It's a day late, but here it is!, Update 40; guest written by AH.com's very own and excellent Reagent and approved as canon by me.
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Part 40
The Land at the End of the World
South of the equator, Portugal has created two great provinces out of a mosaic of poor and generally decadent tribes, scattered over inhospitable lands. The overseas provinces of Angola and Mozambique are populated by Blacks, Whites, and Asians who love their motherland. We therefore consider it our duty to defend those who in trusting Portugal are loyal to its flag; and we understand it to be our duty to safeguard a work which represents a positive contribution to the progress of Humanity and Civilization
-General Kaúlza de Arriaga
Figure 1: FNLA Insurgents training in the Belgian Congo
Despite the introduction of three Portuguese Army Divisions and several thousand German soldiers, the situation in Angola would continue to deteriorate for the Portuguese as 1960 began. From bases in the Belgian Congo, the FNLA launched a broad attack on Northern Angola involving 5,000 insurgents across a 300km front (and latter growing to include upwards of 20,000 insurgents). The rebels attacked European properties and murdered Portuguese civilians and a number of African civilians (mostly of the Ovimbundu People, who worked as contracted labor on Coffee plantations in Northern Angola). The FNLA were often sheltered by members of the Bakongo People (as Holden Roberto and much of the FNLA leadership belonged to the Bakongo People). Accordingly, in an effort to counter these attacks Portuguese government began a policy of forcibly relocating entire Bakongo villages to isolated locations in the interior of Angola, where they would not come into contact with the FNLA. The brutality with which the removal was carried out ultimately drove many Bakongo to support the FNLA and led many Bakongo to flee into the Congo (which was concurrently descending into chaos). The FNLA also participated in the forced relocation of villages (in a process dubbed “herding”), so they could better control villager populations and indoctrinate them to their cause. By 1963, nearly 500,000 Africans had been “shifted” into the Congo, leaving much of Northern Angola underpopulated. The inability of the FNLA to blend in with the local population (since many areas now lacked a local population) significantly hindered their ability to infiltrate from the Belgian Congo, enabling the Portuguese and Germans to contain the threat. However, with a large civilian populace at their disposal within the Congo, the FNLA continued to grow in size as time progressed.
The Portuguese preoccupation with fighting the FNLA enabled other rebel groups to rise up in other regions of Angola. In Malange Province, another rebel group known as the MPLA drew support from the Kimbundu People and organized a number of revolts on cotton plantations along the Cuanza River. The MPLA was able to cause significant disruptions in Kimbundu populated areas throughout the summer of 1960 (including cutting the Luanda Railway), until the Portuguese were able to dispatch forces to expel them from the province (once the threat from the FNLA had been contained). In central Angola, the rebel group UNITA was formed, drawing strength from the Ovimbundu people (who occupied some of the best farmland in Angola and repeatedly came to blows with Portuguese farmers who began confiscating their land to set up commercial farms). However, by the time UNITA began to conduct offensive operations in 1961, the Portuguese and Germans had managed to contain threats elsewhere and could quickly address disturbances in Ovimbundu populated areas. While the Portuguese and Germans were stretched thin by the end of 1961 (between containing the insurgents along the Congo-Angola border and protecting civilian population centers), they were assisted by events elsewhere, which gave them breathing room. The regime in Congo had grown hostile to the rebel groups, and had begun to interfere with the delivery of supplies to their camps by 1962 and by 1964, the insurgent groups were no longer allowed to operate in the Congo (though much of the civilian populace remained behind in refugee camps). Unfortunately for the Portuguese and Germans, the Independence of Zambia in 1963 (headed by Socialist and African Nationalist Kenneth Kaunda) enabled the rebel groups to redeploy and reopen a front against Portugal in the east of Angola (an area so remote, Portuguese soldiers referred to it as “The End of the World”).
