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• 1 2020-08-27T22:55:18-07:00 Ugandan Modern History 13 plain published 2020-05-10T09:23:34-07:00 Before the Ugandan Protectorate came to be in 1894, Uganda, then known as Buganda remained an unorganized melting pot of isolated Central-African tribes. 
  
  In the mid 1880s, the kingdom known as Buganda was divided into four regions and each was assigned to the pagans, Catholics, Protestants and Muslims respectively. Tensions rose as each group fought for total control of the country. As coups and coalitions formed with chief representatives leading rebellions, civil war broke out. The Imperial British East Africa Company intervened to maintain the peace and remained in Uganda until 1893. The British government really didn’t want to get involved in the conflicts within Buganda but they felt that they were the only thing keeping them from total chaos through civil war. When the IBEAC formally ended its involvement in Uganda, the British government declared that Uganda would now come under British protection as the Ugandan Protectorate. 
  
  Under this agreement, Uganda kept a stronghold on self-government and retaining their culture, but lost power over their local economic systems. The British interests in Uganda were only of financial concerns. They established significant levy taxes and taxing on huts and guns, forcing the hand of chiefs to become tax collectors essentially. At the turn of the 19^th century, cotton, Uganda’s main cash crop, sales began to take off. The finishing of the Busoga railway further contributed to the establishment of the cotton industry success. Beginning in the 1920s, Uganda slowly began to get majority of the power into the hands of local people. In 1962, Uganda became fully self-governing and became fully independent in October. 
  
  As an independent Uganda, the first elections were held in March of 1961 and Benedicto Kiwwanuka of the Democratic Party became the first chief minister. Uganda maintained its Commonwealth membership and achieved a republic status. Political maneuvering and corruption soon took over Uganda beginning in February 1966 when Milton Obote, the Prime Minister, suspended the constitution and assumed all government powers, removing the positions of president and vice president. By September 1967, the president obtained even greater powers and abolished the traditional Ugandan kingdoms.
  
  In January of 1971, a military coup forced Obote from power and seized complete control of the country. Amin ruled Uganda as military dictator for eight more years and maintained his rule with violence and mass killings. An estimated 300,000 Ugandans lost their lives during his reign. He essentially ruined the country’s economy by forcibly removing the Indian minority from Uganda. He also headed the so-called “Africanization” of Uganda and forced Asian Indians to leave Uganda. Amin’s rule ended after the Uganda-Tanzania War in 1979, when Tanzanian forces aided Ugandan exiles in invading Uganda forcing Amin to flee. Obote returned to power but was deposed again in 1985 when Yoweri Museveni’s National Resistance Army pushed to end this insurgency. General Tito Okello. Okello declared Uganda a military government. After unsuccessful negotiations with the NRA, Museveni and his forces seized power and forced Okello and his troops to flee into Sudan. Museveni and his army organized a new government with him as president. Since gaining power, Museveni has effectively ended human rights abuses, initiated substantial political liberalization, and issued more broad economic reforms. The country still struggles with minor resistance groups and internal conflict but has steadily improved since Museveni assumed power in 1986.