Justin Tsai
English II
4/7/15
3a
Nigerian-Biafran Civil War Nigeria hasn’t always been the unified country that it is today, it was once filled with many different types of people along with many different tribes. Due to the many different types of people and tribes, the beliefs of many people conflicted. In 1914 Nigeria was amalgamated into North and South Nigeria. The only thing that was shared was the name for the people country as a whole, but under the surface everything was different between the two sides. Tension rose in the two sides which was not what the amalgamation was supposed to do. The North and the South began to dislike each other’s side and created an unhealthy division, hatred, and rivalry between the two sides. The division led to less cultural, social, and linguistic similarities between the two sides. Later on the two sides came together at a national level to form the Federation of Nigeria but both sides still divided. On July 6th 1967, civil war broke out. The war came about due to the lack of stability and peace in the Federation of Nigeria after Independence in 1960. The war had huge impacts on the geography, history, culture, and demography in Nigeria. The main cause of the civil war can be seen as coup versus the counter coups of 1966, which destroyed politics and the very fragile trust in major ethnic groups. As a last resort to hold the country together, it was divided into twelve states from the original four regions in May of 1967. The former Eastern Region under Lt. Col. Ojukwu was declared independent state of “Biafra". The Federal Government in Lagos thought this as an act of secession and illegal. After many meetings were held to resolve the issue peacefully without success, in order to avoid disintegration of the country, the central government was left with no choice but to forcefully take back the Region. The Federal government expected a quick victory while the Biafrans viewed the war as need to survive and were ready to fight to the death. By August 1967, the war extended to the Mid-West Region by the Biafrans, with the aim to relief pressure on the northern front and to threaten the Federal Capital, Lagos. Each side employed Political, Diplomatic, Psychological and Military strategies to prosecute the war. By the end