Rebellions in Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau forced Portugal to redeploy a number of soldiers from Angola to her other Overseas Provinces, weakening the ability of the Portuguese and German soldiers to successfully prevent insurgents from infiltrating from Zambia. By 1966, the War in Angola was a stalemate, with Portugal increasingly relying on air power to contain the insurgent groups (with only some degree of success, as rebel groups launched raids deep into the interior of Angola). The United States CIA under Maxwell D. Taylor helped covertly funnel weaponry to rebel groups based in Zambia, enabling the insurgents to begin to inflict casualties with some parity to the Germans and Portuguese (who until that point, had been inflicting far more casualties than they were taking). While the War in Angola was not going according to plan, the situation was deteriorating even more rapidly in Portugal’s other possessions. In Mozambique, the rebel group FRELIMO was making minor, but steady gains against the Portuguese led by General Kaúlza de Arriaga. Arriaga became known as the “Butcher of Mozambique” for his brutal treatment of civilians suspected to be harboring FRELIMO operatives (which only alienated more Africans against the Portuguese regime). In Mozambique, Portugal at least had the benefit of only having to defend two sections of the long border (the border with Tanganyika and the border with Zambia), since sympathetic regimes comprised the remainder of the border. The same could not be said of Guinea-Bissau, which was bordered entirely by regimes unsympathetic to Portugal’s position. The rebel group PAIGC (which also claimed to operate in Cape Verde, but in reality had very little presence on the islands) was making rather rapid gains against the Portuguese and succeeded in capturing and holding minor cities.
Figure 2: Suburbs of Luanda; circa 1967
While the rebel groups of Angola and Mozambique posed some degree of a threat the countryside in some provinces, the remainder of the Overseas Provinces was largely untouched by the Overseas War. The major cities of Angola and Mozambique were almost completely untouched by the Overseas War (except for the occasional attack on a prison or government building which were far and few between). Accordingly, despite the ongoing war, the 1960s would represent a time for rapid growth among the White population of Angola and Mozambique. Portugal had begun to encourage immigration to the two Overseas Provinces during the 1950s. President Marcelo Caetano, who had once been Minister of the Overseas Provinces was a particular advocate of settlement and development of Portuguese Africa. During the 1950s, Portugal had (with the help of German and Italian capital) expanded the rail networks within Angola and Mozambique and build several new hydroelectric dams to meet increasing energy and water demands from the settler populace. The government began a program of building prefabricated housing to accommodate the massive influx of Portuguese (who moved to Africa largely to seek work and out of a sense that Africa afforded them more opportunities than the metropole), which were rented out to migrants based on a sliding scale according to income (with the option to purchase the home after accumulating enough money). Massive concrete factories were built in the provincial capitals of Luanda and Lourenço Marques to help facilitate the construction of this prefabricated housing. By 1960, Angola’s White population topped 400,000, while Mozambique’s White Population boasted over a quarter of a million members. These populations would experience exponential growth, as mainland Portugal entered a mild economic downturn in the 1960s (while economic growth in the colonies continued at a breakneck pace after the initial disruptions in 1959-1961).
Prime Minister Salazar proposed to Führer Albert Speer that a large number of Portuguese workers be able to work on a temporary basis within Germany (it was hoped by Salazar that the remittances sent back by the workers could help get the mainland Portuguese economy growing again). However, Speer rejected this proposal, not wanting Portuguese migratory workers competing with Germans for jobs. Salazar was similarly unsuccessful in obtaining agreement from the leader of Vichy France, Pierre de Hérain. Since it was exceedingly difficult to emigrate without government permission, Africa beckoned as the only realistic hope for many Portuguese (particularly young adults, who were experiencing the higher unemployment than the rest of Portuguese society). Ultimately, a staggering number (topping a million) Portuguese immigrated to Africa during the 1960s. Considerable strain was put on housing in urban areas, leading the development of sprawling suburbs outside of Angola and Mozambique’s major cities. The growth of suburbs led to a demand for cars not seen in the metropole. In 1965, Salazar invited Volkswagen to set up factories in Angola and Mozambique to help meet this demand. For Whites who opted to live outside of the major cities, life was considerably riskier, since insurgent groups often targeted White civilians in their raids. Due to this risk, the Portuguese government reluctantly began issuing firearms to White settlers living in remote areas (which resulted in somewhat less attacks from insurgent groups upon settler property). Firearms would gain rapid popularity within the White communities of Angola and Mozambique, and both provinces would develop a Gun culture rivaled only by the United States. Ultimately, despite the ongoing Overseas War, Whites in Angola and Mozambique enjoyed standards of living far superior to their mainland counterparts.a However, by the mid-1960s, some within Portugal’s government began to question if is worth it to continue subsidizing the Overseas Provinces (while others vigorously defended the effort). This contentious debate would lead to profound consequences for Portugal.
