When did Angola become an independent country?
Angola
After a protracted anti-colonial struggle, independence was achieved in 1975 as the Marxist–Leninist People's Republic of Angola, a one-party state supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba. The civil war between the ruling People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the insurgent anti-communist National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), supported by the United States and apartheid South Africa, lasted until 2002. The sovereign state has since become a relatively stable unitary, presidential constitutional republic.
1970s in Angola
The 1970s in Angola, a time of political and military turbulence, saw the end of Angola's War of Independence (1961–1975) and the outbreak of civil war (1975–2002). Agostinho Neto, the leader of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), declared the independence of the People's Republic of Angola on November 11, 1975, in accordance with the Alvor Accords. UNITA and the FNLA also declared Angolan independence as the Social Democratic Republic of Angola based in Huambo and the Democratic Republic of Angola based in Ambriz. FLEC, armed and backed by the French government, declared the independence of the Republic of Cabinda from Paris. The National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) forged an alliance on November 23, proclaiming their own coalition government based in Huambo with Holden Roberto and Jonas Savimbi as co-presidents and José Ndelé and Johnny Pinnock Eduardo as co-Prime Ministers.
Republic of Cabinda
During the movement for Angolan independence in the 1960s, the situation became more complex. In May 1963 the Organization of African Unity (OAU) ranked Cabinda as the 39th state still to be decolonized and Angola as the 35th.
Cuban intervention in Angola
Until independence, the independence movements' priority lay in fighting the colonial power and they initially had no clear alliances. With the disappearance of Portugal as their common foe, ethnic and ideological rivalries moved to the fore. Fighting between the three already broke out in November 1974, starting in Luanda and quickly spreading across all of Angola. The new leftist Portuguese government showed little interest in interfering but often favored the MPLA. The country soon fell apart into different spheres of influence, the FNLA taking hold of northern Angola and UNITA in the central south. The MPLA mostly held the coastline, the far south-east and, in November 1974 gained control of Cabinda. The disunity of the three main movements postponed the handing over of power. The Alvor Agreement, which the three and Portugal signed on 15 January, proved to be no solid foundation for the procedure. The transitional government the agreement provided for was equally composed of the three big independence movements and Portugal. It was sworn in on 31 January 1975; independence day was set for 11 November 1975, the same day of the ceasefire. FLEC was not part of the deal because it fought for the independence of Cabinda, which the Portuguese had administratively joined as an exclave to Angola.
Angola–Brazil relations
Economic relations between Angola and Portugal had never been as strong as that of Brazil and Angola, and Portuguese influence was minimal in the early 19th century, having been usurped by Brazilian control of the slave trade. The children of Angolan elite were often sent to be educated in Rio de Janeiro as opposed to Lisbon. After Brazilian independence in 1822, there was a desire among some communities in Luanda and Benguela to also declare independence from Portugal and form a confederacy with Brazil. These plans ultimately failed due to diplomatic pressure from Great Britain who did not want to see the creation of a new south Atlantic empire, and stronger political lobbying on part of Angolans who were aligned with Lisbon. In addition, one of the stipulations of Brazil's independence from Portugal was a clause that Brazil would promise not to accept direct control over any Luso-African territories.
Precolonial history of Angola
King Afonso Mvemba Nzinga, son of King Nzinga Nkuwu, established Christianity as the national religion by 1520. In 1595, the Pope declared Kongo to be an episcopal see. The principal church, built in 1548 and dedicated to the Savior (São Salvador), was named as cathedral, whose jurisdiction included both Kongo and the Portuguese colony of Angola.
Portuguese Angola
The history of Portuguese presence on the territory of contemporary Angola lasted from the arrival of the explorer Diogo Cão in 1484 until the decolonization of the territory in November 1975. During these five centuries, several entirely different situations have to be distinguished.
Cuban intervention in Angola
After artillery bombardment on Luanda and Quifangondo through the night and a bombing raid by the South African air force in the early hours the final attack of the FNLA was launched on the morning of 10 November. The attacking force was ambushed and destroyed by the FAPLA-Cuban forces. Cuban forces also bombarded their South African and FNLA enemies with BM-21 Grad rocket launchers which had been put into place only the night before, and were well out of range of the antiquated South African guns. The defeat of the FNLA in the Battle of Quifangondo secured the capital for the MPLA. On the same day the Portuguese handed over power "to the people of Angola" and shortly after midnight Neto proclaimed independence and the formation of the "People's Republic of Angola". Urged by the CIA and other clandestine foreign services, the FNLA and UNITA announced the proclamation of a Democratic People's Republic with the temporary capital at Huambo. Yet, UNITA and FNLA could not agree on a united government and fighting between them already broke out in Huambo on the eve of independence day. On the day of independence the MPLA held little more than the capital and a strip of central Angola inland toward Zaire and the exclave of Cabinda. On 4 December the FAPLA-Cubans launched a counter-offensive against the FNLA. But with Luanda and Cabinda secured and the defeat of the FNLA at Quifangondo they could finally turn more attention to the south.
Portuguese Angola
The exclave of Cabinda was to the north. Portuguese Congo (Cabinda) was established a Portuguese protectorate by the 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco. Sometime during the 1920s, it became incorporated into the larger colony (later the overseas province) of Portuguese Angola. The two colonies had initially been contiguous, but later became geographically separated by a narrow corridor of land, which Portugal ceded to Belgium allowing Belgian Congo access to the Atlantic Ocean. Following the decolonisation of Portuguese Angola with the 1975 Alvor Agreement, the short-lived Republic of Cabinda unilaterally declared its independence. However, Cabinda was soon overpowered and re-annexed by the newly proclaimed People's Republic of Angola and never achieved international recognition.
Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984
Soon after getting independence from Portugal in 1975, civil war was fought among the three leading groups in Angola. Angola's three main guerrilla groups agreed to establish a transitional government in January 1975. Within two months, however, the FNLA, MPLA and UNITA had started fighting each other and the country began splitting into zones controlled by rival armed political groups.
Dorsland Trek
The settlers entered Angola by crossing the Cunene River at Swartbooisdrift. The Portuguese colonial authorities encouraged the Boers to settle on the Huíla Plateau at Humpata where the majority of them remained, while a number of families went further north, settling at different places on the Central Highlands. The various settlements formed one closed community that resisted integration. Also, the settlers' resistance to innovation brought many of them to impoverishment. As a result, in the late 1920s, some began migrating southwards into South-West Africa, while some returned to their original places of origin. They left Angola on ox wagons, taking only what they could load on the wagons. The descendents of the Dorsland trekkers — not fully integrated into Portuguese Angolan society — left Angola in 1975, when the country became independent amid a civil war.
History of Angola
Portuguese policy in Angola was modified by certain reforms introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century The fall of the Portuguese monarchy and a favourable international climate led to reforms in administration, agriculture, and education. In 1951, with the advent of the New State regime ("Estado Novo") extended to the colony, Angola became a province of Portugal (Ultramarine Province), called the "Província Ultramarina de Angola" (Overseas Province of Angola).
