1960s
110-732: 1970s 11°55′52″N 14°12′48″W / 11.931102°N 14.213288°W / 11.931102; -14.213288 The Cheche Disaster (Portuguese: Desastre do Cheche ) was an incident during the Portuguese Colonial War in Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau ) in which almost fifty Portuguese soldiers died on 6 February 1969 while crossing the Corubal River . When Brigadier António de Spínola came to Guinea in 1968 as Governor and Commander in Chief, he decided to evacuate
220-651: A political crisis between Portugal and the United States . A failed Portuguese military coup known as the Abrilada , attempted in an effort to overthrow the authoritarian Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar, received covert U.S. support. In response, Salazar moved to consolidate his power, ordering an immediate military response to the violence occurring in Angola. The U.S.'s official stance on Portugal would shift following Richard Nixon 's election as president. Under
330-702: A black football player from Portuguese East Africa named Eusébio , were other examples of efforts towards assimilation and multiracialism in the post-World War II period. According to Mozambican historian João Paulo Borges Coelho , the Portuguese colonial army was largely segregated along terms of race and ethnicity until 1960. There were originally three classes of soldier in Portuguese overseas service: commissioned soldiers (whites), overseas soldiers (African assimilados ), and native or indigenous Africans ( indigenato' ). These categories were renamed to first, second, and third class in 1960, which effectively corresponded to
440-481: A boat with an outboard engine. By the early morning of the 6 February only the rearguard of 100 to 120 men remained on the south shore. These men all piled onto one raft to make the last crossing. In the middle of the river, the raft tipped to one side, throwing several men into the water, then tipped to the other side, throwing more men in. The raft was seriously overloaded, with the weight poorly distributed. The tipping may have triggered by an explosion creating
550-547: A deep border incursion operation into Angola to attack guerrilla-controlled areas of the country following the coup. On 3 January 1961 Angolan peasants in the region of Baixa de Cassanje , Malanje boycotted the Cotonang Company's cotton fields where they worked, demanding better working conditions and higher wages. Cotonang, a company owned by European investors, used native African labor to produce an annual cotton crop for export abroad. The uprising, later to become known as
660-659: A degree comparable to that of the Europeans. Statistically, Portuguese Africa's white Portuguese population were indeed wealthier and more educated than the indigenous majority. After conflict erupted between the UPA and MPLA and Portuguese military forces, U.S. President John F. Kennedy advised António de Oliveira Salazar (via the US consulate in Portugal) that Portugal should abandon its African colonies, and that course of action by Kennedy would lead to
770-704: A diplomatic mission in Bucharest, the first of its kind in Eastern Europe. In 1973, Ceaușescu recognized FRELIMO as "the only legitimate representative of the Mozambican people", an important precedent. Samora Machel stressed that—during his trip to the Soviet Union—he and his delegation were granted "the status that we are entitled to" due to Romania's official recognition of FRELIMO. In terms of material support, Romanian trucks were used to transport weapons and ammunition to
880-447: A good deal among senior Portuguese commanders during the conflict in Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique. General Francisco da Costa Gomes , perhaps the most successful counterinsurgency commander, sought good relations with local civilians, and employed African units within the framework of an organized counterinsurgency plan. General António de Spínola , by contrast, appealed for a more political and psycho-social use of African soldiers. On
990-440: A message to President António de Oliveira Salazar advising Portugal to abandon its African colonies shortly after the outbreak of violence in 1961. Instead, after a coup led by pro-U.S. forces failed to depose him, Salazar consolidated power and immediately sent reinforcements to the overseas territories, setting the stage for continued conflict in Angola. Similar situations played out in other overseas Portuguese territories. By
1100-690: A numerically superior Indian force for over 36 hours, and terminated in Portuguese surrender, ending 451 years of Portuguese rule in Goa . Thirty-one Portuguese and thirty-five Indians were killed in the fighting. Portugal remained steadfastly neutral in World War II, but became involved in counterinsurgency campaigns against scattered guerrilla movements in Portuguese Angola , Portuguese Mozambique , and Portuguese Guinea . Except in Portuguese Guinea, where
1210-464: A panic. However, one survivor says there was no firing, and another pointed out that the troops were accustomed to mortar fire and would not have reacted. Another possibility is that the boat pulling the raft accelerated too fast. Wearing boots and uniform, weighed down with arms and ammunition, many of the men sank immediately. When the raft reached the other bank the extent of the disaster was realised: 47 Portuguese soldiers and five Guinean militia from
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#17328946743421320-680: A period of economic collapse and political instability, but received general support from the public in its aim of ending the Portuguese war effort in Africa. In the ex-colonies, officers suspected of sympathizing with the prior regime, even black officers, such as Captain Marcelino da Mata, were imprisoned and tortured, while African soldiers who had served in native Portuguese Army units were forced to petition for Portuguese citizenship or else face reprisals from their former enemies in Angola, Guinea, or Mozambique. The Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974 came as
