Angola History
Little is known about the land now known as Angola until the arrival of the Portuguese in 1483 in their search for gold. However they found something much easier to obtain and export; slaves to Brazil.
Until the slave trade was abolished in 1836 it is estimated that Portugal sent over a million Angolans to Brazil, even though it barely had more than a foothold in the African territory. From 1885 as part of the Scramble for Africa, Portugal consolidated its hold over the country and in 1952 Angola's status was changed from a colony to an overseas province.
Over the next fifteen years three rival guerrilla emerged intent on independence for Angola, the União Nacional para a Independencia Total de Angola (UNITA), the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (FNLA) and the Movimento Popular de Libertaçcão de Angola (MPLA).
These groups were not just fighting for independence, they were also at war with each other, and, following the collapse of the Portuguese regime in Lisbon in 1974, the Portuguese granted Angola independence the following year without handing power to a succeeding government, they merely abandoned Angola in the middle of a civil war.
A civil war that that raged until 2002 as the country broke down into factions leaving one and a half million dead, millions more displaced and the economy and the country's infrastructure shattered. This short video documentary explores the recent history of Angola during that troubled time.
TAGS: Angola History, History of Angola, Angola History Video, Angola Civil War History, Angola History Documentary, Angola Slave Trade History