Figure 3: General António de Spínola, Prime Minister of Portugal 1966-1967; circa 1965
In 1966, Prime Minister Salazar fell down a flight of stairs and suffered a brain hemorrhage – passing away shortly afterwards. President Marcelo Caetano championed General António de Spínola, who had a reputation of being a moderate and war hero, to succeed Salazar as Prime Minister, in hopes of leaving all of the various ideological factions within the Portuguese regime more or less content. However, General Spínola proved to be far more liberal and reformist than anyone within the regime anticipated – which alarmed the Far-Right faction within the Portuguese regime. As part of a series of economic and political reforms (dubbed by outsiders as the “Spínolist Spring”) Spínola instituted a form of Social Security for Portuguese workers and abandoned Portugal’s commitment to a balanced budget. Some of the censorship restrictions that were imposed under Salazar were also lifted, and opposition parties were allowed to openly compete (though there was still significant vote rigging and voter intimidation in favor of the administration). On the foreign front, he argued that Portugal should avoid associating herself too strongly with either the Axis or ACT alliance, and argued that Portugal should instead take a “neutral middle course” in international diplomacy. To this effect, Spínola proposed that the German soldiers deployed in Africa return home – something Spínola only backed away from this effort after pleas from his generals to allow the Germans to remain. The most alarming aspect of the new prime minister for the Portuguese Far-Right was General Spínola’s claim that too much many resources were being invested within Africa rather than the metropole. Many within the “Ultra” faction of the Estado Novo believed that Spínola sought to conduct secret negotiations with African revolutionary groups (which would result in a Portuguese withdrawal), in an effort to quit Portugal of the conflict. Fears among the Ultras were confirmed, when it was revealed that Spínola had initiated negotiations with the PAIGC in Guinea-Bissau, which has been the most successful insurgent group up as of this stage in the war.
Against this backdrop, General Kaúlza de Arriaga – who had now been recalled to Lisbon due to his conduct in Mozambique – approached the German Embassy, requesting tacit German approval of a putsch against Spínola and Caetano (the latter of whom the “Ultras” now viewed as a weak technocrat who gave way too easily to Spínola’s proposals). Führer Speer, who feared Portugal could be slipping out of Germany’s sphere of influence, assured Arriaga that Germany would not interfere with any putsch attempt and did not report Arriaga’s sedition to the Portuguese Government. With this green-light from the Germans, Arriaga carefully recruited other Ultras within the military and Portuguese government to assist in the putsch attempt. Arriaga’s accomplices eventually included his brother-in-law General Joaquim da Luz Cunha, General Henrique Troni (the current Minister of Defense), General Silvino Silvério Marques (the Governor of Angola and Cabinda), and Admiral Américo Tomás among others. On March 15th, 1967 the Ultras launched what has come to be known as the “General’s Putsch”. In Lisbon, soldiers loyal to the Ultras put Spínola and Caetano (and much of the Portuguese Cabinet) under arrest and seized control of key government institutions. Those arrested by the Putschists were accused of treason against Portugal (specifically seeking to undermine the territorial integrity of the pluricontinental Portuguese nation). While Spínola and Caetano were allowed to live in relative comfort under house arrest, many others were not as fortunate. Many reformists and moderates formerly within the regime were sentenced to life in prison within the infamous Tarrafal Prison in Cape Verde or “disappeared”. Arriaga’s contacts within Angola, Mozambique, and Guinea-Bissau ensured that the Putschists assumed complete control of Portugal within 24 hours of the coup being launched. After securing complete control of the Portuguese government, the Ultras launched a pre-emptive purge of Portuguese military to clear the organization of any leftists who could later challenge the regime.
