Editing Angola (section)

===Angolan War of Independence===
{{Main|Angolan War of Independence|Portuguese Colonial War}}
[[File:Luanda,desfilemilitar (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|[[Portuguese Armed Forces]] marching in Luanda during the [[Portuguese Colonial War]]s (1961–74).]]
Under colonial law, black Angolans were forbidden from forming political parties or labour unions.<ref name=Okoth>{{cite book|last=Okoth|first=Assa|title=A History of Africa: African nationalism and the de-colonisation process|date=2006|pages=143–147|publisher=East African Educational Publishers|location=Nairobi|isbn=9966-25-358-0}}</ref> The first nationalist movements did not take root until after [[World War II]], spearheaded by a largely Westernised and Portuguese-speaking urban class, which included many [[mestiço]]s.<ref name="Dowden">{{cite book|last=Dowden |first= Richard| title = Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles| year = 2010| pages = [https://archive.org/details/africaalteredsta00rich/page/207 207–208]| publisher = Portobello Books| location = London| isbn = 978-1-58648-753-9| url = https://archive.org/details/africaalteredsta00rich/page/207}}</ref> During the early 1960s they were joined by other associations stemming from ''ad hoc'' labour activism in the rural workforce.<ref name=Okoth/> Portugal's refusal to address increasing Angolan demands for [[self-determination]] provoked an armed conflict, which erupted in 1961 with the [[Baixa de Cassanje revolt]] and gradually evolved into a protracted [[Angolan War of Independence|war of independence]] that persisted for the next twelve years.<ref name="Cornwell">{{cite web
|title=The War of Independence|last=Cornwell|first=Richard|url=http://www.issafrica.org/pubs/books/Angola/4cornwell.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150221015144/http://www.issafrica.org/pubs/books/Angola/4cornwell.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 February 2015|location=Pretoria|publisher=Institute for Security Studies|date=1 November 2000|access-date=20 February 2015}}</ref> Throughout the conflict, three militant nationalist movements with their own partisan guerrilla wings emerged from the fighting between the Portuguese government and local forces, supported to varying degrees by the [[Portuguese Communist Party]].<ref name="Dowden"/><ref name="Stockwell">{{cite book|title=In Search of Enemies|last=Stockwell|first=John|location=London|publisher=Futura Publications Limited|year=1979|orig-year=1978|isbn=978-0393009262|pages=44–45}}</ref>

The ''[[FNLA|National Front for the Liberation of Angola]]'' (FNLA) recruited from [[Bakongo]] refugees in [[Zaire]].<ref name="Hanlon">{{cite book|title=Beggar Your Neighbours: Apartheid Power in Southern Africa|url=https://archive.org/details/beggaryourneighb00hanl|url-access=registration|last=Hanlon|first=Joseph|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=1986|isbn=978-0253331311|page=[https://archive.org/details/beggaryourneighb00hanl/page/155 155]}}</ref> Benefiting from particularly favourable political circumstances in [[Kinshasa|Léopoldville]], and especially from a common border with Zaire, Angolan political exiles were able to build up a power base among a large expatriate community from related families, clans, and traditions.<ref name="Chabal">{{cite book|title=A History of Postcolonial Lusophone Africa|last=Chabal|first=Patrick|location=Bloomington|publisher=Indiana University Press|date=2002|isbn=978-0253215659|page=142}}</ref> People on both sides of the border spoke mutually intelligible dialects and enjoyed shared ties to the historical Kingdom of Kongo.<ref name="Chabal"/> Though as foreigners skilled Angolans could not take advantage of [[Mobutu Sese Seko]]'s state employment programme, some found work as middlemen for the absentee owners of various lucrative private ventures. The migrants eventually formed the FNLA with the intention of making a bid for political power upon their envisaged return to Angola.<ref name="Chabal"/>
[[File:FNLA1973.jpg|thumb|upright|Members of the [[National Liberation Front of Angola]] training in 1973.]]
A largely [[Ovimbundu]] guerrilla initiative against the Portuguese in central Angola from 1966 was spearheaded by [[Jonas Savimbi]] and the ''[[UNITA|National Union for the Total Independence of Angola]]'' (UNITA).<ref name="Hanlon"/> It remained handicapped by its geographic remoteness from friendly borders, the ethnic fragmentation of the Ovimbundu, and the isolation of peasants on European plantations where they had little opportunity to mobilise.<ref name="Chabal"/>

During the late 1950s, the rise of the Marxist–Leninist ''[[MPLA|Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola]]'' (MPLA) in the east and Dembos hills north of Luanda came to hold special significance. Formed as a coalition resistance movement by the [[Angolan Communist Party]],<ref name="Cornwell"/> the organisation's leadership remained predominantly [[Ambundu]] and courted public sector workers in [[Luanda]].<ref name="Hanlon"/> Although both the MPLA and its rivals accepted material assistance from the [[Soviet Union]] or the People's Republic of [[China]], the former harboured strong anti-imperialist views and was openly critical of the [[United States]] and its support for Portugal.<ref name="Stockwell"/> This allowed it to win important ground on the diplomatic front, soliciting support from nonaligned governments in [[Morocco]], [[Ghana]], [[Guinea]], [[Mali]], and the [[United Arab Republic]].<ref name="Cornwell"/>

The MPLA attempted to move its headquarters from [[Conakry]] to Léopoldville in October 1961, renewing efforts to create a common front with the FNLA, then known as the ''Union of Angolan Peoples'' (UPA) and its leader [[Holden Roberto]]. Roberto turned down the offer.<ref name="Cornwell"/> When the MPLA first attempted to insert its own insurgents into Angola, the cadres were ambushed and annihilated by UPA partisans on Roberto's orders—setting a precedent for the bitter factional strife which would later ignite the [[Angolan Civil War]].<ref name="Cornwell"/>