Angolan War of Independence
| 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 | |||||||||
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MPLA FNLA UNITA FLEC | Portugal | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Agostinho Neto Lúcio Lara Holden Roberto Jonas Savimbi Luís Ranque Franque |
António de O. Salazar Francisco Gomes Marcelo Caetano | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
| 27,000 | 79,000 | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
| 10,000–25,000 killed |
1,071–2,671 killed 11,067 wounded | ||||||||
| 30,000–50,000 civilians killed | |||||||||
| History of Angola | ||||||||||||||||
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| Post-war Angola | ||||||||||||||||
| See also | ||||||||||||||||
| Years in Angola | ||||||||||||||||
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) in Angola, was a war of independence fought by the Angolan nationalist forces of the MPLA, UNITA, and FNLA against 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.
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. 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.