Angolan War of Independence

The Angolan War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência de Angola; 1961–1974), called in Angola the Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional ("Armed Struggle of National Liberation"),[33][34] began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton, 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.[35] The war ended when a leftist military coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship, and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.

Quick facts: Angolan War of Independence, Date, Location, ... ▼

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 (13 years, 2 months and 3 weeks) Location Portuguese Angola Result Angolan victory[1][2] Military stalemate[3] MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA political victory Carnation Revolution Alvor Agreement and Angolan independence in 1975 Start of the Angolan Civil War[4] Territorial changes Independence of Angola
Belligerents
MPLA Material support:  Soviet Union[5]  Cuba[6][7]  East Germany[8]  North Korea  Romania[9][10][11]  Bulgaria[12]  Czechoslovakia  Yugoslavia[13]  Congo  Algeria[14]  Tanzania[15]  Libya[16] Diplomatic support: Brazil[17]  Mexico[18] FNLA UNITA Material support:  China[19][20][21]  North Korea  Romania[9][10][11]  Zaire[22]  United States[23]  Bulgaria[12]  Morocco[24]  Tunisia[25]  Zambia[26][27] FLEC RDL	Portugal Material support:  South Africa[28][29]  Rhodesia
Commanders and leaders
Agostinho Neto Lúcio Lara Holden Roberto Jonas Savimbi	António de Oliveira Salazar Francisco da Costa Gomes Marcello Caetano
Strength
32,000[30]	65,000
Casualties and losses
~10,000 killed[31]	2,991 killed[32] 4,684 with permanent deficiency (physical and/or psychological)

Part of a series on the
History of Angola
Precolonial history to 1575 Colonization 1575–1641 Dutch occupation 1641–1648 Colonial history 1648–1951 Portuguese province 1951–1961 War of Independence 1961–1974 Sovereign socialist state 1975–1992 Civil War 1975–2002
Post-war Angola’s
2000s 2010s 2020s
See also
Years in Angola
v t e

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 army and security forces waged a counter-insurgency campaign against armed groups mostly dispersed across sparsely populated areas of the vast Angolan countryside.[36] Many atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.

In Angola, after the Portuguese withdrew, 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. Informally, this civil war resumed by May 1975, including street fighting in Luanda and the surrounding countryside.