Portuguese Angola
In 1575, the settlement of Luanda was established on the coast south of the Kongo Kingdom, and in the 17th century the settlement of Benguela, even farther to the south. From 1580 to the 1820s, well over a million people from present-day Angola were exported as slaves to the so-called New World, mainly to Brazil, but also to North America. According to Oliver and Atmore, "for 200 years, the colony of Angola developed essentially as a gigantic slave-trading enterprise". Kingdom of Portugal sailors, explorers, soldiers and merchants had a long-standing policy of conquest and establishment of military and trading outposts in Africa with the conquest of Muslim-ruled Ceuta in 1415 and the establishment of bases in present-day Morocco and the Gulf of Guinea. The Portuguese had Catholic beliefs and their military expeditions included from the very beginning the conversion of foreign peoples.
Postage stamps and postal history of Angola
The first stamp of independent Angola was a 1.50-escudo value issued on 11 November 1975; it depicted a hand holding a rifle aloft, in front of a star. Initially the stamp program was conservative, with 20-30 stamps per year, but starting in the mid-1990s, large numbers of designs began to come out each year, eventually joined by adhesive labels inscribed "Angola" but not authorized by postal authorities and not valid for postage. Angola is a client of the Inter-Governmental Philatelic Corporation.
Economy of Angola
The Portuguese started to develop townships, trading posts, logging camps and small processing factories. From 1764 onwards, there was a gradual change from a slave-based society to one based on production for domestic consumption and export. Following the independence of Brazil in 1822, the slave trade was formally abolished in 1836. However it did continue locally into the 20th century. In 1844, Angola's ports were opened to foreign shipping.
Lusaka Manifesto
Angola and Mozambique already were in a state of full-scale wars of independence, Angola since 1961 and Mozambique since 1964. The "Manifesto" made no difference to the developments in these countries. After a successful coup d'état in Portugal on 24 April 1974 the Portuguese colonial power collapsed, and Portuguese colonies were allowed to establish majority-rule governments. This development encouraged liberation movements in other white-ruled territories as well. Following the Alvor Agreement in January 1975 Angola became independent in November, ending its war of independence but starting a devastating civil war. Mozambique likewise became independent in 1975 and saw its own civil war from 1977 to 1992.
Republic of Cabinda
The 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco designated Cabinda a Portuguese protectorate known as the Portuguese Congo, which was administratively separate from Portuguese West Africa (Angola). In the 20th century, Portugal decided to integrate Cabinda into Angola, giving it the status of a district of that "overseas province". During the Portuguese Colonial War, FLEC fought for the independence of Cabinda from the Portuguese. Independence was proclaimed on 1 August 1975, and FLEC formed a provisional government led by Henrique N'zita Tiago. was elected president.
Angolan War of Independence
In July fighting again broke out and the MPLA managed to force the FNLA out of Luanda; UNITA voluntarily withdrew from the capital to its stronghold in the south from where it also engaged in the struggle for the country. By August the MPLA had control of 11 of the 15 provincial capitals, including Cabina and Luanda. On 12 August, Portugal began airlifting more than 200,000 white Portuguese Angolans from Luanda to Lisbon, via "Operation Air Bridge". South African forces invaded Angola on 23 October 1975, covertly sending 1,500 to 2,000 troops from Namibia into southern Angola. FNLA-UNITA-South African forces took five provincial capitals, including Novo Redondo and Benguela in three weeks. On 10 November the Portuguese left Angola. Cuban-MPLA forces defeated South African-FNLA forces, maintaining control over Luanda. On 11 November Neto declared the independence of the People's Republic of Angola. The FNLA and UNITA responded by proclaiming their own government based in Huambo. The South African Army retreated and, with the help of Cuban forces, the MPLA retook most of the south in the beginning of 1976.
Nakuru Agreement
The Nakuru Agreement, signed on June 21, 1975, in Nakuru, Kenya, was an attempt to salvage the Alvor Agreement, which granted Angola independence from Portugal and established a transitional government. While the Nakuru Agreement did produce a truce between the three nationalist movements—the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), and National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA)—it was a fragile truce that dissolved on July 9, 1975.
1980 Angolan legislative election
Angola was a colony of Portugal for more than 400 years from the 15th century. The demand for independence in Angola picked up momentum during the early 1950s. The Portuguese régime, refused to accede to the demands for independence, provoking an armed conflict that started in 1961 when freedom fighters attacked both white and black civilians in cross-border operations in northeastern Angola, which was called the Colonial War. The principal protagonists included the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), founded in 1956, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), which appeared in 1961, and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), founded in 1966. After many years of conflict that weakened all of the insurgent parties, Angola gained its independence on 11 November 1975, after the 1974 coup d'état in Lisbon, Portugal, which overthrew the Portuguese régime headed by Marcelo Caetano.
Angolan War of Independence
The former Belgian Congo and northern neighbor of Angola becomes independent in 1960, as the Republic of the Congo (known as "Congo-Léopoldville" and later "Congo-Kinshasa", being renamed "Republic of Zaire" in 1971), with Joseph Kasa-Vubu as president and Patrice Lumumba as prime-minister. Immediately after independence, a number of violent disturbances occur leading to the Congo Crisis. The white population becomes a target, with more than 80 000 Belgians residents being forced to flee from the country. The Katanga secedes under the leadership of Moïse Tshombe. The crisis led to the intervention of United Nations and Belgian military forces. The Congolese internal conflicts would culminate with the ascension to power of Mobutu Sese Seko in 1965.
1940s in Angola
The 1940s in Angola saw the emergence of the first separatist agitation in the province of Cabinda. By the 1950s Angolan Communists actively campaigned against the Salazar government's control over Angola. Cabindans rallied for independence from Portugal in 1946. The Portuguese colonial authorities responded by deporting separatists to Baía dos Tigres where they held and tortured them. Viriato da Cruz and others formed the Movement of Young Intellectuals, an organization that promoted Angolan culture, in 1948. Nationalists sent a letter to the United Nations calling for Angola to be given protectorate status under UN supervision.
Football in Angola
The national football association of Angola is the Federação Angolana de Futebol (FAF). It was founded in 1979, after Angola's independence from Portugal in 1975. The FAF organizes the national football leagues Girabola (1st league) and Gira Angola (2nd league) and is also responsible for the Angolan national team of men and women.
1960s in Angola
The 1960s in Angola were marked by the War of Independence (1961–1975). Portuguese police arrested Agostinho Neto of the MPLA and future President of Angola (1975–1979) in 1960 for the third time. Delegates discussed Cabinda's self-determination in relation to Angola at the 4th Commission of the United Nations on Decolonization in New York in 1962. Cabinda became a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as the 39th colonized country in 1964.
