The Portuguese Colonial War (Portuguese : Guerra Colonial), also referred to as the Portuguese Overseas War or Overseas War (Portuguese : Guerra do Ultramar) for short, was a military conflict staged during the Decolonisation of Africa that pitted the guerrilla forces of the African nationalist Liberation movements of the Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique overseas provinces, which were part of the Portuguese Empire, against the colonial armed and security forces loyal to the authoritarian Estado Novo regime of Portugal, between 1961 and 1975. Main combatants comprised:
An eclectic variety of weapons was used by all sides in the Portuguese Colonial War. The Portuguese Military and Security Forces serving in the African territories were equipped with Western-made weapon systems from both World War I and World War II, mainly Portuguese, Austro-Hungarian, Danish, German, Italian, French, Canadian and British in origin, but also included more modern Portuguese, Spanish, French, British, Belgian, Dutch, West German, American and South African military hardware. During the early phase of the war, the African Liberation Movements likewise were largely equipped with WWII-vintage Western arms and munitions, though as the war went on, Soviet, Eastern Bloc and Chinese weaponry began to play a major role, particularly after 1970. [7]
Received from the Portuguese Army or privately purchased, used by colonial public servants and officials as personal side-arms for self-defence. [10]
Marcelo José das Neves Alves Caetano was a Portuguese politician and scholar. He was the second and last leader of the Estado Novo after succeeding António de Oliveira Salazar. He served as prime minister from 1968 to 1974, when he was overthrown during the Carnation Revolution.
The Guinea-Bissau War of Independence, or the Bissau-Guinean War of Independence, was an armed independence conflict that took place in Portuguese Guinea from 1963 to 1974. It was fought between Portugal and the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, an armed independence movement backed by Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Yugoslavia. The war is commonly referred to as "Portugal's Vietnam" because it was a protracted guerrilla war which had extremely high costs in men and materiel and which created significant internal political turmoil in Portugal.
Elvas is a Portuguese municipality, former episcopal city and frontier fortress of easternmost central Portugal, located in the district of Portalegre in Alentejo. It is situated about 200 kilometres (120 mi) east of Lisbon, and about 8 kilometres (5.0 mi) west of the Spanish fortress of Badajoz, by the Madrid-Badajoz-Lisbon railway. The municipality population as of 2011 was 23,078, in an area of 631.29 square kilometres (243.74 sq mi). The city itself had a population of 16,640 as of 2011.
Henrique Carlos da Mata Galvão was a Portuguese military officer, writer and politician. He was initially a supporter but later become one of the strongest opponents of the Portuguese Estado Novo under António de Oliveira Salazar.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of the People or FARP were originally the armed wing of the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde during the struggle against Portuguese rule in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde. Since 1973, they constitute the national armed forces of Guinea-Bissau. A separate Cape Verdean branch of the FARP constituted the national armed forces of this country from 1975 until the early 1990s, when these were renamed "Cape Verdean Armed Forces".
The Portuguese Colonial War, also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation, 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 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 Pidjiguiti massacre was an incident that took place on 3 August 1959 at the Port of Bissau's Pijiguiti docks in Bissau, Portuguese Guinea. Dock workers went on strike, seeking higher pay, but a manager called the PIDE, the Portuguese state police, who fired into the crowd, killing at least 25 people. The government blamed the revolutionary group African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), arresting several of its members. The incident caused PAIGC to abandon their campaign of nonviolent resistance, leading to the Guinea-Bissau War of Independence in 1963.
Freixo de Espada à Cinta, sometimes erroneously called Freixo de Espada Cinta, is a municipality in the northeastern region of Portugal, near the border with Spain, along the Douro River Valley. The population in 2011 was 3,780, in an area of 244.14 km2.
The provincial organization of volunteers and civil defence or OPVDC was a former militia type force in each of the Portuguese Overseas provinces. There were three such organizations, raised by the Portuguese Government, in their overseas provinces of Angola, Mozambique and Timor.
Fernando Augusto Colaço Leal Robles or Fernando Robles is a Portuguese former Second Lieutenant who participated in initial counterinsurgency operations against insurgent União dos Povos de Angola (UPA) guerrillas operating in northern Angola during 1961, at the onset of the Portuguese Colonial War. He was born in Coimbra.
Fábrica de Braço de Prata, , originally Fábrica de Material de Guerra de Braço de Prata was a small arms, light artillery, ammunition and ordnance factory owned by the Portuguese Government. It also designed and developed its own armament and ammunition in addition to the licensed production of foreign weapons, including a Portuguese version of the Heckler & Koch G3 widely used during the Portuguese Colonial War.
Cape Verde was a colony of the Portuguese Empire from the initial settlement of the Cape Verde Islands in 1462 until the independence of Cape Verde in 1975.
The Cheche Disaster was an incident during the Portuguese Colonial War in Portuguese Guinea in which almost fifty Portuguese soldiers died on 6 February 1969 while crossing the Corubal River.
Alcora Exercise or simply Alcora was a secret military alliance of South Africa, Portugal, and Rhodesia, formally in force between 1970 and 1974. The code name "Alcora" being an acronym for "Aliança Contra as Rebeliões em Africa".
EID, S.A. is a Portuguese research and development company, established in 1983. The company is specialized in the fields of electronics, communications and command and control, mainly for Defence use.
The Wiriyamu Massacre or Operation Marosca was a massacre of the civilian population of the village of Wiriyamu in Mozambique by Portuguese soldiers in December 1972.
Guinea-Bissau–Turkey relations are the foreign relations between Guinea-Bissau and Turkey. Turkey has an embassy in Bissau. Guinea Bissau has an embassy in Ankara.
Diana AndringaGColL, is an Angola-born Portuguese journalist, columnist, documentary filmmaker and producer. She is best known for co-directing the Guinea-Bissau film The Two Faces of War along with Flora Gomes.
Licínio Silveira Azevedo is a Brazilian–Mozambican journalist, film producer, screenwriter, and film director of award-winning documentaries and feature films.