1430-558: A policy of assimilation, multiracialism, and civilising mission , or lusotropicalism , as a way of integrating Portuguese colonies, and their peoples, more closely with Portugal itself. For the Portuguese ruling regime, the overseas empire was a matter of national interest , to be preserved at all costs. As far back as 1919, a Portuguese delegate to the International Labour Conference in Geneva declared: "The assimilation of
1540-671: A popular revolt against Junot's government broke out in the summer of 1808 and Portuguese irregulars took up arms against the French. This enabled a British army under Arthur Wellesley to be landed in Portugal where, aided by Portuguese troops, they defeated Junot at the Battle of Vimeiro ; this first French invasion was ended by the Convention of Sintra negotiated by his superiors, which allowed Junot's men to withdraw unmolested with their plunder. Meanwhile,
1650-514: 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. Most concerned was the apartheid government of South Africa , which launched
1760-498: A small minority of each territory's total population. Nevertheless, the costs of continuing the wars in Africa imposed a heavy burden on Portugal's resources; by the 1970s, the country was spending 40 percent of its annual budget on the war effort. 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
1870-537: A strong mixture of religious influence and zealotry. During the Napoleonic Wars , Portugal was, for a time, Britain's only ally on the continent. Throughout the war, Portugal maintained a military of about 200–250 thousand troops worldwide. In 1807, after the Portuguese government's refusal to participate in the Continental System , French troops under General Junot invaded Portugal, taking Lisbon . However,
1980-415: A total of 40,000 reinforcements to Angola and Mozambique during World War I. By this time, the regime in Portugal had been through two major political upheavals—from monarchy to republic in 1910 and then to a military dictatorship after a coup in 1926. These changes resulted in a tightening of Portuguese control in Angola. In the early years of the expanded colony, near-constant warfare was occurring between
2090-578: Is as long as the history of the country , from before the emergence of the independent Portuguese state . Before the emergence of Portugal, between the 9th and the 12th centuries, its territory was part of important military conflicts – these were mainly the result of three processes. The invasions during the Migration Period and the Decline of the Roman Empire , in the beginning of the 5th century, and
2200-504: The Azores with an expeditionary force consisting of 60 vessels, 7500 men including the Count of Vila Flor , Alexandre Herculano , Almeida Garrett , Joaquim António de Aguiar , José Travassos Valdez and a volunteer British contingent under the command of Colonels George Lloyd Hodges and Charles Shaw and effected a Landing at Mindelo on the shores north of Porto . On 9 July Porto was taken by
2310-520: The Baixa de Cassanje revolt , was led by two previously unknown Angolans, António Mariano and Kulu-Xingu. During the protests, African workers burned their identification cards and attacked Portuguese traders. 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. Portuguese military history The military history of Portugal
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#17328946743422420-463: The Carnation Revolution military coup of April 1974 in mainland Portugal . The withdrawal resulted in the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of Portuguese citizens plus military personnel of European, African, and mixed ethnicity from the former Portuguese territories and newly independent African nations. This migration is regarded as one of the largest peaceful, if forced, migrations in
2530-520: The Communist Bloc which had the Soviet Union as its lead nation. By 1973, the war had become increasingly unpopular due to its length and financial costs, the worsening of diplomatic relations with other United Nations members, and the role it had always played as a factor of perpetuation of the entrenched Estado Novo regime and the nondemocratic status quo in Portugal. The end of the war came with
2640-573: The Liberal Revolution of 1820 when they were driven out and the king was forced to return as a constitutional monarch. Over the next 25 years the fledgling Portuguese democracy experienced several military upheavals, especially the Liberal Wars fought between the brothers Dom Pedro , ex-Emperor of Brazil and the absolutist usurper Dom Miguel . To assert the cause of the rightful Queen, his daughter Maria da Glória , Pedro sailed from Terceira in
2750-548: The Overseas War ( Guerra do Ultramar ) or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation ( Guerra de Libertação ), and also known as the Angolan , Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence , was a 13-year-long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese regime at
2860-656: The Portuguese troops in the east of the country, which was thinly populated and of no strategic value. The camp at Madina do Boé was surrounded and was suffering constant attacks by the PAIGC guerillas of Amílcar Cabral . The position was untenable. It was occupied by PAIGC forces the same day that the Portuguese evacuated it. The retreating force included Caçadores ("Hunters") company 1790, commanded by Captain José Aparício, more troops from company 2405 and Guinean militia. Moving
2970-568: 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. During the 1960s, various armed independence movements became active—the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola , National Liberation Front of Angola , National Union for
3080-784: The 1950s, the European mainland Portuguese territory was inhabited by a society that was poorer and had a much higher illiteracy rate than the average Western European societies or those of North America. It was ruled by an authoritarian and conservative right-leaning dictatorship, known as the Estado Novo regime. By this time, the Estado Novo regime ruled both the Portuguese mainland and several centuries-old overseas territories as theoretically co-equal departments. The possessions were Angola , Cape Verde , Macau , Mozambique , Portuguese Guinea , Portuguese India , Portuguese Timor , São João Baptista de Ajudá , and São Tomé and Príncipe . In reality,