Slavery in Angola
After the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Angola was offered independence from Portugal. After independence in 1975, during the Angolan Civil War (1975-2002), both the largest opposition group, National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), and the government ruled by the MPLA, used child soldiers in the civil war. Children's rights groups have estimated that as many as 11,000 children were involved in the last years of the fighting only. Some children received weapons and arms training and fought in the conflict. Many others acted as porters, cooks, spies and laborers. In 2003, one year after the conflict ended in mainland Angola, some UNITA soldiers who were 18 or older were incorporated into the national army and police. Others were demobilized in a national program and received needed assistance. But child soldiers, many of whom performed the same duties as adults, were denied these benefits.
Economy of Angola
A military-led coup d'état, started on April 25, 1974, in Lisbon, overthrew the Marcelo Caetano government in Portugal, and promised to hand over power to an independent Angolan government. Mobutu Sese Seko, the President of Zaire, met with António de Spínola, the transitional President of Portugal, on September 15, 1974, on Sal island in Cape Verde, crafting a plan to empower Holden Roberto of the National Liberation Front of Angola, Jonas Savimbi of UNITA, and Daniel Chipenda of the MPLA's eastern faction at the expense of MPLA leader Agostinho Neto while retaining the façade of national unity. Mobutu and Spínola wanted to present Chipenda as the MPLA head, Mobutu particularly preferring Chipenda over Neto because Chipenda supported autonomy for Cabinda. The Angolan exclave has immense petroleum reserves estimated at around 300 million tons (~300 kg) which Zaire, and thus the Mobutu government, depended on for economic survival. After independence thousands of white Portuguese left, most of them to Portugal and many travelling overland to South Africa. There was an immediate crisis because the indigenous African population lacked the skills and knowledge needed to run the country and maintain its well-developed infrastructure.
Culture of Angola
One of the first major revolts of the nationalist struggle was instigated by Bakongo in March 1961 in the northwest. The Portuguese crushed the peasant attack, organized by the Bakongo group, the Union of Angolan Peoples (União das Populações de Angola – UPA), on their settlements, farms, and administrative outposts. Subsequently, 400,000 Bakongo fled into Zaire. In 1962 the UPA formed the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola – FNLA), which became one of the three major nationalist groups (the other two being the MPLA and UNITA) involved in the long and bloody war of independence. Most of the FNLA's traditional Bakongo constituency fled into exile in Zaire during the war. Following independence, however, many Bakongo exiles returned to their traditional homesteads in Angola. They had since retained their ethnolinguistic integrity.
Angola–Namibia relations
Following Angolan independence in 1975, SWAPO established a formal alliance with Angola's new ruling party, the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). After being expelled from Zambia between 1976 and 1979, PLAN was permitted by the MPLA to establish its regional headquarters inside Angola. Access to bases inside Angola provided PLAN with opportunities to train its forces in secure sanctuaries and infiltrate insurgents and supplies across Namibia's northern border. The MPLA government also permitted shipments of arms and ammunition destined for PLAN to pass through Angolan ports. South African troops frequently launched search and destroy operations along PLAN's external infiltration routes in Angola; they also sabotaged Angolan port and rail infrastructure being used to transport supplies to PLAN. This resulted in an effective state of war between South Africa and Angola which lasted until both nations, along with Cuba, signed the Tripartite Accord in 1989.
Foreign relations of Nigeria
Similarly, when civil war broke out in Angola after the country gained independence from Portugal in 1975, Nigeria mobilised its diplomatic influence in Africa in support of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). That support helped tip the balance in their favour, which led to OAU recognition of the MPLA over the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola.
Angola
Before independence in 1975, Angola was a breadbasket of southern Africa and a major exporter of bananas, coffee and sisal, but three decades of civil war (1975–2002) destroyed fertile countryside, left it littered with landmines and drove millions into the cities. The country now depends on expensive food imports, mainly from South Africa and Portugal, while more than 90% of farming is done at the family and subsistence level. Thousands of Angolan small-scale farmers are trapped in poverty.
Battle of Quifangondo
The Battle of Quifangondo occurred on 10 November 1975, the day before the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) declared Angola's independence from Portugal. It can be considered the first battle in the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002).
National Liberation Front of Angola
The National Front for the Liberation of Angola (; abbreviated FNLA) is a political party and former militant organisation that fought for Angolan independence from Portugal in the war of independence, under the leadership of Holden Roberto.
Mário Pinto de Andrade
He clashed with his successor, Agostinho Neto, and in 1974 founded within the MPLA a group called "Revolta Activa" (Active Revolt). Angola became independent on November 11, 1975, but Andrade continued to live in exile in Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde and Mozambique. He died in London in 1990.
Angola
The name "Angola" comes from the Portuguese colonial name "Reino de Angola (Kingdom of Angola)", which appeared as early as Dias de Novais's 1571 charter. The toponym was derived by the Portuguese from the title "ngola" held by the kings of Ndongo. Ndongo in the highlands, between the Kwanza and Lukala Rivers, was nominally a possession of the Kingdom of Kongo, but was seeking greater independence in the 16th century.
Alvor Agreement
In July the MPLA violently forced the FNLA out of Luanda and UNITA voluntarily withdrew to its stronghold in the south. There MPLA forces engaged UNITA and UNITA declared war. By August the MPLA had control of 11 of the 15 provincial capitals, including Cabina and Luanda. South Africa intervened on 23 October, sending 1,500 to 2,000 troops from Namibia into southern Angola. FNLA-UNITA-South African forces took five provincial capitals, including Novo Redondo and Benguela in three weeks. On 10 November the Portuguese left Angola. Cuban-MPLA forces defeated South African-FNLA forces, maintaining control over Luanda. On 11 November Neto declared the independence of the People's Republic of Angola. The FNLA and UNITA responded by proclaiming their own government based in Huambo. By mid-November the Huambo government had control over southern Angola and began pushing north.
Benguela
In 1975, after the April 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Portugal, the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola became independent. Due to the civil war in Angola (1975–2002), which lasted more than 20 years after independence from Portugal, the important Benguela railway line closed, with only the short distance of between Benguela and Lobito remaining operational. In the mid-2000s, with a more peaceful environment, restoration of the railway between Benguela and Huambo commenced.
Luanda
By the time of Angolan independence in 1975, Luanda was a modern city. The majority of its population was African, but it was dominated by a strong minority of white Portuguese origin. After the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon on April 25, 1974, with the advent of independence and the start of the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002), most of the white Portuguese Luandans left as refugees, principally for Portugal, with many travelling overland to South Africa. There was an immediate crisis, however, as the local African population lacked the skills and knowledge needed to run the city and maintain its well-developed infrastructure. The large numbers of skilled technicians among the force of Cuban soldiers sent in to support the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) government in the Angolan Civil War were able to make a valuable contribution to restoring and maintaining basic services in the city. In the following years, however, slums called "musseques" — which had existed for decades — began to grow out of proportion and stretched several kilometres beyond Luanda's former city limits as a result of the decades-long civil war, and because of the rise of deep social inequalities due to large-scale migration of civil war refugees from other Angolan regions. For decades, Luanda's facilities were not adequately expanded to handle this huge increase in the city's population. After 2002, with the end of the civil war and high economic growth rates fuelled by the wealth provided by the increasing oil and diamond production, major reconstruction started.
