Independence

On 1 July 1960, by agreement with the UN Trusteeship Council, Somalia was granted independence, merging with the former British protectorate of Somaliland.

The country's first president, Aden Abdullah Osman Daar, elected in 1960, was defeated in 1967 by the former prime minister Abdi Rashid Ali Shirmarke. Two years later, Shirmarke was assassinated, and just days later a military coup, led by Major General Muhammad Siad Barre, took over the country.

In 1970 Barre declared Somalia a socialist state, and in the following years most of the country's modern economy was nationalised. Things went reasonably well until a drought in 1974-75 caused widespread starvation.