Watta Gwan · the closed whitelist
The 51
Every pin on the globe opens a profile: the land before, the colonial record, a timeline of record, what the place gave the record — and the Current Wire, a living module updated as events move. Sources are numbered on every page; follow each claim home.
North America 3
01United StatesThe United States won its independence in the Revolutionary War and founded the first large republic born of a colonial revolt — a nation still working to honor its founding promise of equality.02CanadaCanada united its provinces into a self-governing dominion in 1867 and took full legislative independence in 1931 — nationhood built step by step rather than by war.03MexicoMexico won independence in 1821 after the eleven-year war Hidalgo began with the Grito de Dolores — a revolution carried by Indigenous and mestizo masses.
Central America 7
04GuatemalaGuatemala took independence from Spain in 1821 and has stood as its own republic since 1839.05BelizeBelize became an independent nation in 1981, choosing its own name and future — even with Guatemala’s territorial claim still unresolved.06El SalvadorEl Salvador won independence from Spain in 1821 and has stood alone as a republic since 1838 — the smallest and most densely populated nation on the isthmus.07HondurasHonduras won independence from Spain in 1821 and has been its own republic since 1838, shaped by mining towns and coastal banana enclaves.08NicaraguaNicaragua took independence from Spain in 1821; the liberal–conservative rivalry of León and Granada then defined the nation that followed.09Costa RicaCosta Rica took independence quietly in 1821 and left the federation without war — a peaceful streak that became national character.10PanamaPanama broke from Spain in 1821 within Colombia, then claimed its own nationhood in 1903 — weeks before the canal treaty that defined its century.
Caribbean 14
11CubaCuba ended Spanish rule in 1898 after thirty years of independence wars — and fought on through occupation and the Platt Amendment for a truly free republic.12JamaicaJamaica won independence in 1962, closing three centuries of British rule — and three centuries of Maroon wars, revolts, and organizing that forced the question.13Trinidad & TobagoTrinidad and Tobago won independence in 1962 and became a republic in 1976 — a nation African and Indian labor built into one of the Caribbean’s richest cultures.14BarbadosBarbados won independence in 1966 after 339 years under one flag — and in 2021 completed the journey by becoming a republic.15BahamasThe Bahamas won majority rule in 1967 — now a national holiday — and independence in 1973, governing itself ever since.16GrenadaGrenada won independence in 1974; its 1979 revolution then made it the anglophone Caribbean’s first socialist state, until the U.S. invasion of 1983.17DominicaDominica won independence in 1978 — the last island in the Caribbean to be colonized, and one whose mountains were never fully broken to the plantation.18St. LuciaSaint Lucia changed hands between France and Britain fourteen times — the ‘Helen of the West Indies’ — before finally taking independence in 1979.19St. Vincent & GrenadinesSaint Vincent and the Grenadines won independence in 1979 — homeland of the Garifuna, whose resistance and exile reshaped Central America’s Caribbean coast.20Antigua & BarbudaAntigua and Barbuda won independence in 1981, closing nearly 350 years of sugar and naval rule under Britain.21St. Kitts & NevisSaint Kitts and Nevis won independence in 1983 — today the smallest sovereign state in the Americas.22HaitiHaiti was founded in 1804 by the only successful slave revolution in recorded history — the enslaved of Saint-Domingue defeated France, Britain, and Spain to raise the first Black republic.23Dominican RepublicThe Dominican Republic declared independence in 1844 after twenty-two years of Haitian unification — and restored it by arms in 1865 when Spain tried to return.24Puerto RicoPuerto Rico passed from Spain to the United States in 1898 and has been a commonwealth since 1952 — a nation still writing its political future.
South America 11
25ColombiaColombia declared independence in 1810 and secured it at Boyacá in 1819 under Bolívar — the heart of Gran Colombia until 1830.26VenezuelaVenezuela declared independence in 1811 — the first Spanish-American nation to do so — and fought on until 1823 to keep it.27EcuadorEcuador made Spanish America’s first independence attempt with Quito’s 1809 junta, and won its freedom at Pichincha in 1822.28PeruPeru’s independence was proclaimed by San Martín in 1821, and Spain’s American empire effectively ended on Peruvian soil at Ayacucho in 1824.29BoliviaBolivia won independence in 1825 and took the liberator’s own name — the last republic carved from Spain’s continental empire.30ChileChile won independence at Maipú in 1818 after San Martín and O’Higgins crossed the Andes — and was among the first American nations to abolish slavery, in 1823.31ParaguayParaguay took independence almost bloodlessly in 1811, then chose decades of deliberate isolation under Dr. Francia.32UruguayUruguay declared separation from Brazil with the ‘33 Orientales’ in 1825 and won recognition in 1828 — a small nation between giants that made itself matter.33BrazilBrazil declared independence in 1822 under Portugal’s own prince — an empire until the republic of 1889.34GuyanaGuyana won independence in 1966 and became a republic in 1970 — the first Commonwealth republic with an executive president.35SurinameSuriname won independence from the Netherlands in 1975 — a moment so uncertain that a quarter of the population then emigrated.
Europe 1
Africa 11
37GhanaGhana won independence in 1957 under Nkrumah’s Convention People’s Party — the first sub-Saharan African nation to do so.38NigeriaNigeria won independence in 1960 and became a republic in 1963 — Africa’s most populous nation, home to more than 250 ethnic nations.39KenyaKenya won independence in 1963 after the Mau Mau emergency, with Kenyatta as first president and a republic the next year.40South AfricaSouth Africa’s 1910 union served its white minority alone; the nation’s true freedom arrived in 1994 with Mandela’s election.41EgyptEgypt won nominal independence in 1922 with British troops still stationed; full sovereignty came with the 1952 revolution and the Suez standoff of 1956.42AlgeriaAlgeria won independence in 1962 after eight years of total war — the FLN defeating a France that had insisted Algeria was France itself.43MoroccoMorocco won independence in 1956 from the French and Spanish protectorates, and the exiled Sultan Mohammed V returned to lead it.44TunisiaTunisia won independence in 1956 under Bourguiba and became a republic the following year.45MadagascarMadagascar won independence in 1960, thirteen years after its people rose in the 1947 uprising.46MozambiqueMozambique won independence in 1975 through FRELIMO’s ten-year guerrilla war, sealed by Portugal’s Carnation Revolution.47AngolaAngola won independence in 1975 as Portuguese rule collapsed — then endured a twenty-seven-year civil war woven into the Cold War.
Asia 4
48MalaysiaMalaysia won Merdeka — independence — in 1957 at the negotiating table, and formed the wider federation in 1963.49SingaporeSingapore took self-government in 1959, merged with Malaysia in 1963, and separated into independence in 1965 — then built a city-state the world studies.50IndonesiaIndonesia proclaimed independence under Sukarno in 1945 and defended it for four years until the Dutch transferred sovereignty in 1949.51PhilippinesThe Philippines proclaimed Asia’s first republic in 1898 against Spain — suppressed by U.S. annexation, its full independence came in 1946.