Agostinho Neto
Following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal during April 1974 (which deposed Salazar's successor Marcelo Caetano), three political factions vied for Angolan power. One of the three was the MPLA, to which Neto belonged. On 11 November 1975, Angola achieved full independence from the Portuguese, and Neto became the nation's ruler after the MPLA seized Luanda at the expense of the other anti-colonial movements. He established a one-party state and his government developed close links with the Soviet Union and other nations in the Eastern bloc and other Communist states, particularly Cuba, which aided the MPLA considerably in its war with the FNLA, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and South Africa. However, while Neto made the MPLA declare Marxism-Leninism its official doctrine, his position was to favour a socialist, not a communist model. As a consequence, he violently repressed a movement later called Fractionism which in 1977 attempted a coup d' état inspired by the Organização dos Comunistas de Angola. Tens of thousands of followers (or alleged followers) of Nito Alves were executed in the aftermath of the attempted coup, over a period that lasted up to two years.
1980 Angolan legislative election
Parliamentary elections were held in Angola in 1980. Beginning on 23 August, voters elected electoral colleges, which in turn, elected 229 candidates to the National Assembly. The elections were the first democratic elections conducted in the nation after in got independence from Portugal in 1975. During the period of 1975 to 1980, a civil war was fought between three parties, namely, People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Portuguese Angola
In June 1972, the Portuguese National Assembly approved a new version of its Organic Law on Overseas Territories, in order to grant its African overseas territories a wider political autonomy and to tone down the increasing dissent both internally and abroad. It changed Angola's status from an overseas province to an “autonomous state” with authority over some internal affairs, while Portugal was to retain responsibility for defense and foreign relations. However, the intent was by no means to grant Angolan independence, but was instead to "win the hearts and minds" of the Angolans, convincing them to remain permanently a part of an intercontinental Portugal. Renaming Angola (like Mozambique) in 1972 "Estado" (state) was part of an apparent effort to give the Portuguese Empire a sort of federal structure, conferring some degree of autonomy to the "states". In fact, the structural changes and increase in autonomy were extremely limited. The government of the "State of Angola" was the same as the old provincial government, except for some cosmetic changes to personnel and titles. As in Portugal itself, the government of the "State of Angola" was entirely composed of people aligned with the "Estado Novo" regime's establishment. While these changes were taking place, a few guerrilla nuclei stayed active inside the territory, and continued to campaign outside of Angola against Portuguese rule. The idea of having the independence movements take part in the political structure of the revamped territory's organization was absolutely unthinkable (on both sides).
1980 Angolan legislative election
Following negotiations held in Portugal, itself experiencing severe social and political turmoil and uncertainty due to the April 1974 revolution, Angola's three main guerrilla groups agreed to establish a transitional government in January 1975. Within two months, however, the FNLA, MPLA and UNITA had started fighting each other and the country began splitting into zones controlled by rival armed political groups. The MPLA gained control of the capital Luanda and much of the rest of the country. With the support of the United States, Zaïre and South Africa intervened militarily in favour of the FNLA and UNITA with the intention of taking Luanda before the declaration of independence. In response, Cuba intervened in favor of the MPLA, which became a flash point for the Cold War. With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on 11 November 1975, with Agostinho Neto becoming the first president, though the civil war continued. At this time, most of the half-million Portuguese who lived in Angola – and who had accounted for the majority of the skilled workers in public administration, agriculture, industries and trade – fled the country, leaving its once prosperous and growing economy in a state of bankruptcy.
Portuguese Colonial War
In Angola, the Alvor Agreement was signed on January 15, 1975, granting Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November 1975. The Alvor Agreement formally ended the war for independence. The agreement, while signed by the MPLA, the FNLA, UNITA, and the Portuguese government, was never signed by the Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda or the Eastern Revolt as the other parties had excluded them from the peace negotiations. The coalition government established by the Alvor Agreement soon fell apart as the various nationalist parties each attempted to seize power. Unable to broker a new compromise, in November 1975 Portugal's last African High Commissioner Rosa Coutinho hauled down his nation's flag and departed Angola.
Angola Press News Agency
ANGOP was founded in April 1975 under the name "Agência Nacional Angola Press" (ANAP) and later renamed "Agência Angola Press" when Angola gained independence, by order dated October 30, 1975, promulgated by then president Agostinho Neto and enjoyed autonomy and editorial independence under Presidential Decree No. 9/75 of 15 September 1975.
Colonial history of Angola
Portuguese Congo (Cabinda) was established a Portuguese protectorate by the 1885 Treaty of Simulambuco. Sometime during the 1920s, it became incorporated into the larger colony (later the overseas province) of Portuguese Angola. The two colonies had initially been contiguous, but later became geographically separated by a narrow corridor of land, which Portugal ceded to Belgium allowing Belgian Congo access to the Atlantic Ocean. Following the decolonisation of Portuguese Angola with the 1975 Alvor Agreement, the short-lived Republic of Cabinda unilaterally declared its independence. However, Cabinda was soon overpowered and re-annexed by the newly proclaimed People's Republic of Angola and never achieved international recognition.
Francisca Van Dunem
Van Dunem was born in 1955 in Luanda, then the capital of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola. She went to Lisbon in the early 1970s in order to study law at the University of Lisbon. In April 1974, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime was overthrown by a left-wing military coup and in 1975 Angola become a newly independent communist state - the People's Republic of Angola. In 1977 she was awarded her law degree. Her brother José Van Dunem was murdered in a purge occurred in Agostinho Neto's post-independence Angola that same year.
1950s in Angola
Angola in the 1950s transitioned from colonial to provincial status. Angola had the status of a Portuguese colony from 1655 until the Assembly of the Republic passed a law on June 11, 1951, giving all Portuguese colonies provincial status, effective on October 20, 1951. Separatist political organizations advocating Angolan independence formed in the 1950s despite strong resistance from the Portuguese government, leading to the Angolan War of Independence (1961–1975).
Mining industry of Angola
The Portuguese arrived 1475 at the coast of what today is Angola. Until the 19th century, they practically remained confined to the bridgeheads of Luanda, Benguela and Moçâmedes and their hinterland. They used these vantage points in order to play a pivotal role in the Atlantic slave trade: until 1830 well over a million Angolan people were exported as slaves, mainly to Brazil, but also to the Caribbean and North America. They obtained slaves through raiding, but mostly by buying them from key figures in the African kingdoms east of Luanda. Territorial conquests were hesitantly attempted during the 19th century, but the occupation of what then became Angola was not achieved until the 1920s. Under Portuguese colonial rule in Angola, cities, towns and villages were founded, railroads were opened, ports built, and a Westernized society was being gradually developed. Since the 1920s, Portugal's administration has showed an increasing interest in developing the country’s economy and social infrastructure.