3190-662: The 1962 by the Minister of the Overseas Adriano Moreira (the Universidade de Luanda in Angola and the Universidade de Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, awarding a range of degrees from engineering to medicine ); however, most of their students came from Portuguese families living in the two territories. Several personalities in Portuguese society, including one of the most idolized sports stars in Portuguese football history,
3300-490: The 1970s, including such officers as Captain (later Lt. 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. Many native Angolans rose to positions of command, though of junior rank. By
3410-529: The African Commando Battalion ( Batalhão de Comandos Africanos ) commanded by General Almeida Bruno. While sub-Saharan African soldiers constituted a mere 18% of the total number of troops fighting in Portugal's African territories in 1961, this percentage rose dramatically over the next 13 years, with black soldiers constituting over 50% of all government forces fighting in Africa by April 1974. Coelho noted that perceptions of African soldiers varied
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3520-724: The Alfonso VI gathered all power and started to style himself as Imperator totius Hispaniæ (Emperor of All Hispania) since 1077. When the Emperor died, the Crown was left for his daughter Urraca, while Teresa inherited the County of Portugal . On 24 and 25 July 1803, in Campo de Ourique , Lisbon, a regiment of infantry commanded by liberal army man Gomes Freire de Andrade and the Legion of Light Troops commanded by
3630-521: The British. In the Treaty of Versailles , the Portuguese acquired the territory of Kionga from what was once German East Africa . Salazar gave material and diplomatic aid to Francisco Franco's nationalist forces while maintaining a formal neutrality. A special volunteer force of 18,000, called Os Viriatos (in honour of Lusitanian leader and Portuguese national hero Viriatus ), led by regular army officers,
3740-520: The Duke of Saldanha (with detaining of some of the heads of the conspiracy, the remaining ones falling in clandestinity), with the name by which the conspiracy became known deriving from the term used by Saldanha to define the organization ("revolutionary hydra") In the 19th century, Portugal became involved in the scramble for Africa , enlarging its territories in Portuguese Angola , Portuguese Mozambique , Portuguese Cabinda , and Portuguese Guinea . After
3850-596: The FLNA, which included photos of decapitated civilians, men, women and children of both white and black ethnicity, was later displayed in the UN by Portuguese diplomats. The emergence of labor strikes, attacks by newly organized guerrilla movements, and the Santa Maria hijacking by Henrique Galvão began a path to open warfare in Angola. According to historical researchers such as José Freire Antunes, U.S. President John F. Kennedy sent
3960-531: The French advance at the fortifications of Torres Vedras and successfully defeat Masséna's troops, and slowly recovered the Iberian peninsula. Wellesley was made Duke of Wellington in recognition of his services. The Portuguese army was put under the command of Marshal Beresford and was most heavily engaged under his leadership in the bloody Battle of Albuera . Portuguese forces also formed part of Wellington's advance into southern France, in 1813–14. The Setembrizada
4070-520: The General Extraordinary and Constituting Courts, that is, the Constitution writing constituting assembly) occurring under those instructions between 10 and 27 December 1820. The Vilafrancada was the first of two uprisings of Prince D. Miguel 's uprisings supported by several other people of traditionalist and absolutist leanings, against the liberalism adopted by his father D. João VI in
4180-543: The Islamic port of Ceuta in 1415 and several other towns in current-day Morocco in a Crusade against Islamic neighbors, managed to successfully establish themselves in the area. In Guinea, rival European powers had established control over the trade routes in the region, while local African rulers confined the Portuguese to the coast. These rulers then sent enslaved Africans to the Portuguese ports, or to forts in Africa from where they were exported. Thousands of kilometers down
4290-591: The Katanga region, aiming to provide access to the sea for the richest mining district of the Belgian Congo. The line reached the Congo border in 1928. In 1914, both Angola and Mozambique had Portuguese army garrisons of around 2,000 men, African troops led by European officers. With the outbreak of World War I in 1914, Portugal sent reinforcements to both colonies, because the fighting in the neighboring German African colonies
4400-596: The Madina do Boé garrison had died. About two weeks later, an operation was launched using marines and navy divers to try to recover the bodies, which were already in an advanced state of decomposition. Many were not recovered; those that were received a formal military burial beside the river. In February 2010 a team of researchers from the Faculty of Science and Technology in the University of Coimbra exhumed and tried to identify
4510-541: The Miguelist rise-up, which then turned its attentions to the Count of Vila Flor (later more famous for his future title of Duke of Terceira) and the Count of Paraty. The reactionary philosopher José Agostinho de Macedo was one of the leaders of the rallying up of support among the masses for the movement, denouncing the prisoners the movement made at political rallies. On 13 May, D. Miguel was finally forced to leave for exile on board
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4620-744: The Mwenemutapa in the 1560s. 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 . Portugal's colonial claim to the region was recognized by the other European powers during the 1880s, during the Scramble for Africa , and the final boundaries of Portuguese Africa were agreed by negotiation in Europe in 1891. At
