According to youremailverifier.com, Angola is a state in southwestern Africa. Populated by pygmy and khoisan ancestors, from the 1st millennium BC the territory of the od. Angola knew the development of agriculture and iron metallurgy in the context of the Bantu migrations. Between the 15th and 16th centuries. AD some kingdoms occupied the north and the center of the territory: the kingdom of Congo, which in 1483 established relations with the Portuguese and became Christianized; further to the South his vassal, Ndongo – from the title of whose king, ngola, derived the name Angola -, Benguela and other minors. Difficulties in relations with the Congo led to the foundation in 1575 of the colony of Luanda by Paulo Diaz de Novaes, on the Ndongo coast; here the Portuguese measured themselves starting from 1579 in conflicts of various outcomes, occupying a part of it. Attempted conquest again from 1617, the Portuguese were stopped by Queen Nzinga Mbande (reign 1624-63) of Ndongo and Matamba, who allied herself with the Dutch (occupying Luanda in 1641-48). The Portuguese consolidated on the coast and in Benguela, concentrating on the slave trade, of which the Angola became one of the major exporters in the seventeenth-eighteenth centuries, especially as a result of the civil wars in Congo and the expansion of the kingdom of Loango and the Lunda empire. Trafficking, banned in 1836, ceased only after 1850, while slavery, abolished in 1875, still survived into the twentieth century. The Portuguese presence overcame the states of the interior only in the late nineteenth century. Defined the borders with the surrounding European colonies between 1885 and 1905, the Angola it became an integral part of Portugal in 1935 and an overseas province in 1951. The Portuguese Salazarist regime encouraged European immigration, while Africans remained without rights, except for a small minority of assimilates. The anti-colonial war began in the 1950s in the congo lands, by a movement that later gave rise to the moderate and pro-Western FNLA (Frente nacional de libertação de Angola) of H. Roberto. AA Neto and M. de Andrade founded the MPLA (Movimento popular de libertação de Angola) in 1956, rooted around the capital, Luanda. With a Marxist-Leninist approach, he supported the union between nationalism and class struggle. Later the UNITA (União nacional de independéncia total de Angola) was formed, by J. Savimbi, originally a revolutionary force based in the Center-South. The three movements were immediately on antagonistic positions. In spite of the concessions of the Portuguese leader M. Caetano, in 1970, the war intensified. The Portuguese Revolution of 1974 paved the way for independence (11 November 1975).
From independence to today. Having skipped the agreement for a transitional government, the Portuguese troops withdrew, followed by the white civilians, without a formal handover, while the three movements competed for hegemony. The MPLA imposed itself in the capital – thanks also to the support of the USSR and Cuba – which proclaimed the People’s Republic of Angola, with Neto as president. Cuban troops came in support of the new government. The FNLA was supported by Zaire until 1978, while South Africa immediately intervened alongside UNITA, also supported by the US. The Angolan conflict was an important scene of the Cold War. Destruction and civilian losses were immense, nullifying the plans for social reform. In 1988 an agreement between Cuba, Angola and South Africa established the withdrawal of the South Africans, the independence of Namibia (1990) – the scene of a conflict closely linked to that of the Angola – and the departure of the Cubans (1991). In 1990 the Luanda regime opted for a democratic opening and an agreement with UNITA (1991), which nevertheless contested the victory of the MPLA and of President JE Dos Santos (in office since Neto’s death in 1978) in the elections of 1992 supervised by the UN. The fighting resumed. New negotiations, mediated by N. Mandela, led to the Peace of Lusaka (1994). However, UNITA’s military capability remained active, with new outbreaks of war. Only the killing of Savimbi (2002) resulted in full demobilization. An autonomy agreement ended the secessionist struggle in the Cabinda oil district (2006). THERE. is a large oil producer.