History of Angola
In this struggle, the principal protagonists were the MPLA (Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola), founded in 1956, the FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola), which appeared in 1961, and UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), founded in 1966. After many years of conflict, the nation gained its independence on 11 November 1975, after the 1974 coup d'état in Lisbon, Portugal. Portugal's new leaders began a process of democratic change at home and acceptance of the independence of its former colonies.
Military history of Angola
The MPLA has played a major role in country's struggle during the Angolan War of Independence. After the Independence, MPLA fought a civil war against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) from 1975 to 2002.
Prime Minister of Angola
Along with the rest of the Council of Ministers, the Prime Minister was appointed by the President. The position was originally created when Angola achieved independence from Portugal on 11 November 1975, but was abolished in 1978 when President Agostinho Neto consolidated his power. There was no Prime Minister until 1991, when President José Eduardo dos Santos reinstated the position following a peace agreement with the opposition party. The post was also vacant between 1999 and 2002.
1992 Angolan general election
During the civil war, the MPLA gained control of the capital Luanda and much of the rest of the country. With the support of the United States, Zaire and South Africa intervened militarily in favour of the FNLA and UNITA, with the intention of taking Luanda before the declaration of independence. In response, Cuba intervened in favour of the MPLA, which became a flash point for the Cold War. With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on 11 November 1975, with Agostinho Neto becoming the first president, though the civil war continued. Jose Eduardo dos Santos won the 1980 and 1986 elections and became the first elected President of the country. The civil war continued with UNITA fighting against the MLPA, with both parties receiving international support. There was a ceasefire agreement during 1989, with the leader of UNITA, Jonas Savimbi, but it collapsed soon afterwards. As a part of its peace efforts, the MLPA dropped its theme of Marxism–Leninism and moved to socialism. During May 1991, Dos Sambos and Savimbi signed a multiparty democracy agreement in Lisbon.
Angolan War of Independence
UPA was created at 7 July 1954, as the Union of the Peoples of Northern Angola, by Holden Roberto, a descendant of the old Kongo Royal House, who was born in Northern Angola but who lived since his early childhood in the Belgian Congo, where he came to work for the local colonial authorities. In 1958, the movement adopts a more embracing designation, becoming the Union of the Peoples of Angola (UPA). In 1960, Holden Roberto signed an agreement with the MPLA for the two movements to fight together against the Portuguese forces, but he ended fighting alone. In 1962, UPA merges with the Democratic Party of Angola, becoming the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA), assuming itself as a pro-American and anti-Soviet organization. In the same year, it creates the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (GRAE). UPA and later FNLA was mainly supported by the Bakongo ethnic group which occupied the regions of the old Kingdom of Kongo, including the Northwestern and Northern Angola, as well as parts of the French and Belgian Congos. It had always strong connections with the former Belgian Congo (named "Zaire" from 1971), including due to Holden Roberto being friend and brother in law of Mobutu Sese Seko.
1950s in Angola
Viriato da Cruz and others formed the Movement of Young Intellectuals, an organization that promoted Angolan culture, in 1948. Nationalists sent a letter to the United Nations calling for Angola to be given protectorate status under UN supervision. In 1953 Angolan nationalists founded the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUA), the first political party to advocate Angolan independence from Portugal. Two years later Mário Pinto de Andrade and his brother Joaquim formed the Angolan Communist Party (PCA). In December 1956 PLUA merged with the PCA to form the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). The MPLA, led by da Cruz, Mário Andrade, Ilidio Machado, and Lúcio Lara, derived support from the Ambundu and in Luanda.
Portuguese Angola
In 1972, the Portuguese National Assembly changed Angola's status from an overseas province to an “autonomous state” with authority over some internal affairs; Portugal was to retain responsibility for defense and foreign relations. Elections were held in Angola for a legislative assembly in 1973.
Portuguese Angola
Initially ruling along the coast and engaging in military conflicts with the Kingdom of Kongo, in the 18th century Portugal gradually managed to colonise the interior Highlands. However, full control of the entire territory was not achieved until the beginning of the 20th century, when agreements with other European powers during the Scramble for Africa fixed the colony's interior borders. In 1975, Portuguese Angola became the independent People's Republic of Angola.
Frente Leste
After the Portuguese withdrawal from Angola in 1974-75 due to the events of the Carnation Revolution military coup in Lisbon, the MPLA and UNITA splintered, and the Angolan Civil War began as the movements clashed militarily and ideologically. MPLA leader Agostinho Neto became the first president of newly independent Angola, officially the People's Republic of Angola. Backed by Soviet and Cuban money, weapons and troops, the MPLA defeated the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) militarily and forced them largely into exile. UNITA also was nearly destroyed in November 1975, but it managed to survive and set up a second government in the provincial capital of Huambo. UNITA was hard-pressed but recovered with South African aid and then was strengthened considerably by U.S. support during the 1980s. The MPLA's military presence was strongest in Angolan cities, the coastal region and the strategic oil fields. But UNITA controlled much of the highlands interior, notably the Bié Plateau, and other strategic regions of the country. Over 500,000 Angolans died in the civil war. Millions of refugees were displaced from their lands.
Precolonial history of Angola
The precolonial history of Angola lasted until Portugal annexed the territory as a colony in 1655.
Constitution of Angola
Since its independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola has had three constitutions. The first came into force in 1975 as an "interim" measure; the second was approved in a 1992 referendum, and the third one was instituted in 2010.
Republic of Cabinda
The Alvor Agreement, signed on January 15, 1975, granted Angola independence from Portugal on November 11. The agreement, signed by the MPLA, FNLA, UNITA, and the Portuguese government, was never signed by the FLEC or any representatives of Cabinda. MPLA (mainly Cuban) troops entered Cabinda via Pointe Noire on November 11, 1975 and incorporated Cabinda into Angola proper as "Cabinda Province". The Alvor Agreement states that "Angola constitutes one indivisible unity. In this context, Cabinda is an integral and inalienable part of Angola." At the time, Cabinda was producing nearly all of Angola's oil, which accounted for close to half of the nation's gross national product.
Angolan War of Independence
In 1964, Northern Rhodesia becomes independent as Zambia, under the leadership of Kenneth Kaunda. From then on, Angola becomes almost surrounded by countries with regimes hostile to Portugal, the exception being South West Africa.
Operation Savannah (Angola)
With the help of the Cubans and the Soviet advisor, FAPLA decisively repelled an FNLA-Zairian assault in the Battle of Kifangondo on 8 November. The South African contingent, 52 men commanded by General Ben de Wet Roos, that had provided for the artillery on the northern front, had to be evacuated by ship on 28 November. MPLA-leader Agostinho Neto proclaimed independence and the formation of the People's Republic of Angola on 11 November and became its first President.
