Angola and Mozambique Win Independence From Portugal
- Date
- 1975
- Category
- Exploration & colonisation
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa (Angola)
- Era
- Contemporary
- Significance
In 1975 Portugal relinquished its two largest African colonies, ending nearly five centuries of empire and closing the era of European colonial rule on the continent.
Mozambique became independent on 25 June 1975 under FRELIMO, and Angola followed on 11 November 1975, both after protracted liberation wars accelerated by Portugal's 1974 Carnation Revolution. The abrupt withdrawal left fragile new states without trained administrators, as most Portuguese settlers fled within months. In Angola, rival movements MPLA, FNLA, and UNITA immediately plunged into a civil war that drew in Cuban troops, South African forces, and superpower backing, turning the country into a Cold War proxy battlefield for decades. The decolonisation also emboldened liberation movements across southern Africa and heightened pressure on white-minority regimes in Rhodesia and South Africa. These independences marked the near-completion of Africa's decolonisation and reshaped the region's political map, though the human cost of the ensuing conflicts stretched into the twenty-first century.
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Empires active in 1975
- Soviet Union1922 CE to 1991 CE
- British Empire1583 CE to 1997 CE
- Spanish Empire1492 CE to 1976 CE
- Portuguese Empire1415 CE to 1999 CE
- Dutch Empire1581 CE to 1975 CE
- Yugoslavia1918 CE to 1992 CE
Related exploration & colonisation events
- Russian Conquest of the Central Asian Khanates (Kokand, Bukhara, Khiva)1865 to 1876
- French invasion of Algiers14 June 1830
- Cook's First Voyage Charts New Zealand and Eastern Australia1769-1770
- Jacob Roggeveen reaches Rapa Nui (Easter Island)5 April 1722
- Abel Tasman's Voyage: First European Contact with New Zealand, Tonga and FijiDecember 1642 to February 1643
- The Pilgrims, Plymouth Colony and the Mayflower CompactNovember 1620
Essential reading
- Soweto Uprising Galvanises Anti-Apartheid Struggle1976
- Apollo 11 Moon landing20 July 1969 (mission 16 to 24 July 1969)
- Containerisation begins: SS Ideal X first container voyage26 April 1956
- Castle Bravo Test and the Nuclearisation of the Pacific1 March 1954
Further reading
The wider story
The State of Africa: A History of the Continent Since Independence
Gripping account of Africa's nations from independence to the present.
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