The Angolan War of Independence (Portuguese: Guerra de Independência de Angola; 1961–1974), known as the Luta Armada de Libertação Nacional ("Armed Struggle of National Liberation")[35][36] in Angola, began as an uprising against forced cultivation of cotton and evolved into a multi-faction struggle for control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement.[37] The war ended when a peaceful coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.
It was a guerrilla war in which the Portuguese army and security forces waged a counter-insurgency campaign against armed groups mostly dispersed across sparsely populated areas of the vast Angolan countryside.[38] Many atrocities were committed by all forces involved in the conflict.
^Gebril, Mahmoud (1988), Imagery and Ideology in U.S. Policy Toward Libya 1969–1982, p. 70
^ abSelcher, Wayne A. (1976). "Brazilian Relations with Portuguese Africa in the Context of the Elusive "Luso-Brazilian Community"". Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs. 18 (1): 25–58. doi:10.2307/174815. JSTOR174815.
^John Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, vol. I, The Anatomy of an Explosion (1950–1962), vol. II, Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare, Cambridge/Mass. & London: MIT Press, 1969 and 1978, respectively.