Angolan Independence War

Angolan War of Independence
Part of the Portuguese Colonial War, the Decolonization of Africa, and the Cold War
Portuguese troops on patrol in Angola
Date 4 February 1961 – 25 April 1974 (cease fire) (13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks) 11 November 1975 (independence) Location Angola Result MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA political victory Ceasefire after the Carnation Revolution Alvor Agreement and Angolan independence in 1975 Start of the Angolan Civil War
Belligerents
MPLA FNLA UNITA FLEC	Portugal  South Africa
Material support:  Soviet Union  Cuba  China  United States  Israel  Zaire  Algeria  Tunisia  Tanzania	Material support:  United States  Israel
Commanders and leaders
Agostinho Neto Lúcio Lara Holden Roberto Jonas Savimbi	Francisco da Costa Gomes
Strength
90,000	65,000
Casualties and losses
~30,000 Total	2,991 killed (1,526 KIA & 1,465 non-combat related) 4,684 with permanent deficiency (physical or psychological)
30,000–50,000 civilians killed

The Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974) began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and it became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a leftist military coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo regime, and 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 Overseas War, which also included the independence wars of Guinea-Bissau and of Mozambique.

It was a guerrilla war in which the Portuguese armed and security forces waged a counter-insurgency campaign against armed groups mostly dispersed across sparsely populated areas of the vast Angolan countryside. Many atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.

In Angola, after the Portuguese had stopped the war, an armed conflict broke out among the nationalist movements. This 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.

In 1482, the Kingdom of Portugal's caravels, commanded by navigator Diogo Cão, arrived in the Kingdom of Kongo. Other expeditions followed, and close relations were soon established between the two kingdoms. The Portuguese brought firearms, many other technological advances, and a new religion, Christianity. In return, the King of the Congo offered slaves, ivory and minerals.