recaptured and formally reintegrated into nigeria and after this the nigerian civil war would not only be remembered for its brutality but also the peculiar sides that the rest of the world took in the conflict i hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with a special thanks to my patrons james bissonette kelly moneymaker corso wolff jordan longley adam stalter jerry lambda marcus arsenaulian hockey words about books podcast rodney martin captain cydog marvin cassel gustav swann spencer lightfoot boogerly wuggley common yoon winston k wood aaron the white matthew shipley alex schwinn max and flaudio maggie patzkowski anthony beckett the mcquapper corey turner coppertone spinning through plates charles the first ben evanson and scottish trekkie

Channel: History Matters

Views: 2,636,262

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Id: rae3AC4kWjU

Length: 4min 38sec (278 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 29 2022