due to unspecified health problems at the age of 25. She never got to see Mozambique as an independent state. But, she is memorialized in Mozambican history: April 7, the date of her death, is Mozambican Woman’s Day. Timeline This table is arranged by the earliest date of independence in this graph; 58 countries have seceded. List of countries that have gained independence from United States Colony of Liberia The Colony of Liberia, later the Commonwealth of Liberia, was a private colony of the American Colonization Society (ACS) beginning in 1822. It became an independent nation—the Republic of Liberia—after declaring independence in 1847. List of countries that have gained independence from Spain Spain List of countries that have gained independence from Portugal Portugal Portugal Empire Ajuda (Whydah, in Benin) Angola Annobón Cabinda Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Ceuta Fort of São João Baptista de Ajudá Gorée (in Senegal) Malindi Mombasa Algarve Ultramar (Morocco) Agadir Alcacer Ceguer Arzila Azamor Mazagan Mogador Safim Nigeria (Lagos area) Mozambique Portuguese Gold Coast (settlements along coast of Ghana) Portuguese Guinea (Guinea-Bissau) Quíloa São Tomé and Príncipe Tangier Zanzibar Ziguinchor Russia Djibouti city of Djibouti Somalia Somaliland French Somaliland Sagallo Belgium Belgium controlled several territories and concessions during the colonial era, principally the Belgian Congo (modern DRC) from 1908 to 1960 and Ruanda-Urundi (modern Rwanda and Burundi) from 1922 to 1962. It also had small concessions in Guatemala (1843–1854) and in China (1902–1931) and was a co-administrator of the Tangier International Zone in Morocco. Roughly 98% of Belgium's overseas territory was just one colony (about 76 times larger than Belgium itself) – known as the Belgian Congo. The colony was founded in 1908 following the transfer of sovereignty from the Congo Free State, which was the personal property of Belgium's king, Leopold II. The violence used by Free State officials against indigenous Congolese and the ruthless system of economic extraction had led to intense diplomatic pressure on Belgium to take official control of the country. Belgian rule in the Congo was based on the "colonial trinity" (trinité coloniale) of state, missionary and private company interests. During the 1940s and 1950s, the Congo experienced extensive urbanization and the administration aimed to make it into a "model colony." As the result of a widespread and increasingly radical pro-independence movement, the Congo achieved independence, as the Republic of Congo-Léopoldville in 1960. Of Belgium's other colonies, the most significant was Ruanda-Urundi,