Mobile ground operations consisted of patrol sweeps by armored car and reconnaissance vehicles. [86] Though a common misconception holds that Portuguese soldiers used captured AK-47 type weapons, this was only true of a few elite units for special missions. Currently between 200,000 and 400,000 tons of coffee are still in warehouses. Concord Monitor, November 10 2007: "Portugal's hidden atrocities; Documentary brings long-hidden brutality into public view", http://www.infopedia.pt/$movimento-das-forcas-armadas-(mfa), Published works of the General Kaúlza de Arriaga, Guerra Colonial: 1961–1974 (guerracolonial.org), Repression of Buddhism in Sri Lanka by the Portuguese (1505 - 1658), Portuguese colonialism in the East Indies, Theory of the Portuguese discovery of Australia, 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine, North Yemen-South Yemen Border conflict of 1972, Struggle against political abuse of psychiatry in the Soviet Union, Sovereignty of Puerto Rico during the Cold War, Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, List of Eastern Bloc agents in the United States, American espionage in the Soviet Union and Russian Federation, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Portuguese_Colonial_War&oldid=998557116, Articles with Portuguese-language sources (pt), Articles containing Portuguese-language text, Articles lacking reliable references from February 2018, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2008, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, 15,507 wounded (physical and/or psychological). Numerous subsidies were offered by the Estado Novo regime to those Portuguese who agreed to settle in Angola or Mozambique, including a special premium for each Portuguese man who agreed to marry an African woman. The Alvor Agreement formally ended the war for independence. [103] While the counterinsurgency war was won in Angola, it was less than satisfactorily contained in Mozambique and dangerously stalemated in Portuguese Guinea from the Portuguese point of view, so the Portuguese Government decided to create sustainability policies in order to allow continuous sources of financing for the war effort in the long run. [40] The Portuguese military was overstretched and there was no political solution or end in sight. The conflict started in Angola in 1961, at a time when colonialism was severely condemned internationally, and ceased in 1974. Colonel) Marcelino da Mata, a Portuguese citizen born of native Guinean parents who rose to command from a first sergeant in a road engineering unit to a commander in the elite all-African Comandos Africanos, where he eventually became one of the most-decorated soldiers in the Portuguese Army. Some are using the hatred against the colonial masters for negative purposes. This situation caused, as would be verified later, a lack of coordination between the three general staffs (Army, Air Force and Navy). [31], For the Portuguese ruling regime, the overseas empire was a matter of national interest, to be preserved at all costs. In 2007, a Radiotelevisao Portuguesa (RTP) documentary by Joaquim Furtado, made public both these government-supported atrocities and the organized massacres and terror campaign policies of some pro-independence guerrilla movements or their supporters; it was watched by over a million people, a tenth of the population at the time.[101]. The Portuguese Army steadily pushed the UPA back across the border into Congo-Kinshasa in a brutal counteroffensive that also displaced some 150,000 Bakongo refugees, taking control of Pedra Verde, the UPA's last base in northern Angola, on 20 September 1961. This resulted in the advancement of certain black Portuguese Africans who would become prominent individuals during the war and its aftermath, including Samora Machel, Mário Pinto de Andrade, Marcelino dos Santos, Eduardo Mondlane, Agostinho Neto, Amílcar Cabral, Jonas Savimbi, Joaquim Chissano, and Graça Machel. By the end of the conflict in 1974, due to the Carnation Revolution (a military coup in Lisbon), the total in the Portuguese Armed Forces had risen to 217,000. In Guinea, rival Europeans grabbed much of the trade (mainly slaves) while local African rulers confined the Portuguese to the coast. However, paid forced labor, including labor contracts with forced relocation of people, continued in many regions of Portuguese Africa until it was finally abolished in 1961. Equipped with standard or collapsible-stock m/961 rifles, grenades, and other gear, they used small boats or patrol craft to infiltrate guerrilla positions. They achieved good progress in their first year of independence. One immediate result of Operation Green Sea was an escalation in the conflict, with countries such as Algeria and Nigeria now offering support to the PAIGC as well as the Soviet Union, which sent warships to the region (known by NATO as the West Africa Patrol) in a show of force calculated to deter future Portuguese amphibious attacks on the territory of the Guinea-Conakry. On 25 April 1974 a military coup organized by left-wing Portuguese military officers, the Armed Forces Movement (MFA), overthrew the Estado Novo regime in what came to be known as the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon, Portugal.