Portuguese Colonial War

The Portuguese Colonial War was a thirteen-year conflict between 1961 and 1974 in which the Portuguese military fought nationalist independence movements in Portugal's African colonies of Angola, Portuguese Guinea and Mozambique. Unlike other European powers of the period, the Estado Novo regime refused to withdraw from its overseas territories. Against it stood groups such as the MPLA, FNLA and UNITA in Angola, the PAIGC in Guinea and FRELIMO in Mozambique, which received money, weapons and training from the Communist Bloc. Atrocities were committed by all sides, and Portugal faced arms embargoes and diplomatic isolation. The war ended when the Carnation Revolution military coup of April 1974 overthrew the regime in Lisbon, after which the colonies became independent states and hundreds of thousands of settlers left.