4730-629: The PAIGC in Portuguese Guinea. The dismissal caused considerable public indignation in Portugal, and created favorable conditions for a military overthrow of the existing regime, which had lost all public support. 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. The coup resulted in
4840-420: The Portuguese and the various African rulers of the region. A systematic campaign of conquest and pacification was undertaken by the Portuguese. One by one, the local kingdoms were overwhelmed and abolished. By the middle of the 1920s, the whole of Angola was under control. Slavery had officially ended in Portuguese Africa, but the plantations were worked on a system of paid serfdom by African labour composed of
4950-587: The Shona kingdoms, including the Mutapa Empire 's (Mwenemutapa) metropolitan district, between 1512 and 1516. By the 1530s, small bands of Portuguese traders and prospectors penetrated the interior regions seeking gold, where they set up garrisons and trading posts at Sena and Tete on the Zambezi River and tried to establish a monopoly over the gold trade. The Portuguese finally entered into direct relations with
5060-836: The Total Independence of Angola in Angola, African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde in Portuguese Guinea, and the Mozambique Liberation Front in Mozambique. During the ensuing conflict, atrocities were committed by all forces involved. Throughout the period, Portugal faced increasing dissent, arms embargoes, and other punitive sanctions imposed by the international community, including by some Western Bloc governments, either intermittently or continuously. The anti-colonial guerrillas and movements of Portuguese Africa were heavily supported and instigated with money, weapons, training and diplomatic lobbying by
5170-498: The World War II, as communist and anticolonial ideologies spread across Africa, many clandestine political movements were established in support of independence using various interpretations of Marxist revolutionary ideology. These new movements seized on anti-Portuguese and anti-colonial sentiment to advocate the complete overthrow of existing governmental structures in Portuguese Africa. These movements alleged that Portuguese policies and development plans were primarily designed by
5280-446: The advice of Henry Kissinger , Nixon sought to reduce America's involvement in the Third World, delegating this role to "regional policemen" such as Joseph Mobutu of Congo-Léopoldville . This led to Nixon cutting off aid to Holden Roberto's FNLA and resuming normal trade relations with Portugal. While Portuguese forces had all but won the guerrilla war in Angola, and had stalemated FRELIMO in Mozambique, colonial forces were forced on
5390-542: The also liberal-leaning Marquis of Alorna mutinied against the state authorities, entering in confrontation with the then recently created Royal Guard of the Police. The end of the mutinies, of forcing political liberalism on Portuguese government, did not succeed. In 1805, then Princess regent (soon afterwards Queen) Carlota Joaquina promoted a conspiracy in Mafra with the objective of removing her husband Prince João from regency by claiming him to be mentally incapable, assuming regency on her own in his place, being aided in
5500-399: The armed forces, where younger officers disenchanted with the Estado Novo regime and promotional opportunities began to identify ideologically with those calling for overthrow of the government and the establishment of a state based on Marxist principles. Nicolae Ceaușescu 's Romania offered consistent support to the African liberation movements. Romania was the first state that recognized
5610-419: The attempted conspiracy of Carlota (Maria da Assunção, born in 1805, and Ana de Jesus Maria, born in 1806), although there are suspicions about the possibility of the four children of the couple born after 1801, including the 1802-born Miguel , were not children of João but of one or several of the lovers of Carlota Joaquina). The riots of Saint Torcato was a popular uprising in the Portuguese country side with
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#17328946743425720-424: The attempted coup by the Count of Sabugal, the Marquis of Ponte de Lima, the Count of Sarzedas, the Marquis of Alorna and Francisco de Melo. The attempted conspiracy did not succeed, but it did increase the tension between the couple to the point of a divorce or separation being considered, which was never advanced due to the damage that it would bring to the Portuguese state, and the couple still had two children after
5830-738: The bodies of between fifteen and seventeen of the soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave 300 metres (980 ft) from the river. The skeletons were in poor condition due to the very high humidity levels, complicating the job of separating and identifying them. The exhumation was promoted by the League of Combatants of Portugal ( Liga dos Combatentes de Portugal ) under a program named "Conservation of Memories". Citations Sources Portuguese Colonial War 1,400,000 total men mobilized for military and civilian support service. 40–60,000 guerrillas ~29,000 casualties 41,000+ casualties The Portuguese Colonial War ( Portuguese : Guerra Colonial Portuguesa ), also known in Portugal as
5940-448: The citizenry there. Portugal joined NATO as a founding member in 1949, and was integrated within the various fledgling military commands of NATO. NATO's focus on preventing a conventional Soviet attack against Western Europe was to the detriment of military preparations against guerrilla uprisings in Portugal's overseas provinces that were considered essential for the survival of the nation. The integration of Portugal in NATO resulted in
6050-404: The coast, in Angola, the Portuguese found consolidating their early advantage in establishing hegemony over the region even harder, due to the encroachment of Dutch traders. Nevertheless, the fortified Portuguese towns of Luanda (established in 1587 with 400 Portuguese settlers) and Benguela (a fort from 1587, a town from 1617) remained almost continuously in Portuguese hands. As in Guinea,
