Failed States
Geography: Edexcel A Level, topic 11.5.5
Failed States
A failed state is a place where the government has failed and no longer fulfils any of the basic functions of modern society.
Examples of failed states
- There have been many failed states in Africa, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo, Rwanda, Somalia and Sudan.
Causes of failed states
- Many of the failed states in Africa were artificially created during European colonial rule in the 19th century.
- This meant that lots of disparate tribes and ethnicities were thrown into the same country, despite having no apparent shared identity or values, just geographical proximity.
Sudan
- Sudan became an independent state in 1955 but has lacked any internal cohesion.
- It is an ethnically and culturally diverse nation and suffered from a strong sense of internal separatism between its northern and southern regions. It is now split into North and South Sudan.
Sudan solution?
- In 2011, after 2 million lives had been lost to conflict, it divided in half when the new state of South Sudan was formed.
- The remainder of Sudan, in the north, retained its name and the capital city of Khartoum.
- South Sudan has some of the worst health and development indicators in the world, including an under-fives infant mortality rate of 381 per 1000 and less than 1% of girls in primary school.
Test yourself on Failed States
Which of the following are examples of failed states?
Which of these is a contributing factor to the frequency of failed states in Africa?
What is the under 5 infant mortality in South Sudan?
What is the capital city of North Sudan?