Tuesday, August 12, 2014

Angolan War for Independence (1961–1976)

Angolan War for Independence (1961–1976)


PRINCIPAL COMBATANTS: Portuguese West Africa (Angola)
vs. Portugal

PRINCIPAL THEATER(S): Portuguese West Africa (Angola)

DECLARATION: No formal declaration

MAJOR ISSUES AND OBJECTIVES: Portuguese West Africa
sought independence from Portugal

OUTCOME: Angola became independent from Portugal

APPROXIMATE MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MEN UNDER ARMS:
Portugal, 55,000; Angola, unknown

CASUALTIES: Portugal, 4,000; Angola, 25,000 guerrillas
and 50,000 civilians

TREATIES: No treaty until the Treaty of Bicesse, May 1,
1991

In 1960 the Belgian Congo became independent and
renamed itself Zaire. Inspired by this change, Portuguese
West Africa (Angola) was soon a hotbed of rebellion. In
February 1961 the Movimento Popular Libertação de
Angola (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola,
MPLA), began a revolt against the colonial government of
Portugal. Founded in 1956 with the help of the clandestine
Portuguese Communist Party and led by Dr. Agostino
Neto (1922–79), the MPLA drew support from the Soviet
Union and was based at first in Brazzaville before moving
to Zambia in 1965. From there it staged its raids into eastern
Angola as the revolt spread. Meanwhile, another movement,
founded in 1957 and headed by Holden Roberto
(b. 1923) was leading the revolt in northern Angola. By
1966 it was called the Frente National de Libertação de
Angola (National Front for the Liberation of Angola,
FNLA). It drew its support from the Bakongo and rural
Mbundu, was based in Zaire, and was supported by both
the United States and China. A third movement, the União
Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (National
Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA), led
by Jonas Savimbi (1934–2002), was also established by
1966, although, outside some nominal aid from the Chinese,
it lacked both foreign backing and bases of operation.
Combating the three liberation movements in
Portuguese West Africa as well as those in Mozambique
and Guinea-Bissau required more and more of Portugal’s
resources, and by the late 1960s approximately 50 percent
of the country’s annual budget was consumed by its military
actions in Africa. In Angola, at least, Portugal achieved
some success. The deep divisions among the three liberation
movements led them to fight each other as well as the
Portuguese, who had the upper hand by the early 1970s.
By 1974 all three guerrilla groups had been chased out of
the country.
Then, with public dissatisfaction over the brutal conduct
of the war growing in Portugal, a group of worried
army officers overthrew the national government of Antonio
de Oliveira Salazar (1889–1970) in Lisbon on April
25, 1974, and created a government that was willing to
abandon the fight to retain control of Portuguese West
Africa. A condition of relinquishing the fight, however,
was a plan for orderly governmental succession. The three
liberation organizations formed a coalition on two different
occasions, but neither attempt at reconciliation was
long-lived. When the Portuguese withdrew in November
1975, the pro-Western UNITA and FNLA, supported by
South Africa, were still engaged in a struggle against the
MPLA, which received troops, technical support, and
arms from Cuba and the Soviet Union. Representatives
met in Alvor in March and April of 1975 and briefly
formed a coalition government under the MPLA’s Neto,
before falling out again. By February 1976 the MPLA,
under Dr. Agostinho Neto (1922–79), was in control of
the government and had been recognized by the Organization
of African Unity (OAU) as the legal government of an
independent Angola.

See also ANGOLAN CIVIL WAR; GUINEA-BISSAUAN WAR
OF INDEPENDENCE; MOZAMBICAN CIVIL AND GUERRILLA
WARS; MOZAMBICAN WAR OF INDEPENDENCE.

Further reading: Fernando Andresen Guimaraes, The
Origins of the Angolan Civil War: Foreign Intervention and
Domestic Political Conflict (Basingstoke, U.K.: Macmillan,
1998); Tony Hodges, Angola from Afro-Stalinism to Petro-
Diamond Capitalism (Bloomington: Indiana University
Press, 2001); Elaine Windrich, The Cold War Guerrilla:
Jonas Savimbi, the U.S. Media, and the Angolan War (Westport,
Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992).

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