History of rail transport in Angola
On 11 November 1975, Angola became independent. By then, the Angolan civil war had already begun. The civil war lasted until 2002, and brought rail traffic in Angola almost to a standstill. As early as 1975, the Benguela Railway was no longer functional. Several lines, such as the Porto Amboim–Gabela line, were later closed down permanently.
Angolan Civil War
Agostinho Neto, the leader of the MPLA, declared the independence of the Portuguese Overseas Province of Angola as the People's Republic of Angola on 11 November 1975. UNITA declared Angolan independence as the Social Democratic Republic of Angola based in Huambo, and the FNLA declared the Democratic Republic of Angola based in Ambriz. FLEC, armed and backed by the French government, declared the independence of the Republic of Cabinda from Paris. The FNLA and UNITA forged an alliance on 23 November, proclaiming their own coalition government based in Huambo with Holden Roberto and Jonas Savimbi as co-Presidents, and José Ndelé and Johnny Pinnock Eduardo as co-Prime Ministers.
Angolan War of Independence
In 1953, Angolan separatists founded the Party of the United Struggle for Africans in Angola (PLUA), the first political party to advocate Angolan independence from Portugal. In 1954, ethnic Bakongo nationalists in the Belgian Congo and Angola formed the Union of Peoples of Northern Angola (UPA), which advocated the independence of the historical Kingdom of Kongo, which included other territories outside the Portuguese overseas province of Angola.
Angolan People's Air Force And Air Defence Force
Angola became independent from Portugal on 11 November 1975. However, the foundations for the establishment of the air force were laid before independence when members of the then Flying Club of Angola ("Aeroclube de Angola") were assembled at Luanda in October 1975. These people and aircraft left behind by the Portuguese Air Force formed the basis for the air transport branch of the force.
Portuguese Angola
In 1951, the Portuguese Colony of Angola became an overseas province of Portugal. In the late 1950s the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) began to organize strategies and action plans to fight Portuguese rule and the remunerated system which affected many of the native African people from the countryside, who were relocated from their homes and made to perform compulsory work, almost always unskilled hard labour, in an environment of economic boom. organised guerrilla warfare began in 1961, the same year that a law was passed to improve the working conditions of the largely unskilled native workforce, which was demanding more rights. In 1961, the Portuguese Government indeed abolished a number of basic legal provisions which discriminated against black people, like the "Estatuto do Indigenato" (Decree-Law 43: 893 of September 6, 1961). However, the conflict, conversely known as the Colonial War or the War of Liberation, erupted in the North of the territory when UPA rebels based in Republic of the Congo massacred both white and black civilians in surprise attacks in the countryside. After visiting the United Nations, Holden Roberto returned to Kinshasa and organised Bakongo militants.
Holden Roberto launched an incursion into Angola on March 15, 1961, leading 4,000 to 5,000 militants. His forces took farms, government outposts, and trading centres, killing everyone they encountered. At least 1,000 whites and an unknown number of blacks were killed. Commenting on the incursion, Roberto said, "this time the slaves did not cower". They massacred everything. The effective military in Angola were composed of approximately 6,500 men: 5,000 black Africans and 1,500 white Europeans sent from Portugal. After these events the Portuguese Government, under the dictatorial "Estado Novo" regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and later Marcelo Caetano, sent thousands of troops from Europe to perform counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations. In 1963 Holden Roberto established the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (Portuguese: "Governo revolucionário de Angola no exílio", GRAE) in Kinshasa in an attempt to claim on the international scene the sole representation of forces fighting Portuguese rule in Angola. The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) also started pro-independence guerrilla operations in 1966. Despite the overall military superiority of the Portuguese Army in the Angolan theatre, the independence guerrilla movements were never fully defeated. However, by 1972, after the "Frente Leste", a successful military campaign in the East of Angola, complemented by a pragmatic hearts and minds policy, the military conflict in Angola was effectively won for the Portuguese.
Colonial history of Angola
During the Portuguese war of independence against the Spanish, the Dutch ruled Luanda from 1640 to 1648 as Fort Aardenburgh. The Portuguese sought to reassert their control over Angola after the Dutch occupation of the 1640s. Angola was a part of Portuguese West Africa from the annexation of several territories in the region as a colony in 1655 until its designation as an overseas province, effective October 20, 1951.
Angola
Although inhabited since the Paleolithic Era, what is now Angola was molded by Portuguese colonisation. It began with, and was for centuries limited to, coastal settlements and trading posts established starting in the 16th century. In the 19th century, European settlers slowly and hesitantly began to establish themselves in the interior. The Portuguese colony that became Angola did not have its present borders until the early 20th century because of resistance by groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda.
List of renamed places in Angola
Prior to independence in 1975, Angola was known as Portuguese Angola, or occasionally Portuguese West Africa. Upon independence, the country was renamed the Republic of Angola.
Angola
This part of the Atlantic slave trade continued until after Brazil's independence in the 1820s.
History of Angola
With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on November 11, 1975, the day the Portuguese left the country. Agostinho Neto became the first president. FNLA and UNITA proclaimed their own short-lived republics (the Democratic Republic of Angola and the Social Democratic Republic of Angola) on November 24, 1975, for the zones they controlled with Holden Roberto and Jonas Savimbi as co-presidents (dissolved after January 30, 1976). By the end of January 1976 the MPLA army (FAPLA) and the Cubans had all but crushed FNLA, Zaireans and UNITA, and the South African forces withdrew.
Angola
Foreign missionaries were very active prior to independence in 1975, although since the beginning of the anti-colonial fight in 1961 the Portuguese colonial authorities expelled a series of Protestant missionaries and closed mission stations based on the belief that the missionaries were inciting pro-independence sentiments. Missionaries have been able to return to the country since the early 1990s, although security conditions due to the civil war have prevented them until 2002 from restoring many of their former inland mission stations.
1980 Angolan legislative election
Portugal's new revolutionary leaders began in 1974 a process of political change at home and accepted independence for its former colonies abroad. In Angola a fight for dominance broke out immediately between the three nationalist movements. The events prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens, creating up to 300 000 destitute Portuguese refugees—the "retornados". The new Portuguese government tried to mediate an understanding between the three competing movements, which was initially agreed by the movements, but later disagreed. After it gained independence in November 1975, Angola experienced a devastating civil war which lasted several decades. It claimed millions of lives and produced many refugees; it didn't end until 2002.
Constitution of Angola
During the civil war, the MPLA gained control of Luanda—the capital—and much of the rest of the country. With the support of the United States, Zaire and South Africa intervened militarily in favour of the FNLA and UNITA, with the intention of taking Luanda before the declaration of independence. In response, Cuba intervened in favour of the MPLA, and the country became a flash point for the Cold War. With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on 11 November 1975, with Agostinho Neto becoming the first president, although the civil war continued.