6160-401: The conflict in Guinea at the outset, but was forced to fight on to prevent an independent Guinea from serving as an inspirational model for insurgents in Angola and Mozambique. Despite continuing attacks by insurgent forces against targets throughout the Portuguese African territories, the economies of both Portuguese Angola and Mozambique had actually improved each year of the conflict, as had
6270-543: The conflict, the Japanese Imperial Army invaded the Portuguese Timor colony in distant Oceania , killing thousands of natives and dozens of Portuguese. In response, the Portuguese civilians joined Australia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States against the Japanese. See Battle of Timor . The Portuguese–Indian War was a conflict with the Republic of India's armed forces that ended Portuguese rule in its Indian enclaves in 1961. The armed action involved defensive action against air, sea and land strikes by
6380-454: The county and started to styled himself as "King of Portugal and Galicia" ( Garcia Rex Portugallie et Galleciae ). Garcia's brothers Sancho II of Castille and Alfonso VI of Leon united and annexed Garcia's Kingdom during that same year who agreed to split it among themselves, however the king of Castille was killed by a noble in that same year and Alfonso took Castille for himself and Garcia recovered his kingdom of Portugal and Galicia, but in 1073
6490-426: The day in Southern Africa, the territory was segregated along racial lines. Strict qualification criteria ensured that fewer than one in 100 black Mozambicans became full Portuguese citizens. 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. Salazar himself
6600-400: The defensive in Guinea, where PAIGC forces had carved out a large area of the rural countryside under effective insurgent control, using Soviet-supplied AA cannon and ground-to-air missiles to protect their encampments from attack by Portuguese air assets. Overall, the increasing success of Portuguese counterinsurgency operations and the inability or unwillingness of guerrilla forces to destroy
6710-432: The early 1970s, the Portuguese authorities had fully perceived racial discriminatory policies and lack of investment in education as wrong and contrary to their overseas ambitions in Portuguese Africa, and willingly accepted a true color blindness policy with more spending in education and training opportunities, which started to produce a larger number of black high ranked professionals, including military personnel. After
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#17328946743426820-425: The economy of Portugal proper. Angola enjoyed an unprecedented economic boom during the 1960s, and the Portuguese government built new transportation networks to link the well-developed and highly urbanized coastal strip with the remote inland regions of the territory. The number of ethnic European Portuguese migrants from mainland Portugal (the metrópole ) continued to increase as well, though always constituting
6930-485: The economy of Portugal's African territories was seen as a victory for the Portuguese government policies. The Soviet Union, realising that military success by insurgents in Angola and Mozambique was becoming increasingly remote, shifted much of its military support to the PAIGC in Guinea, while increasing diplomatic efforts to isolate Portugal from the world community. The success of the socialist bloc in isolating Portugal diplomatically extended inside Portugal itself into
7040-476: The end of the Portuguese Civil War, several guerrillas happened between pro-governmental and anti-governmental local groups and between local groups and government forces, both by forces of the defeated Miguelites who kept the guerrillas and between different factions of Portuguese liberals. Among these were included: The Revolt of Pinotes was the uprising at Viana do Castelo within the bigger Patuleia revolution. A failed badly planned attempt of revolt against
7150-564: The first country to formally recognize Mozambique. By early 1974, guerrilla operations in Angola and Mozambique had been reduced to sporadic ambush operations against the Portuguese in the rural countryside areas, far from the main centers of population. The only exception was Portuguese Guinea , where PAIGC guerrilla operations, strongly supported by neighbouring allies like Guinea and Senegal , were largely successful in liberating and securing large areas of Portuguese Guinea. According to some historians, Portugal recognized its inability to win
7260-429: The formation of a military élite who were critical in the planning and implementation of operations during the Overseas War. This "NATO generation" ascended quickly to the highest political positions and military command without having to provide evidence of loyalty to the regime. The Colonial War established a split between the military structure – heavily influenced by the western powers with democratic governments – and
7370-419: The former collaborationists. On 11 November 1820 (day of St. Martin, hence the name of the revolt, also known in slang as " o imbróglio ", "the plot" or " a pavorosa ", "the dreadful one"), a group of military leaders known as exaltados (exalted ones), who challenged the civilian rule in which the 1820 liberal Provisional Junta of Supreme Government of the Kingdom was falling and also what they considered to be
7480-428: The fourth Battle of Cape St. Vincent . The Miguelites were driven out of Lisbon but returned and attacked the city in force, unsuccessfully. Miguel was finally defeated at the Battle of Asseiceira , 16 May 1834, and capitulated a few days later with the Concession of Evoramonte . He was exiled, though his supporters continued to plot for his return and cause trouble up to the 1850s. In the period of instability after
7590-438: The frigate Pérola towards France, while on the following day D. João returned to Bemposta, and impeached the brutal pro-Miguelist Minister of Justice José António de Oliveira Leite de Barros, replacing him by Friar Patrício da Silva, and the Duke of Palmela was promoted to Minister of the Kingdom. After the Napoleonic War, the British ruled Portugal in the name of the absent king in Brazil, with Beresford as de facto Regent, until
