Introduction
Angola’s modern history is dominated by mass migration on the Atlantic coast and Portugal. In the 19th century, around 500,000 Africans (nearly all of them male) were taken as slaves and sent to different destinations, primarily Brazil. It is noteworthy that in about 100 years, the approximately same number of Europeans moved to Angola seeking wealth and trying to get rich through the country’s natural resources (Nelson 279). Although in 1970, the African nationalist movement succeeded in ejecting the colonialists from the land, the Soviets, Americans, Cubans, South Africans, and Congolese still attempted to fill the power (Nelson 279). They used both overt and covert means to back the warring forces in Angola. The last included UNITA (Union for the Independence of the Totality of Angola, MPLA (Movement for the Popular Liberation of Angola), and FNLA (Front for the National Liberation of Angola).
Main body
Angola’s citizens were brutalized in a Civil War by Angolan rebels and armies; it lasted until 2002, and sometimes was interrupted by fragile short-term truces. In world history, this coincided with Saigon’s fall in 1975, the humiliation of America after the Vietnam War, and the western hemisphere’s fear that Angola could become the next global hot spot (Nelson 280). Meanwhile, as the vast Angolan oil and mining industry developed, the balance of political power was further distorted by multinational corporate authorities and foreign powers that played a long game to protect their emerging interests.
Short Overview of Angola’s Interaction with the Western World
In the 16-18th century, Angola was the main Portuguese trading arena for slaves. In 1836, the slave trade was officially abolished by the Portuguese authorities (“History of Angola”). In fact, there was tacit collusion among multiple imperial forces that accepted the idea of colonialism and empire and their legitimacy in organizing international relations. Moreover, they agreed or rejected the international boundaries of growing colonial empires. One of the most vivid examples is the Berlin conference (1884-1885), which resulted in permitting European forces to pursue imperial designs on the African continent with no interference from other claimants side (“Angola, Southern Africa”). It is noteworthy that at the conference “none of the people of Angola was present or had any say at the conference, and the boundaries which were set would cut through already existing social formations” (“Angola, Southern Africa”). Hence, Africa suffered from European colonialist international actions like no different global continent. In 1885-1930, although Portugal consolidated its colonial control over the country, local resistance proceeded (“Angola, Southern Africa”). In 1951, Angola changed its status to an overseas province; hence, its “colonial” past ended (“Angola, Southern Africa”). The period between 1956-1974 is significant for Angola’s inner fight for independence (“Angola, Southern Africa”). In 1974, the colonial empire of Portugal collapsed due to the Revolution (“Angola, Southern Africa”). Eventually, in 1991, MPLA moved from Marxism-Leninism to social democracy.
In 1991, the peace deal was signed in Lisbon, and a new constitution was created. In September 1992, parliamentary and presidential polls were certified by the UN monitors as fair and free (“Angola, Southern Africa”). These elections resumed guerilla war, as the lost party (Savimbi) rejected the win of Dos Santos. In 1993, the USA acknowledged the MPLA, whereas the UN-imposed its sanctions against Unita. In 1995, Dos Santos and Savimbi confirmed commitment to peace, and 7,000 UN peacekeepers arrived (“Angola, Southern Africa”). In 1999, the UN ended its peacekeeping mission, although there was full-scale fighting with numerous victims in Angola (“Angola, Southern Africa”). In 2002, the UN appealed for aid for the refugees returning home after the ceasefire, and in February 2003, the UN peace mission winded up again.
In April 2004, there was a crackdown of numerous illegal diamond miners from all over the world, and over 300,00 foreign diamond dealers were expelled (Berthencourt 280). Later in September, oil production in Angola reached a million barrels daily (Berthencourt 280). In 2006, the refugee agency of the UN conducted the final repatriation of Angolans from DR Congo (“Angola, Southern Africa”). Since 2009, Angolan state company “Sonangol” signed a deal allowing it to produce oil on Iraq’s territory (“Angola, Southern Africa”). It is noteworthy that being one of the world’s wealthiest countries in terms of natural resources, Angola is still one of the poorest countries from its population’s wealth point of view.