[49]. For the moment, the Angolan insurgency had been defeated, but new guerrilla attacks would later break out in other regions of Angola such as Cabinda province, the central plateaus, and eastern and southeastern Angola. The conflict began in Angola on 4 February 4, 1961, in an area called the Zona Sublevada do Norte (ZSN or the Rebel Zone of the North), consisting of the provinces of Zaire, Uíge and Cuanza Norte. The Portuguese arrived in present-day Angola in 1483. Colonel) Marcelino da Mata, a black Portuguese citizen born of Guinean parents who rose from a first sergeant in a road engineering unit to a commander in the Comandos Africanos. [citation needed]. At this time Portuguese forces also adopted unorthodox means of countering the insurgents, including attacks on the political structure of the nationalist movement. In the region of Niassa, FRELIMO's intention was to create a free corridor to Zambezia Province. Unlike other European nations during the 1950s and 1960s, the Portuguese Estado Novo regime did not withdraw from its African colonies, or the overseas provinces (províncias ultramarinas) as those territories had been officially called since 1951. The Destruction of a Nation: United States' Policy Towards Angola Since 1945, George Wright, Pluto Press, 1997. To destroy enemy emplacements, other weapons were employed, including the 37 mm (1.46 in), 60 mm (2.5 in), and 89 mm (3.5 in.) The Portuguese colonial war (1961-1974) consisted of three fighting fronts in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. For example, during the 1961 Ferreira Incident, a UPA patrol captured 21 MPLA insurgents as prisoners, then summarily executed them on 9 October, sparking open confrontation between the two insurgent groups. The scale of this success can be seen in the fact that native Guineans in the 'liberated territories' ceased payment of debts to Portuguese landowners and the payment of taxes to the colonial administration. [28] The emergence of labor protests, attacks by newly organized guerrilla movements, and the Santa Maria hijacking by Henrique Galvão began a path to open warfare in Angola. [62] Within the next few weeks Portuguese military forces pushed the MPLA out of Luanda northeast into the Dembos region, where the MPLA established the "1st Military Region". The former Portuguese territories in Africa became sovereign states, with Agostinho Neto in Angola, Samora Machel in Mozambique, Luís Cabral in Guinea-Bissau, Manuel Pinto da Costa in São Tomé and Príncipe, and Aristides Pereira in Cape Verde as the heads of state. This project seeks to answer the following questions: how has the public memory of this colonial conflict developed in … As the conflict escalated, the Portuguese authorities developed progressively tougher responses, these included the Gordian Knot Operation and the Operation Green Sea. If the insurgents planned to confront the Portuguese openly, one or two heavy machine guns would be sited to sweep the ditch and other likely areas of cover. Photos of Africans killed by the UPA, which included photos of decapitated civilians, men, women and children of both white and black ethnicity, would later be displayed in the UN by Portuguese diplomats. The meanings that the combatants attributed to their war experiences then and now are the book’s analytical focus. The Fuzileiros Especiais were lightly equipped with folding-stock m/961 (G3) rifles, 37mm rocket launchers, and light machine guns such as the Heckler & Koch HK21 to enhance their mobility in the difficult, swampy terrain. [79], The powerful recoil and heavy weight of the 7.62mm NATO cartridge used in Portuguese rifle-caliber arms such as the m/961 limited the amount of ammunition that could be carried as well as accuracy in automatic fire, generally precluding the use of the latter except in emergencies. The impact of mining operations, in addition to causing casualties, undermined the mobility of Portuguese forces, while diverting troops and equipment from security and offensive operations to convoy protection and mine clearance missions. [42] With illiteracy rates approaching 99 per cent and almost no African enrollment in secondary schools,[42] few African candidates could qualify for Portugal's officer candidate programs; most African officers obtained their commission as the result of individual competence and valour on the battlefield. [61] The violence of the uprising received worldwide press attention and engendered sympathy for the Portuguese, while adversely affecting the international reputation of Roberto and the UPA. By 1964, the Forças Armadas Portuguesas (Portuguese Armed Forces) were fighting on three fronts in Africa, commonly known as the “Portuguese colonial war.” 2 The conflict ended in 1974 with the April 25 Portuguese Revolution. After 1964, the OAU recognized PAIGC as the legitimate representatives of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde and in 1965 recognised FRELIMO for Mozambique. Several unique counter-insurgency forces were developed and deployed in the campaign in Angola: In Portuguese Guinea (also referred to as Guinea at that time), the Marxist African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC) started fighting in January 1963. Coelho noted that perceptions of African soldiers varied a good deal among senior Portuguese commanders during the conflict in Angola, Guinea and Mozambique. The communist candidates had, obviously, the same positions. In 1961, the nº8 of the Military Tribune had as its title "Let's end the war of Angola". The Portuguese Air Force responded to the rebellion by bombing twenty villages in the area, allegedly using napalm in an attack that resulted in some 400 indigenous Angolan deaths. 