7700-461: The front, as well as medicine, school material and agricultural equipment. Romanian tractors contributed to the increase in agricultural production. Romanian weapons and uniforms—reportedly of "excellent quality"—played a "decisive role" in FRELIMO's military progress. It was in early 1973 that FRELIMO made these statements about Romania's material support, in a memorandum sent to the Romanian Communist Party 's Central Committee. In 1974, Romania became
7810-411: The general revolt against the French in Spain led to the landing of Sir John Moore in the north of that country, forcing Napoleon himself to lead an army into the Peninsula. Though Moore was killed, the British managed to extricate themselves from the Peninsula in the Battle of La Coruña . Portugal itself, however, remained independent of the French, and Napoleon left things in the Iberian Peninsula in
7920-564: The government in the afternoon of 29 April 1847, which ended with the imprisonment of several of the involved members. A conspiratorial movement in Lisbon and Coimbra in August 1848, inspired by the popular and students' uprising of Paris from 22 to 24 February 1848 (which led to the fall of King Louis Philippe I and the proclamation of the Second Republic ). It was controlled by the government of
8030-450: The hands of Marshal Soult . Soult proceeded to invade Portugal in the north. However, the Portuguese held on, giving the British the impetus to send Wellesley back with additional regiments of troops to help recover the Iberian peninsula. Wellesley, aided by the remaining Portuguese regiments hastily scraped together, liberated Portugal. A third invasion took place, led by Marshal André Masséna . The Anglo-Portuguese Army managed to halt
8140-490: The ideology of the guerrillas, especially the PAIGC, had a profound impact on the officers of the Portuguese armed forces and a left-wing military coup in Lisbon by Portuguese military officers in 1974 toppled the Caetano government and forced a radical change in government attitudes. Faced with international condemnation of its colonial policies and the increasing cost of administering its colonies, Portugal quickly moved to grant
8250-478: The independence of Guinea-Bissau, as well as the first to sign agreements with the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde and Angola's MPLA . In May 1974, Ceaușescu reaffirmed Romania's support for Angolan independence. As late as September 1975, Bucharest publicly supported all three Angolan liberation movements (FNLA, MPLA and UNITA). In the spring of 1972, Romania allowed FRELIMO to open
8360-405: The large majority of ethnic Africans who did not have resources to pay Portuguese taxes and were considered unemployed by the authorities. After World War II and the first decolonization events, this system gradually declined, but 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. In
8470-652: The late 1950s, the Portuguese Armed Forces saw themselves confronted with the paradox generated by the dictatorial regime of the Estado Novo that had been in power since 1933; on one hand, the policy of Portuguese neutrality in World War II placed the Portuguese Armed Forces out of the way of a possible East-West conflict ; on the other, the regime felt the increased responsibility of keeping Portugal's vast overseas territories under control and protecting
8580-507: The later phase of his rule. On 30 April 1824, Prince D. Miguel rose again against his father. The King took refuge aboard the British ship Windsor Castle, with the aid of the Portuguese diplomatic corp, while grandes of the kingdom like the Duke of Palmela were arrested in Belém, being then moved to imprisonment in Peniche, with the then intendent-general of police Baron of Rendufe being persecuted by
8690-601: The liberal forces, and after an inconclusive result at the Battle of Ponte Ferreira on 22–23 July were besieged in the city by the Miguelites for nearly a year until, in July 1833, the Duke of Terceira (as Vila Flor had now been created) was able to land in the Algarve and defeat Miguel's forces at the Battle of Almada . Meanwhile, Miguel's fleet was comprehensively defeated by Pedro's much smaller squadron, commanded by Charles Napier , in
8800-482: The long distance and low annual income of the average Portuguese and that of the indigenous overseas populations. An increasing number of African anticolonial movements called for total independence of the overseas African territories from Portugal. Some, like the UPA wanted national self-determination , while others wanted a new form of government based on Marxist principles. Portuguese leaders, including Salazar, attempted to stave off calls for independence by defending
8910-463: The moderate proposals of a constitutional being drawn under influence of the liberal orator Manuel Fernandes Tomás, defending instead the immediate adoption of the Cádiz Constitution or even a more advanced liberal one. These groups rose up in a paradoxical wide informal coalition with conservative military and politicians and radical bourgeois people. It had a brief success, but by 17 November of
9020-633: The other hand, General Kaúlza de Arriaga , the most conservative of the three, appears to have doubted the reliability of African forces outside his strict control, while continuing to view African soldiers as inferior to Portuguese troops. As the war progressed, Portugal rapidly increased its mobilized forces. Under the Salazar regime, a military draft required all males to serve three years of obligatory military service; many of those called up to active military duty were deployed to combat zones in Portugal's African overseas provinces. The national service period
9130-438: The outbreak of the insurgency. With illiteracy rates approaching 99% and almost no African enrollment in secondary schools, 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. As the war went on, an increasing number of native Africans served as noncommissioned or commissioned officers by
9240-613: The period of the Colonial War, became the goal of the independent territories. 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 . When the Portuguese began trading on
