Independence and Civil War
Following the overthrow of the dictatorship in Portugal, in the Revolution of 25 April 1974, immediate prospects opened up for Angola’s independence. The new Portuguese revolutionary government opened negotiations, in the Alvor Agreement, in January 1975, with the three main liberation movements (MPLA, FNLA and UNITA), defining a transition period and the process of establishing the new republic in Angola.[17]
Angola’s independence was not the beginning of peace, but the beginning of a new open war.[17] Long before Independence Day, on 11 November 1975, the three nationalist groups that had fought Portuguese colonialism were already fighting each other for control of the country, and in particular of the capital, Luanda.[17] Each of them was at the time supported by foreign powers, giving the conflict an international dimension.[17]
The Soviet Union and especially Cuba supported the MPLA, which controlled the city of Luanda and the province of Cabinda, and some other regions on the coast, namely Sumbe, Lobito and Benguela.[17] The Cubans were not long in landing in Angola (5 October 1975). The apartheid regime of South Africa supported UNITA and invaded Angola (9 August 1975).[17] Zaire, which supported the FNLA, also invaded the country, in July 1975.[17] The FNLA also had the support of China, Portuguese and British mercenaries, and also of South Africa.[17]
The United States, which at first supported only the FNLA, soon began to help UNITA as well.[17] In this case, the support lasted until 1993. For a long time, its strategy was to divide Angola.[17]
In October 1975, the Cuba–Angola airlift, organized by the Soviets, supplied enormous quantities of weapons and Cuban soldiers to the new Angolan government under MPLA command, a situation that changed the course of the war.[17] The South African and Zairean troops withdrew and the MPLA was able to form a people’s republic.[17]
Brazil quickly established diplomatic relations with the newly installed Republic.[17] It did so even before any country of the communist bloc.[17] No Western or even African country immediately followed its example.[17] The decision to recognize the MPLA troops under the command of Agostinho Neto as legitimate was taken by the then president Ernesto Geisel as early as 6 November,[17] before the official date of Angola’s independence.[17]
By February 1976, the Organization of African Unity had recognized Angola and the new government,[17] and in December of the same year the United Nations recognized the MPLA government as the legitimate representative of Angola, which was followed neither by the USA nor by South Africa.[17]
In the midst of the chaos that Angola had become, about 800,000 Portuguese left the country between 1974 and 1976, which dramatically worsened the economic situation.