Answer: It became the site of many wars during the era because, after World War II, the tension between communist and democratic forms of government strained relations between the Soviet Union and the United States and provided the ideological underpinnings of the Cold War. These tensions almost boiled over into full on conflict several times, especially as nuclear arms proliferation and testing advanced rapidly during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Both nations found it critical to expand their spheres of influence, largely by promoting leadership in the “Third World” that would be sympathetic to their causes. Arguably more important, however, was the ability to have friendly governments that could be used as allies to fight conventional wars or provide bases for the placement of nuclear warheads in the case of nuclear warfare. By using both diplomatic and military power, the United States and the Soviet Union attempted to carve out areas that could be utilized as staging grounds against one another.
They became the site of many proxy wars as result of the Soviet Union and the United States pulling strings in the newly, easily manipulative governments.
The Soviet Union most likely chose Africa because of the natural resources and the governments were new, meaning that they could make it communistic easily. The US hated this idea, so they stopped it by supporting the non-communists. Then, the Soviet Union backed the pro-communists.