9350-399: The political power of the regime. Some analysts see the " Botelho Moniz coup " of 1961 (also known as A Abrilada ) against the Portuguese government and backed by the U.S. administration, as the beginning of this rupture, the origin of a lapse on the part of the regime to keep up a unique command center, an armed force prepared for threats of conflict in the colonies. This situation caused, as
9460-471: The population (African and European). Portugal sent an Expeditionary Corps of two reinforced divisions (40,000 men) to France and Belgium, which fought alongside the British XI Corps . German offensives in the British sector hit the Portuguese hard, with one division destroyed in the Battle of La Lys , April 9, 1918, as it became known in Portugal, or Operation Georgette or the Battle of Estaires to
9570-413: The relation of mainland Portuguese to their overseas possessions was that of colonial administrator to a subservient colony. 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
9680-563: The remainder of its African colonies independence. Portugal was a founding member of NATO , and, although it had scarce forces, it played a key role in the European approaches. After 1991, Portugal committed several infantry and air-landing battalions to international operations. The Portuguese Army keeps soldiers in Iraq , Jordan , Mali , Central African Republic , Somalia , Mozambique , São Tomé and Príncipe , Kosovo and Baltic states . Since 1991, Portuguese Armed Forces have participated in
9790-615: The requisite education and technical skills. While access to basic, secondary, and technical education remained poor until the 1960s, a few Africans were able to attend schools locally or in some cases in Portugal itself. This resulted in the advancement of certain black Portuguese Africans who became 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 . Two state-run universities were founded in Portuguese Africa in
9900-533: The revolution that would establish the First Portuguese Republic , the Republic would suffer many coup attempts, see Portugal enter World War I and end 16 years later with the 28 May 1926 coup d'état . A raid by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck 's remaining troops evaded British troops and managed to penetrate relatively far into Portuguese Mozambique , seizing arms, capturing troops, and sparking unrest among
10010-482: The revolutionary PAIGC quickly conquered most of the country, Portugal was able to easily contain anti-government forces through the imaginative use of light infantry, home defense militia, and air-mobile special operations forces, despite arms embargoes from other European countries. During the counterinsurgency campaigns in Angola and Mozambique, Portugal was significantly aided by intelligence provided by native residents who did not support revolutionary forces. However,
10120-494: The ruling authorities for the benefit of the territories' ethnic Portuguese population at the expense of local tribal control, the development of native communities, and the majority of the indigenous population, who suffered both state-sponsored discrimination and enormous social pressure to comply with government policies largely imposed from Lisbon. Many felt they had received too little opportunity or resources to upgrade their skills and improve their economic and social situation to
10230-562: The same categories. Later, after official discrimination based on skin colour was outlawed, some Portuguese commanders such as General António de Spínola began a process of "Africanization" of Portuguese forces fighting in Africa. In Portuguese Guinea, this included a large increase in African recruitment along with the establishment of all-black military formations such as the Black Militias ( Milícias negras ) commanded by Major Carlos Fabião and
10340-472: The same year a counter-coup restores Manuel Fernandes to leadership of the Junta, forcing some Martinhada leaders, like Gaspar Teixeira de Magalhães e Lacerda, António da Silveira Pinto da Fonseca and Bernardo de Sá Nogueira, forced to exile, and only the sections of the Constitution relating to electoral instructions are adopted, at 22 November 1820, with the first elections after the 1820 Revolution (the elections for
10450-464: The slave trade became the basis of the local economy in Angola. Excursions traveled ever farther inland to procure captives who were sold by African rulers; the primary source of these slaves were those captured as a result of losing a war or interethnic skirmish with other African tribes. More than a million men, women, and children were shipped from Angola across the Atlantic. In this region, unlike Guinea,
10560-754: The so-called inferior races, by cross-breeding, by means of the Christian religion, by the mixing of the most widely divergent elements; freedom of access to the highest offices of state, even in Europe – these are the principles which have always guided Portuguese colonisation in Asia, in Africa, in the Pacific, and previously in America." 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
10670-508: The subsequent conflicts between conquerors (until the 8th century), namely: The county of Portugal slowly grew in power and its counts started to style themselves as dukes, one of which became regent of the Kingdom of León between 999 and 1008. In 1070, the Portuguese count Nuno Mendes wished the Portuguese title and the Battle of Pedroso was fought on February 18, 1071, the count was killed in combat led by Garcia II of Galicia . The later annexed
10780-495: The three separate Angolan , Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican theaters of operations, rather than a number of separate conflicts as the emergent African countries aided each other and were supported by the same global powers and even the United Nations during the war. India's 1954 annexation of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and 1961 annexation of Goa are sometimes included as part of the conflict. Unlike other European nations during
