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Angolan War of Independence
1961–1974 conflict for independence of colonial Angola from Portugal / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Angolan War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência de Angola; 1961–1974), known as the Armed Struggle of National Liberation (Portuguese: Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional)[33][34] in Angola, was a war of independence fought between the Angolan nationalist forces of the MPLA, UNITA and FNLA, and Portugal. It began as an uprising by Angolans against the Portuguese imposition of forced cultivation of only cotton as a commodity crop. As the resistance spread against colonial authorities, multiple factions developed that struggled for control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola. There were three nationalist movements and also a separatist movement.[35]
Angolan War of Independence | |||||||||
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Part of the Portuguese Colonial War, the Decolonization of Africa and the Cold War | |||||||||
![]() Portuguese troops on patrol in Angola | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Material support: Material support: ![]() RDL |
Material support: | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
32,000[29] | 65,000[citation needed] | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
25,000 killed[30] |
6,000 killed[31] 4,684 with permanent deficiency (physical and/or psychological) | ||||||||
30,000–50,000 civilians killed[32] |
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Angola_Provincias.png/640px-Angola_Provincias.png)
The war ended when a peaceful coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship. The new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.
The conflict is usually approached as a branch or a theater of the wider Portuguese Colonial War. This included the independence wars of Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique.
The Angolans waged a guerrilla war, to which the Portuguese army and security forces conducted a counter-insurgency campaign against armed groups, who were mostly dispersed across sparsely populated areas of the vast Angolan countryside.[36] Many atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.
After the Portuguese withdrew, an armed conflict broke out in Angola among the nationalist movements. The war formally came to an end in January 1975 when the Portuguese government, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) signed the Alvor Agreement. Informally, the civil war resumed by May 1975, including street fighting in Luanda and the surrounding countryside.