Independent Social Party of Angola
The Independent Social Party of Angola () is a political party in Angola. The party was founded on July 27, 1993. The party is a member of the coalition New Democracy. The party was previously a member of the coalition Parties of the Civilian Opposition, but pulled out of it and took part in founding New Democracy in December 2006.
Angolan War of Independence
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.
1979 Girabola
1979 Girabola was the annual national Angola football (soccer) tournament, Girabola, held in 1979. It was the first national championship organized after Angola achieved independence in 1975. Due to the Angolan Civil War this was the first (and only) tournament that included teams from all Angolan provinces. By then, there were only sixteen provinces. Later on, the province of Lunda was split in two: Lunda Norte and Lunda Sul and Bengo was also created.
Angola–Mexico relations
Angola gained its independence from Portugal in November 1975. In January 1976, Mexico recognized the independence and established diplomatic relations with Angola. Soon after gaining independence, Angola entered into a civil war which lasted until 2002. Towards the end of the war, in 1997, Angola opened an embassy in Mexico City.
Flag of Angola
The national flag of Angola came into use at when Angola gained independence on November 11, 1975. It is split horizontally into an upper red half and a lower black half with an emblem resting at the center. It features a yellow half gear wheel crossed by a machete and crowned with a star.
United Nations Transition Assistance Group
In 1975, Angola, Namibia's northern neighbour, gained its independence from Portugal and a coalition government took over there. However, the coalition quickly broke down and the Angolan Civil War began. The United States and South Africa supported one group, the National Union for the Total independence of Angola (UNITA), the Soviet Union backed the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), and the People's Republic of China supported the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The MPLA occupied the capital and the economically crucial oil fields with the help of Cuban troops and was soon recognized as the legitimate government by many countries, although UNITA and FNLA united and continued to control large swaths of the country. The MPLA allowed SWAPO to establish bases on Angolan soil from which to launch attacks on the SADF and other targets.
Baixa de Cassanje
The region of Baixa de Cassanje, in the district of Malanje, Portuguese Angola, before independence in 1975, was an important cotton producing area. The January 4, 1961, Baixa de Cassanje revolt is considered a trigger for the Angolan War of Independence (1961-1974), which however was being prepared by several pro-independence guerrillas in neighbouring African countries under support of world powers such as the Soviet Union.
People's Armed Forces of Liberation of Angola
On August 1, 1974 a few months after a military coup d'état had overthrown the Lisbon regime and proclaimed its intention of granting independence to Angola, the MPLA announced the formation of FAPLA, which replaced the EPLA. James writes that in 1974-75, '..after a period of six months, Moscow started to arm Neto's faction exclusively. The Soviet Union supplied the MPLA with $300 million worth of materiel as compared to $54 million over the previous fourteen years. The weapons that went to MPLA included AK-47 assault rifles, 120-mm mortars, 82-mm and 107-mm recoilless rifles, 37-mm and 14.5 mm antiaircraft guns..' and T-34, T-54, and PT-76 tanks. Independence was set for November 11, 1975.
1986 Angolan legislative election
Following negotiations held in Portugal, itself experiencing severe social and political turmoil and uncertainty due to the April 1974 revolution, Angola's three main guerrilla groups agreed to establish a transitional government in January 1975. Within two months, however, the FNLA, MPLA and UNITA had started fighting each other and the country began splitting into zones controlled by rival armed political groups. The MPLA gained control of the capital Luanda and much of the rest of the country. With the support of the United States, Zaïre and South Africa intervened militarily in favour of the FNLA and UNITA with the intention of taking Luanda before the declaration of independence. In response, Cuba intervened in favor of the MPLA, which became a flash point for the Cold War. With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on 11 November 1975, with Agostinho Neto becoming the first president, though the civil war continued. Jose Eduardo dos Santos won the 1980 elections and became the first elected President of the country. The civil war continued with UNITA fighting against the MLPA, with both parties taking international support.
List of airports in Angola
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country in south-central Africa bordered by Namibia on the south, Democratic Republic of the Congo on the north, and Zambia on the east; its west coast is on the Atlantic Ocean. The exclave province of Cabinda has a border with the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Angola is divided into eighteen provinces and 163 municipalities. The country's official language is Portuguese and its capital is Luanda.
Alvor Agreement
The Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975, granted Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November, ending the war for independence while marking the transition to the Angolan Civil War.
Costas Georgiou
In 1975, Portugal recognised the independence of its former colony of Angola, and acknowledged the Soviet-aligned People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) as the "de jure" government. The new government sought and received help in the form of Cuban military advisors, combat troops and material to fight against rival factions, which included the US-backed National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) and the South African-backed National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), which received some US funding but no actual military aid. At the same time, British and American ex-military were recruited by FNLA through Private Military Companies (PMC; also known as PMIs, for "Private Military Industry") in the United Kingdom and United States. Funding was provided by various NATO-member intelligence organisations, including the American CIA and the French SDECE.
Angola–France relations
Agostinho Neto, the leader of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), declared the independence of the People's Republic of Angola on November 11, 1975, in accordance with the Alvor Accords. National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) also declared Angolan independence as the Social Democratic Republic of Angola based in Huambo and the Democratic Republic of Angola based in Ambriz. The Front for the Liberation of the Enclave of Cabinda (FLEC), armed and backed by the French government, declared the independence of the Republic of Cabinda in Paris.
José Eduardo dos Santos
In June 1975, dos Santos became coordinator of the MPLA's Department of Foreign Affairs; he also coordinated the MPLA's Department of Health at this time. Upon Angolan independence in November 1975, the MPLA held power in Luanda, but the new MPLA government faced a civil war with the other political formations, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA). The same year, Dos Santos was appointed as Angola's first Minister of Foreign Affairs upon independence, and in this capacity he played a key role in obtaining diplomatic recognition for the MPLA government in 1975–76. At the MPLA's First Congress in December 1977, Eduardo dos Santos was re-elected to the Central Committee and Politburo. In December 1978, he was moved from the post of First Deputy Prime Minister in the government to that of Minister of Planning.
After the death of Angola's first president, Agostinho Neto, on 10 September 1979, José Eduardo dos Santos was elected president of the MPLA on 20 September 1979, and he took office as President of Angola, and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces on 21 September. He was also elected as President of the People's Assembly on 9 November 1980.
Military history of Angola
The South African Border War was a conflict between the South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), Angola, Cuba and the USSR on one side, and apartheid-South Africa together with UNITA on the other side, in the territory of South-West Africa and southern Angola from 1965 until 1989. South Africa captured the territory of present-day Namibia from Germany during World War 1, and retained it as colonial territory until 1989. SWAPO was attempting to take power in the post-colonial Namibia. The conflict was intertwined with the Angolan Civil War, and was a proxy war of the Cold War between the USSR (supporting Angola and SWAPO) and the USA (who supported UNITA and South Africa). The conflict ended with the collapse of the USSR, with both Angola and South Africa removing their troops, and Namibia becoming an independent state.