10890-413: The time, Portugal was in effective control of little more than the coastal strip of both Angola and Mozambique, but important inroads into the interior had been made since the first half of the 19th century. In Angola, construction of a railway from Luanda to Malanje , in the fertile highlands, was started in 1885. Work began in 1903 on a commercially significant line from Benguela all the way inland to
11000-586: The time, the Estado Novo , was overthrown by a military coup in 1974 , and the change in government brought the conflict to an end. The war was a decisive ideological struggle in Lusophone Africa, surrounding nations, and mainland Portugal. The prevalent Portuguese and international historical approach considers the Portuguese Colonial War as was perceived at the time—a single conflict fought in
11110-550: The trade remained largely in Portuguese hands. Nearly all the slaves were destined for the Portuguese colony of Brazil . In Mozambique , reached in the 15th century by Portuguese sailors searching for a maritime spice trade route, the Portuguese settled along the coast and made their way into the hinterland as sertanejos (backwoodsmen). These sertanejos lived alongside Swahili traders and even obtained employment among Shona kings as interpreters and political advisers. One such sertanejo managed to travel through almost all
11220-609: The troops, vehicles and equipment over 22 kilometres (14 mi) to Chéché , on the south bank of the Corubal River, was a difficult operation but was completed successfully. On the afternoon of 5 February 1969 the force began to use two ferries to cross the river from south to north. With repeated trips, 100 tons of equipment and ammunition, 28 heavy vehicles and about 500 men made the crossing. The ferries were rafts about 4 by 6 metres (13 by 20 ft). The wooden platforms were supported by canoes and empty diesel barrels, and pulled by
11330-500: The west coast of Africa in the 15th century, they concentrated their energies on Guinea and Angola . Hoping at first for gold , they soon found that slaves were the most valuable commodity available in the region for export. The Islamic Empire was already well-established in the African slave trade , for centuries linking it to the Arab slave trade . However, the Portuguese who had conquered
11440-720: The world's history although most of the migrants fled the former Portuguese territories as destitute refugees. The former colonies faced severe problems after independence. Devastating civil wars followed in Angola and Mozambique , which lasted several decades, claimed millions of lives, and resulted in large numbers of displaced refugees . Angola and Mozambique established state-planned economies after independence, and struggled with inefficient judicial systems and bureaucracies, corruption, poverty and unemployment. A level of social order and economic development comparable to what had existed under Portuguese rule, including during
11550-849: Was expected to spill over the borders into its territories. After Germany declared war on Portugal in March 1916, the Portuguese government sent more reinforcements to Mozambique (the South Africans had captured German South West Africa in 1915). These troops supported British , South African and Belgian military operations against German colonial forces in German East Africa . In December 1917, German colonial forces led by Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck invaded Mozambique from German East Africa. Portuguese, British and Belgian forces spent all of 1918 chasing Lettow-Vorbeck and his men across Mozambique, German East Africa and Northern Rhodesia . Portugal sent
11660-478: Was fond of restating the old Portuguese policy maxim that any indigenous resident of Portugal's African territories was, in theory, eligible to become a member of Portuguese government, even its president. In practice, this never took place, though trained black Africans living in Portugal's overseas African possessions were allowed to occupy positions in a variety of areas including the military, civil service, clergy, education, and private business —providing they had
11770-788: Was increased to four years in 1967, and virtually all conscripts faced a mandatory two-year tour of service in Africa. The existence of the draft and likelihood of combat in African counterinsurgency operations over time resulted in a sharp increase in emigration by Portuguese men seeking to avoid such service. 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. Native African troops, although widely deployed, were initially used in subordinate roles as enlisted troops or noncommissioned officers. Portuguese colonial administrators were handicapped by their policies in education, which largely barred indigenous Africans from adequate education until well after
11880-526: Was recruited to fight as part of Franco's army, even if unofficially. When the civil war ended in 1939, Portugal and Spain negotiated the Treaty of Friendship and Nonaggression ( Iberian Pact ). The pact committed the two countries to defend the Iberian Peninsula against any power that attacked either country and helped to ensure Iberian neutrality during World War II. Although Portugal proclaimed neutrality in
11990-719: Was the arrest and deportation of a group of personalities connected to the Portuguese Freemasonry , Jacobinist currents and following of the ideals of the French Revolution who had collaborated with the French occupation during the First Invasion, with the first detentions occurring between 10 and 13 September 1810 (hence the name setembrizada ), after the entry of the Second Invasion led by general Jean-de-Dieu Soult . By 1814, King João VI gave an amnesty to all
12100-535: Was verified later, a lack of coordination between the three general staffs ( Army , Air Force , and Navy ). The FNLA , which was headed by Holden Roberto , attacked Portuguese settlers and Africans living in northern Angola from its bases in Congo-Léopoldville . Many of the victims were African farm workers living under labor contracts that required seasonal relocation from the desertified Southwest and Bailundo areas of Angola. Photos of Africans killed by
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