Figure 4: General Kaúlza de Arriaga, leader of the “General’s Putsch”; circa 1969
To shore up his regime’s position with the Portuguese populace, General Arriaga and the Provisional Junta sought to escalate the Overseas War and bring it to a rapid conclusion as a Portuguese victory. This effort got off to a rocky start when a large offensive operation (known as “Operation Green Sea”) in Guinea-Bissau failed to significantly reverse Portuguese fortunes, resulting in little land gained from the PAIGC (which now controlled nearly half of the nation – though still not any major cities) and a large number of Portuguese casualties, including Arriaga’s nephew Mário. As the PAIGC reveled in victory, the abject failure of Operation Green Sea forced the Junta to finally come to terms that the war in Guinea-Bissau was unwinnable and Portugal would be better off refocusing her resources elsewhere. However, bitter in defeat, Arriaga resolved to leave the PAIGC only a “country of ashes” to govern, and refused to conduct any sort of agreement that gave the group international legitimacy. As 1967 drew to a close, Portugal evacuated Whites, Mixed-Race individuals, and various tribes loyal to the regime and resettled them in the sparsely populated Lunda District of Angola. Concurrently with the evacuation, General Arriaga issued the “Nero Decree”, ordering the Portuguese Army in Guinea-Bissau to destroy infrastructure and administrative mechanisms as they withdrew from the country to leave nothing for the PAIGC. Schools, Hospitals, Electric Lines, Bridges, Roads, and other infrastructure was systemically laid to waste as the Portuguese Army began withdrawing from Guinea-Bissau (to be redeployed in Angola). As the last Portuguese soldiers left Bissau, the capital’s port facilities were destroyed. After entering Bissau, the PAIGC declared the establishment of the Socialist Republic of Guinea, and was recognized as the legitimate governing authority by the ACT and much of the Third World. However, Portugal still considered the nation to be an integral Overseas Province, albeit an “occupied” province (much like Goa, which had been occupied by India since 1962) and the Axis refused to extend diplomatic recognition to the group. Due to the damage done to Guinea-Bissau by the Portuguese through the “Nero Decree”, the PAIGC found it extremely difficult to govern their country and provide even the most basic of services. By 1970, the inhabitants of the “Socialist Republic of Guinea” had among the lowest standards of living in the entire world.
While the Junta’s reputation suffered from the withdrawal from Guinea-Bissau, the decision to effectively abandon the colony would prove to be a massive boon to Portuguese efforts elsewhere. By 1967, the War in Guinea-Bissau had consumed close to 20% of the entire Portuguese budget (more than Angola and Mozambique) and a significant portion of Portuguese manpower. Arriaga redeployed these substantial assets into Angola as part of an effort to end the insurgency once and for all. In 1968, the Zambian government expelled UNITA from their bases within their country, after the insurgent group attacked the Benguela Railway (which Zambia relied upon to export Copper to the rest of the world). Arriaga saw in this an opportunity to turn the rebel groups against each other and entered into secret negotiations with Jonas Savimbi, the leader of UNITA. Arriaga offered to turn Cuando-Cubago and Moxico districts into an autonomous province run by UNITA. For Portugal, the territory ceded was largely devoid of economic value (and had very little White settlement), and UNITA could act as a buffer against the insurgent groups infiltrating from Zambia. For Savimbi, who had no love for the MPLA and FNLA (which had fought with UNITA almost as much as they fought the Portuguese), this offer gave him a chance to salvage some amount of power for himself and prevent UNITA from being marginalized within Angola (as they now lacked any effective way to enter the country). In addition, it would put him in a strong position to seize the rest of the country, should Portugal abandon Angola. Arriaga and Savimbi agreed to the deal and Portugal covertly smuggled Savimbi and his fighters back into Angola.