12 (1971): As late as 1971, Kaúlza argued that the Portuguese government should tailor the social and political status progress of black Africans in Angola and Mozambique to the growth of the white settler population, while concluding that "blacks are not highly intelligent, on the contrary, of all peoples of the world they are the least intelligent.". Finally, as in Mozambique, Portuguese Angola was able to receive support of South Africa. After conflict erupted between the UPA and MPLA and Portuguese military forces, U.S. President John F. Kennedy[29] advised António de Oliveira Salazar (via the US consulate in Portugal) that Portugal should abandon Portugal's African colonies. Portugal joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, and was integrated within the various fledgling military commands of NATO.[24]. At the forefront of this work are the lived experiences of a wide range of Portuguese veterans, framed by … The Portuguese Army steadily pushed the UPA back across the border into Congo-Kinshasa in a brutal counteroffensive that also displaced some 150,000 Bakongo refugees, taking control of Pedra Verde, the UPA's last base in northern Angola, on 20 September 1961. [41] Angola is a large territory, and the long distances from safe havens in neighboring countries supporting the rebel forces made it difficult for the latter to escape detection. Some 9×19mm submachine guns, including the m/942, the Portuguese m/948, and the West-German manufactured version of the Israeli Uzi (known in Portuguese service as the Pistola-Metralhadora m/61) were also used, mainly by officers, NCOs, horse-mounted cavalry, reserve and paramilitary units, and security forces. The insurgents attacked farms, government outposts, and trading centers, killing everyone they encountered, including women, children and newborns. By most accounts, Portugal's counterinsurgency campaign in Angola was the most successful of all its campaigns in the Colonial War. [57], On February 4, 1961, using arms largely captured from Portuguese soldiers and police[58] 250 MPLA guerrillas attacked the São Paulo fortress prison and police headquarters in Luanda in an attempt to free what it termed 'political prisoners'. The BR, on its side, began armed actions on 7 November 1971, with the sabotage of the NATO base at Pinhal de Armeiro, the last action being carried out 9 April 1974, against the Niassa ship which was preparing to leave Lisboa with troops to be deployed in Portuguese Guinea. The Portuguese Colonial War (Portuguese: Guerra Colonial Portuguesa), also known in Portugal as the Overseas War (Guerra do Ultramar) or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation (Guerra de Libertação), was a thirteen year long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. [81] Artillery and mobile howitzers were used in a few operations. However, the monument is intended to specifically address the losses suffered in the Portuguese Colonial War, known in Portugal as the Overseas War. Statistically, Portuguese Africa's white Portuguese population were indeed wealthier and more educated than the indigenous majority. In general, the PAIGC in Guinea was the best armed, trained and led of all the guerrilla movements. The Portuguese finally entered into direct relations with the Mwenemutapa in the 1560s. These rulers then sent enslaved Africans to the Portuguese ports, or to forts in Africa from where they were exported. In this region, unlike Guinea, the trade remained largely in Portuguese hands. Cotonang, a company owned by Portuguese, British and German investors, used native Africans to produce an annual cotton crop for export abroad. The uprising, later to become known as the Baixa de Cassanje revolt, was led by two previously unknown Angolans, António Mariano and Kulu-Xingu. [9][10][11] This migration is regarded as one of the largest peaceful migrations in the world's history. While the human losses were relatively small, the war as whole had already entered its second decade. Faced with government inflexibility over proposed reforms, some Portuguese junior military officers, many from underprivileged backgrounds and increasingly attracted to the Marxist philosophy of their African insurgent opponents,[49] began to move the MFA to the political left. The aircraft replaced the Portuguese F-86 Sabre. The authors were linked to the Patriotic Action Councils (Juntas de Acção Patriótica – JAP), supporters of Humberto Delgado, and responsible for the attack on the barracks of Beja. Strategy also played a role, as a successful hearts and minds campaign led by General Francisco da Costa Gomes helped blunt the influence of the various revolutionary movements. Pri… Political, legislative, administrative, commercial and other institutional relations between the colonies and Portugal-based individuals and organizations were numerous, though migration to, from, and between Portugal and its overseas departments was limited in size, due principally to the long distance and low annual income of the average Portuguese as well that of the indigenous overseas populations. [54] During the protests, African workers burned their identification cards and attacked Portuguese traders. [40], General Spínola was dismissed by Dr. Marcelo Caetano, the last prime minister of Portugal under the Estado Novo regime, over the general's publicly announced desire to open negotiations with the PAIGC in Portuguese Guinea. Native African troops, although widely deployed were initially employed in subordinate roles as enlisted troops or noncommissioned officers. [19] However, the Portuguese traders and explorers settled in the coastal strip with greater success, and established strongholds safe from their main rivals in East Africa – the Omani Arabs, including those of Zanzibar. It quickly started moving south in the direction of Meponda and Mandimba, linking to Tete with the aid of Malawi. Most deployments were either on foot or in vehicles (Berliet and Unimog trucks). By the middle of the 1920s the whole of Angola was under control. Unlike the Vietnam War, Portugal's limited national resources did not allow for widespread use of the helicopter. [78] After the Netherlands embargoed further sales of the AR-10, the paratroop battalions were issued a collapsible-stock version of the regular m/961 (G3) rifle, also in 7.62×51mm NATO caliber. Some, like the U.S.