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Angola ANGOLA UNDER THE SALAZAR REGIME
Angola under the New State
The right-wing Portuguese military coup of May 1926,
which
ended the republican era, led to the installation of a
one-party
regime in Portugal and the establishment of what came to
be known
as the New State. A young professor of economics, António
Salazar,
became minister of finance in 1928, and by 1930 he was one
of the
most prominent members of the government. He held the post
of prime
minister from 1932 until 1968, when he was incapacitated
by a
stroke. During his tenure in office, he left a lasting
impression
on events in Angola.
The most important changes introduced into Angola by
the new
regime were embodied in the Colonial Act of 1930. This act
brought
Angola's economy into line with economic policies that the
new
regime was implementing at home. But Portugal's
application of
strict financial controls over the colony also halted the
drift
toward political autonomy in Angola.
Portugal's policies toward Angola in the 1930s and
1940s were
based on the principle of national integration.
Economically,
socially, and politically, Angola was to become an
integral part of
the Portuguese nation. In line with these policies,
Portugal
renamed African towns, usually after Portuguese heroes.
Still
later, in the early 1950s, Portugal withdrew the currency,
known as
the angolar, and replaced it with the Portuguese
escudo.
Portugal integrated its economy with that of Angola by
erecting
protective trade tariffs and discouraging foreign
investment
capital, except in the construction of the Benguela
Railway and in
the exploitation of diamonds. In this way, Portugal sought
to make
Angola self-supporting and, at the same time, to turn it
into a
market for Portuguese goods. But despite a certain degree
of
success, Angola enjoyed no real prosperity until after
World War
II, when higher coffee prices brought enormous profits to
Angolan
producers. The consequent economic success of the coffee
plantations, owned primarily by newly arrived Portuguese
settlers
attracted by the colony's increasing wealth, continued
until
independence in 1975, when the Portuguese exodus and civil
war
severely disrupted the Angolan economy.
Data as of February 1989
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