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Angola The Portuguese Coup d'Etat and the End of the Colonial Era
During the early 1970s, its African wars--including
fierce
nationalist struggles in Mozambique and
Guinea-Bissau--were
draining Portugal's resources. By 1974 the Portuguese had
lost
11,000 military personnel in Africa. On April 25, 1974, a
group of
disillusioned military officers, led by the former
governor and
commander in Guinea-Bissau, General António de Spínola,
overthrew
the Lisbon government.
On July 14, Spínola acceded to the wishes of officers
who
favored independence for the Portuguese territories in
Africa and
promised to take steps toward their freedom. At the end of
July,
Spínola appointed Admiral Rosa Coutinho as head of a
military
council formed to oversee Angola's independence. Also
during this
time, UNITA and the MPLA signed cease-fire agreements with
Portugal; the FNLA initially moved military units into
northern
Angola, but later it too signed a cease-fire. The
liberation
movements set up offices in the major population centers
of the
country, eager to mobilize support and gain political
control.
The approximately 335,000 whites in Angola, who had no
political experience and organization under years of
Portuguese
authoritarian rule, were unable to assert a unilateral
independence. In addition, their security was severely
threatened
as the new Spínola government began releasing political
prisoners
and authorized Angolans to organize, assemble, and speak
freely. In
July 1974, white frustration exploded into violence as
Luandan
whites rioted, pillaged, and massacred African slum
dwellers. The
Portuguese army quickly suppressed the riot, but when the
Portuguese government announced that it intended to form a
provisional Angolan government that would include
representatives
of both the nationalist movements and the white
population, further
rioting by whites erupted in Luanda.
Data as of February 1989
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