-backed UPA[30] wanted national self-determination, while others wanted a new form of government based on Marxist principles. Until April 1970, the military activity of FRELIMO increased steadily, mainly due to the strategic work of Samora Machel in the region of Cabo Delgado. The distance from the major Angolan urban centers to the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo and Zambia were so large that the eastern part of Angola's territory was known by the Portuguese as Terras do Fim do Mundo (the lands of the far side of the world). The end of the war came with the Carnation Revolution military coup of April 1974. "[32], As late as the 1950s the policy of 'colorblind' access and mixing of races did not extend to all of Portugal's African territories, particularly Mozambique, where in tune with other minority white regimes of the day in southern Africa, the territory was segregated along racial lines. [65] In order to maintain the economy in the liberated territories, the PAIGC established its own administrative and governmental bureaucracy at an early stage, which organized agricultural production, educated PAIGC farmworkers on how to protect crops from destruction from aerial attack by the Portuguese Air Force, and opened armazens do povo (people's stores) to supply urgently needed tools and supplies in exchange for agricultural produce.[65]. During the ensuing conflict, atrocities were committed by all forces involved.[6]. The United Nations passed several resolutions condemning cross-border attacks of the Portuguese military against the PAIGC guerrilla bases in both neighboring Guinea-Conakry and Senegal, like the United Nations Security Council Resolution 290, United Nations Security Council Resolution 294 and the United Nations Security Council Resolution 295. By the end of the Portuguese colonial war in 1974, black African participation had become crucial due to declining numbers of recruits available from Portugal itself.[41]. With few exceptions, the new regimes ranked at the bottom of human development and GDP per capita world tables. In 1975, the year of maximum revolutionary turmoil, Portugal's per capita GDP declined to 52 percent of the EC-12 average. The Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 came as a shock to the United States and other Western powers, as most analysts and the Nixon administration had concluded that Portuguese military success on the battlefield would resolve any political divisions within Portugal concerning the conduct of the war in Portuguese Africa, providing the conditions for US investment there. The museum is run by the League of Combatants and tells the story of Portuguese military personnel serving in the Overseas War (known in Portuguese as the Guerra do Ultramar and sometimes, in English, as the Portuguese Colonial War) fought from 1961 to 1975 in Angola, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambique. By this time, the size of the guerrilla movement had substantially increased; this, along with the low numbers of Portuguese troops and colonists, allowed a steady increase in FRELIMO's strength. The major actions were the attack on the Tancos air base that destroyed several helicopters on March 8, 1971, and the attack on the NATO headquarters at Oeiras in October of the same year. This strategy culminated in the assassination of Amílcar Cabral in January 1973. The Portuguese had been in Africa a long time before the Portuguese Colonial War started. The Colonial War established a split between the military structure – heavily influenced by the western powers with democratic governments – and the political power of the regime. By this time, the Estado Novo regime ruled both the Portuguese mainland and several centuries-old overseas territories as theoretically co-equal departments. In a relatively short time, the PAIGC had succeeded in reducing Portuguese military and administrative control of the territory to a relatively small area of Guinea. [70] The Operation "Nó Górdio" (Gordian Knot Operation) - conducted in 1970 and commanded by Portuguese Brigadier General Kaúlza de Arriaga - a conventional-style operation to destroy the guerrilla bases in the north of Mozambique, was the major military operation of the Portuguese Colonial War. These sertanejos lived alongside Swahili traders and even obtained employment among Shona kings as interpreters and political advisers. [83][84], Throughout the war period Portugal had to deal with increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions imposed by most of the international community. [67] In a statement in the party newspaper Nô Pintcha (In the Vanguard), a spokesman for the PAIGC revealed that many of the ex-Portuguese indigenous African soldiers that were executed after cessation of hostilities were buried in unmarked collective graves in the woods of Cumerá, Portogole, and Mansabá. 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