PORTUGAL'S FORGOTTEN COLONIAL WAR

While the US and allies fought the Viet Cong's guerrilla campaign, Portugal mounted its own counter-insurgency in its colonial possessions in Angola and Mozambique. This largely overlooked conflict witnessed one of Africa's last major wars of independence from European colonialism

- MARCEL PLICHTA

Portugal's 1960-74 colonial conflicts in Africa are some of the era's lesser-known counterinsurgencies, but there is a lot to learn from them. Despite being a small country with a modest economy and tiny military, Portugal fought three wars in Angola, Mozambique and Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau and Cabo Verde) for over a decade. Compared to similar conflicts in Vietnam and Algeria, Portugal's innovative strategies and the fact that a revolution in Portugal ended the war rather than outright defeat on the battlefield, has led to a degree of myth-making about Portugal's military prowess. Were they as successful on the battlefield as they claimed? And why was Portugal so eager to hold on to its colonies well after the colonial era had come to a close?

Imperial legacy

Portugal's regime wanted to use the explosive economic growth of its colonies to spearhead growth at home. Despite a large colonial empire and history of global commerce, by the mid-20th century Lisbon did not have the population, industrial base or economic might enjoyed by the US, UK or France. Antonio Salazar, who ruled Portugal from 1933 until 1968, hoped to extract the wealth of the colonies to underpin his legitimacy. By the mid-1960s the combined GDP of these colonies was on track to equalling that of Portugal itself, which provided an enormous opportunity to increase Lisbon's prosperity at the expense of its African subjects.

The desire to develop Portugal with the wealth of its colonies led the nation to use every excuse possible to maintain its possessions while the rest of the world was undergoing decolonisation. Most notably, while countries like France distinguished between the colonies and the 'metropole', Portugal's Salazar regime sought to portray the metropole and the Ultramar (the word for Portugal's overseas possessions) as a united nation.