List of ambassadors of the United States to Angola
Angola became independent of Portugal in 1975, but the U.S. did not recognize the Government of Angola declared by the MPLA. The U.S. recognized Angola after multiparty elections were held in 1992.
Colonial history of Angola
The colonial history of Angola is usually considered to run from the appearance of the Portuguese under Diogo Cão in 1482 (Congo) or 1484 (Angolan coast) until the independence of Angola in November 1975. Settlement did not begin until Novais's establishment of São Paulo de Loanda (Luanda) in 1575, however, and the Portuguese government only formally incorporated Angola as a colony in 1655 or on May 12, 1886.
Angolan War of Independence
The early period of Portuguese incursion was punctuated by a series of wars, treaties and disputes with local African rulers, particularly Nzinga Mbandi, who resisted Portugal with great determination. The conquest of the territory of contemporary Angola started only in the 19th century and was not concluded before the 1920s.
Movement for the National Independence of Angola
The Movement for the National Independence of Angola (in Portuguese: "Movimento para a Independência Nacional de Angola") was a political party in Angola, formed in 1958. MINA later merged with other parties to form the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA).
National Liberation Front of Angola
The increasing violence would result in the gathering of the FNLA and the other two parties in Mombasa, Kenya, from 3–5 January 1975 by the invitation of President Jomo Kenyatta. The object of the meeting was to unite the parties and find common ground prior to the independence talks in Portugal later that month. Roberto speaking on behalf of all, declared an accord had been reached and that all parties had overcome their differences and had agreed firstly to a just and democratic society without ethnic discrimination; agreeing to a transitional government, armed forces and civil service and lastly to co-operate in the country's decolonisation and defence. The FNLA and the other parties would meet in Portimao, Portugal on 10 January 1975 and resulted in the formation of the Alvor Agreement, signed on 15 January 1975, which would grant Angola independence from Portugal on 11 November ending the war of independence. The plan also called for a coalition government and a united army.
Angola
The slave trade was abolished in Angola in 1836, and in 1854 the colonial government freed all its existing slaves. Four years later, a more progressive administration appointed by Lisbon abolished slavery altogether. However, these decrees remained largely unenforceable, and the Portuguese depended on assistance from the British Royal Navy to enforce their ban on the slave trade. This coincided with a series of renewed military expeditions into the hinterland. By the mid-nineteenth century Portugal had established its dominion as far east as the Congo River and as far south as Mossâmedes. Until the late 1880s, Lisbon entertained proposals to link Angola with its colony in Mozambique but was blocked by British and Belgian opposition. In this period, the Portuguese came up against different forms of armed resistance from various peoples in Angola.
People's Republic of Angola
The regime was established in 1975, after Portuguese Angola, a colony, was granted independence from Portugal through the Alvor Agreement. The situation in Portugal's other former large African colony, the People's Republic of Mozambique, was similar. The newly-founded nation had friendly relations with the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the People's Republic of Mozambique. The country was governed by the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which was responsible for the transition into a Marxist-Leninist one-party state. The group was backed by both Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Angola–Cuba Declaration of 1984
The MPLA gained control of the capital Luanda and much of the rest of the country. With the support of the United States, Zaïre and South Africa intervened militarily in favour of the FNLA and UNITA with the intention of taking Luanda before the declaration of independence. In response, Cuba intervened in favor of the MPLA, which became a flash point for the Cold War. With Cuban support, the MPLA held Luanda and declared independence on 11 November 1975, with Agostinho Neto becoming the first president, though the civil war continued. José Eduardo Dos Santos became the first elected President of Angola from the MPLA-LT and continued to get the support of Cuba.
Angola
The collapse of Portugal's Estado Novo government following the 1974 Carnation Revolution suspended all Portuguese military activity in Africa and the brokering of a ceasefire pending negotiations for Angolan independence. Encouraged by the Organisation of African Unity, Holden Roberto, Jonas Savimbi, and MPLA chairman Agostinho Neto met in Mombasa in early January 1975 and agreed to form a coalition government. This was ratified by the Alvor Agreement later that month, which called for general elections and set the country's independence date for 11 November 1975. All three factions, however, followed up on the ceasefire by taking advantage of the gradual Portuguese withdrawal to seize various strategic positions, acquire more arms, and enlarge their militant forces. The rapid influx of weapons from numerous external sources, especially the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as the escalation of tensions between the nationalist parties, fueled a new outbreak of hostilities. With tacit American and Zairean support the FNLA began massing large numbers of troops in northern Angola in an attempt to gain military superiority. Meanwhile, the MPLA began securing control of Luanda, a traditional Ambundu stronghold. Sporadic violence broke out in Luanda over the next few months after the FNLA attacked MPLA forces in March 1975. The fighting intensified with street clashes in April and May, and UNITA became involved after over two hundred of its members were massacred by an MPLA contingent that June. An upswing in Soviet arms shipments to the MPLA influenced a decision by the Central Intelligence Agency to likewise provide substantial covert aid to the FNLA and UNITA.
National Bank of Angola
When Angola gained its independence in 1975, the government nationalized the banking sector. "Banco de Angola" became "Banco Nacional de Angola" (BNA); "Banco Comercial de Angola" became "Banco Popular de Angola", and is now "Banco de Poupança e Crédito". The BNA continued to function as a central bank, bank of issue and commercial bank. The government also designated it as the only legal holder of foreign currency and delegated to it responsibility for all foreign transactions.
Portuguese Angolans
As the Angolan war of independence began in 1961, triggering off a late colonial development of Angola, there was an influx of Portuguese military personnel, as well as civil servants and other people. As a consequence, the number of Portuguese living in Angola went up to about 350,000. This number would have been higher, had a significant part of the settlers not left for other countries, especially Namibia, Brazil, South Africa and the United States. While most whites then living in Angola sided with Portugal's efforts to suppress the anti-colonial revolt, a minority sympathized with the nationalist movements, and a few even joined them in their fight. The Angolan author Pepetela is among these. When the Salazar regime in Portugal was abolished by a military coup in Portugal, in 1974, and independence was granted to the colonies by the new government, whites overwhelmingly left Angola after independence in 1975. Most of them went to Portugal, where they were called "retornados" and were not always welcomed, while others moved to neighboring Namibia (then a South African territory), South Africa or Brazil, or United States. It is estimated that around 250,000 left the country in 1975 and by 1976 only 30,000 to 40,000 remained in Angola.
Angola–Vietnam relations
Angola–Vietnam relations were established in August 1971, four years before Angola gained its independence, when future President of Angola Agostinho Neto visited Vietnam. Angola and Vietnam have steadfast partners as both transitioned from Cold War-era foreign policies of international communism to pro-Western pragmatism following the fall of the Soviet Union.