Figure 5: Portuguese and UNITA soldiers torch a MPLA training camp in Eastern Angola; circa 1969
In addition to turning UNITA, Arriaga was able to secure support from South Africa (which was now combating its own insurgency in South-West Africa) to provide aerial support against rebel groups. After nearly a year of preparations, in January of 1969 the Portuguese launched Operation Gordian Knot in Eastern Angola to crush the MPLA and FNLA once and for all. The increased number of Portuguese soldiers, fanatical fighting of the Waffen SS soldiers, combined with South African air support, and UNITA’s knowledge of the terrain and insurgent tactics proved too much for the MPLA and FNLA to cope with. Large numbers of insurgents were killed and those that weren’t were driven from the country (along with a number of civilians who had cast their lot with the rebels). Compounding the rebel group’s misfortune, the Portuguese intelligence forces managed to smuggle a bomb into MPLA’s office in Lusaka, and killed the MPLA leader Agostinho Neto. Upon the assassination of Neto, the MPLA split into three competing factions and ceased any sort of offensive action into Angola from Zambia. The FNLA fared only a little better, with the leader of the Cabindan branch defecting to the Portuguese with 2,000 fighters after the FNLA defeat in Gordian Knot. The FNLA was largely unable to launch effective combat operations into Angola by the end of 1970. After Gordian Knot, Savimbi was granted effective control of Cuando-Cubango and Moxico districts and UNITA acted as a reasonably effective buffer for whenever the FNLA or MPLA remnants tried to launch any sort of attack within Angola. To shore up UNITA’s position within Cuando-Cubango and Moxico, and simultaneously acquire more land for White Settlers to farm, Portugal began a policy of intensifying land confiscation from Ovimbundu people in the Bié plateau, and resettling the displaced within UNITA’s autonomous district. By the end of 1970, Portugal had significantly scaled back her troop commitment in Angola, and had redeployed most of her soldiers (who were joined by the Waffen SS) to Mozambique, where Arriaga hoped to achieve a victory like Gordian Knot against FRELIMO.
While at a great cost, Portugal and their German and South African allies had effectively won the War in Angola, forever changing the demographic balance. Despite receiving nearly 600,000 immigrants from Europe, Angola would end the 1960s with a population about the same as when the conflict started. The 1970 census revealed that the Portuguese were now the second largest ethnic group within the country (behind the Ovimbundu people) constituting a majority in a number of cities (notably Luanda and Nova Lisboa). The Ovimbundu people, constituting an almost negligible portion of the population in Cuando-Cubango and Moxico in 1960, had grown to become a significant minority, and a majority within the city of Luena (the capital of UNITA’s autonomous district). The Bakongo and Kimbundu peoples saw their population drop between 1960 and 1970, as Portuguese authorities refused to let civilians return to Angola after the effective cessation of hostilities (due to concerns held by Arriaga that these civilians had been indoctrinated by the rebel groups and could spark another revolt in the future). Thus, hundreds of thousands of Angolans remained in refugee camps outside of the country (mostly in Zambia and the Congo). These dramatic population shifts would ultimately help lay the foundations for a conflict even more brutal, depraved, and devastating than the Overseas War had been.
. I'm guessing that although the Portuguese settlers make up a minority of the overall population (What is it exactly? 3-5%? It sounds like there are almost 1.5 million in the colonies, and the region would have some 30 million people, maybe a little less.), they dwarf all the other groups combined in terms of power and wealth. As long as the Axis continues to exist and Germany keeps supporting them, Portugal's Empire doesn't seem like it will go anywhere. Particularly if there's some sort of White Alliance in Africa or something ridiculous like that.
