Angolan War of Independence

From 1961 to 1974 Angolan liberation movements fought Portuguese rule, achieving independence in 1975 at the price of a long civil war.

Overview

The forced cotton regime and land seizures had radicalized the peasantry of the north. The 1961 Baixa de Cassanje revolt and attacks on Luanda prisons opened the war. The MPLA under Agostinho Neto, the FNLA, and later UNITA under Jonas Savimbi fought from border sanctuaries with shifting Soviet, Chinese, Cuban, and American patrons. The Portuguese army, conscript-heavy and fighting three African wars at once, bled for a decade until the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon ended the empire. The Alvor agreement collapsed, and independence on 11 November 1975 was proclaimed amid a three-way struggle that drew in Cuban troops and South African forces. Angola became a Cold War frontline for decades.