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The Portuguese Armed Forces in Angola included land, naval and air forces, which came under the joint command of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Angola.
- 4 February 1961 – 25 April 1974, (13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks)
- Portuguese Angola
- Independence of Angola
Several unique counter-insurgency forces were developed and deployed in the campaign in Angola: Batalhões de Caçadores Pára-quedistas (Paratrooper Hunter Battalions): employed throughout the conflicts in Africa, were the first forces to arrive in Angola when the war began.
- 4 February 1961 – 25 April 1974, (13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks)
- Portuguese overseas territories in Africa become independent.
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- Armed Conflict
- Armament and Support
- Opposition
- Aftermath
- Economic Consequences of The War
- Legacy
- References
The conflict began in Angola on 4 February 4, 1961, in an area called the Zona Sublevada do Norte (ZSN or the Rebel Zone of the North), consisting of the provinces of Zaire, Uíge and Cuanza Norte. The U.S.-backed UPA wanted national self-determination, while for the Portuguese, who had settled in Africa and ruled considerable territory since the fi...
Portugal
When conflict erupted in 1961, Portuguese forces were badly equipped to cope with the demands of a counter-insurgency conflict. It was standard procedure, up to that point, to send the oldest and most obsolete material to the colonies. Thus, initial military operations were conducted using World War II radios, the old m/937 7,92 mm Mauser rifle, and the equally elderly German m/938 7,92mm (MG-13) Dreyse and Italian 8 mm x 59RB m/938 (Breda M37) machine guns. Much of Portugal's older small arm...
Guerrilla movements
The armament of the nationalist groups came mainly from the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and (especially in Mozambique) China. However, they also used small arms of U.S. manufacture (such as the .45 M1 Thompson submachine gun), along with British, French, and German weapons derived from neighboring countries sympathetic to the rebellion. Later in the war, most guerrillas would use roughly the same Soviet-origin infantry rifles: the Mosin-Nagant bolt-action rifle, the SKS carbine, and most im...
The government presented as a general consensus that the colonies were a part of the national unity, closer to overseas provinces than to true colonies. The communists were the first party to oppose the official view, since they saw the Portuguese presence in the colonies as an act against the colonies' right to self determination. During its 5th C...
In early 1974, the Portuguese had secured all cities, towns and villages in Angola and Mozambique, protecting its white, black and mixed race populations from any sort of armed threat. Vila Pery, Portuguese Overseas Province of Mozambique (now Chimoio, Mozambique) was the only heavily populated urban area which suffered a short-lived attack by terr...
The Government budget increased significantly during the war years. The country's expenditure on the armed forces ballooned since the beginning of the war in 1961. The expenses were divided into ordinary and extraordinary ones; the latter were the main factor in the huge increase in the military budget. Since the rise of Marcelo Caetano, after Sala...
The former colonies became worse off after independence. Economic and social recession, corruption, poverty, inequality and failed central planning, eroded the initial impetus of nationalistic fervor. A level of economic development comparable to what had existed under Portuguese rule became the goal of the independent territories. However, under P...
Abbott, Peter, and Manuel Ribeiro Rodrigues. 1998. Modern African Wars 2. Angola and Moçambique 1961-74. Men-at-arms series, 202. London, UK: Osprey. ISBN 9780850458435.Afonso, Aniceto, and Carlos de Matos Gomes. 2000. Guerra Colonial. Lisboa, PT: Notícias Editorial. ISBN 9789724611921.Birmingham, David. 2006. Empire in Africa: Angola and its Neighbors. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press. ISBN 9780896802483.Bruce, Neil F. 1975. Portugal, the Last Empire. New York, NY: Wiley. ISBN 9780470113660.Aug 7, 2015 · In Angola, the three movements, the MPLA, UNITA and the FNLA, capitalized on the Portuguese coup by opening negotiations with the new Portuguese authorities, leading to the Alvor Agreement of January 1975.
The Angolan Civil War (1975-2002): A Brief History. The overthrow of Portugal’s Prime Minister, Marcello Caetano, on 25 April 1974 hailed a watershed moment for the former Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde, São Tomé and Principe and Angola. The Armed Forces Movement (AFM) had overthrown the dictatorship in a ...
Jul 12, 2021 · Portuguese Angola in southwest Africa was the first European colony on that continent. While settlement from 1571 proved problematic in the interior, the Portuguese did obtain a large number of slaves which they shipped to their Atlantic island colonies and to Portuguese Brazil right up to the end of the Atlantic slave trade in the 19th century ...
Following the Portuguese coup, these three revolutionaries met with representatives of the new Portuguese Government in January 1975 and signed the Alvor Agreement that granted Angolan independence and provided for a three-way power-sharing government.