Angola and the Cold War
One of the most significant periods of Angolan history is its involuntary participation in the Cold War. Mentioning the Cold War, one instinctively thinks of Washington, Moscow, and Beijing. Several studies have examined the primary struggles in African cities like Kinshasa, Luanda, and Pretoria in terms of the Cold War (Sobers 97). In 1975, a national liberation war on the African continent became an international crisis (“History of Angola”). The attention of policymakers from Zaire (currently, the Democratic Republic of Congo) to the United States was focused on the former colony of Portugal and from Luxembourg to Colombia (Sobers 100). The struggle over Angola’s independence was not just a threat to the ruling white minority of Southern Africa. It was also the potential to create a robust postcolonial country and radically transform the Angolan society’s structure.
Recent studies of Angola’s history resulted in its impressive chronology. Nevertheless, there is still little data regarding the ramifications and broader consequences of an international crisis, which, in fact, was concentrated in the Southern African region. In terms of anti-colonial struggle, the USA’s support strengthened the metropolis of Portugal, adjacent African states harbored rival revolutionaries, and great and middle powers, including South Africa, China, and Cuba, provided mercenaries, military forces, and weapons for the three main Angolan liberation movements (Sobers 105). Nationalists in Angola fought not just against imperial Portugal but all the international neocolonialists, racists, and mercenary capitalists, supporting Angola’s occupation by Lisbon. The conflict over the independence of Angola was the first salvo for the reinforced global competition, taking advantage of the already weakened West to restructure the power positions in the international arena.
Angola was considered a sleepy colony of Portugal in Africa, and no outside powers expected this fact ever to change. In 1975, the Revolution forced white-ruled South Africa, and Marxist Cuba to send thousands of soldiers to Angola (“History of Angola”). Hence, Angola became an arena for American-Soviet competition within the next fifteen years. Therefore, eventually, Angola’s independence crisis raised the extent of nationalism in the Third World, increased tensions in the Western Alliance, and revealed both ambiguities and weaknesses of the detente of superpowers. Both the Soviet Union and the United States were interested in restructuring the global forces balance. Simultaneously, none of them were formally a colonial power, being involved in decolonization politics. The Soviet Union attempted to seduce newly independent Angola with the perspectives of progress and anti-colonialism, whereas the U.S. offered a counter-narrative of industrial modernization and liberal democracy.
It is noteworthy that the USA decision-makers had to hold the balance supporting its allies in NATO and maintaining the western Alliance. In January 1976, the U.S. representative Kissinger provided Danish prime minister Jørgensen with the following explanation of American intervention to Angola:
If the MPLA had won and the Soviet Union had sent $5 million or $10 million—something relevant to the African situation—we wouldn’t have gotten involved. What worries us is the massiveness of the Soviet escalation and the Cuban troops. If this is accepted, it will have massive consequences. They must be made to pay a price. The place to teach them a lesson is where it’s small (Sobers 120).
In fact, Angola made the U.S. and maybe the Soviet Union realize that strategic bipolarity is not the best tool for ensuring the global forces balance, as the countries of the Third World turned out to have their competing agendas.
Conclusion
The independence of Angola, especially in terms of the Cold War and its decolonization nexus, is a vivid case for studying the international relationships history and the blur of lines between “transnational”, “international”, and “national.” Successful transnational actors are the best at negotiations and navigating the international system. They interact with the established nation-states and each other to achieve their aims. In turn, Angola proved that the global might affect national and transnational liberation processes. Although the progressive organizations and states maintained Angolan independence, a bloc of forces of the status quo with equal power conspired to undermine the given process and foment antagonisms between competing groups. This resulted in dragging on the violence in Angola for decades.
References
“Angola, Southern Africa.” South African History Online. n.d.
Bethencourt, Francisco, editor. Cosmopolitanism in the Portuguese-Speaking World. Koninklijke Brill NV. 2018.
“History of Angola.” Republic of Angola. n.d. Web.
Nelson, Glen. “Out of Angola,” Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, vol. 51, no. 3, 2018, pp. 279-294.
Sobers, Candace. “Independence, Intervention, and Internationalism: Angola and the International System, 1974–1975.” Journal of Cold War Studies, vol. 21, no. 1, 2019, pp. 97-124. Web.