ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights certain political factors that influenced Portugal's role in Angola from April 1974 to 11 November 1975, when the sixth provisional government, refusing to recognize any legal Angolan government, withdrew and-handed over sovereignty to "the people of Angola." The military situation in Portuguese Africa on 25 April 1974 was varied and complex. In Angola, where insurgency had existed longest, the war had reached a stalemate not unfavorable to the Portuguese. The turbulent, somewhat confusing, and surprising events in Portugal in the months after the April coup obscured those factors that traditionally would have supported a more conservative solution to decolonization. Negotiations between Portugal and the African nationalist parties of Angola began in earnest in October 1974. On 10 November 1975, some hours before the official independence of Angola, the last Portuguese troops and officials left Luanda. Moreover, the Angolan nationalist movements were consistently opposed to international intervention.
