The End of the Portuguese Colonial Empire

Abstract

AbstractThe vast Portuguese (African) Colonial Empire stands out considering its late collapse compared to other colonial entities. With the exception of Macau, only in 1974/75 it ceased to exist. It even outlived the colonial Empire of its traditional protecting power—Britain—for a remarkable long period. The coincidence with the end of Salazar’s regime is obvious but it would be wrong to suppose that existence and preservation of the colonial Empire would have been solely the interest of the regime. This sense of mission combined with the conviction of a historic non-racist approach by the Portuguese was also present within the ranks of the opposition and faded only very late in the process. Therefore, the goals of the Portuguese colonial war in Africa were less disputed than often assumed, even though the more than decade-long war against African liberation movements starting in 1961 contributed greatly to weakening the regime. Portugal’s isolation on the UN-level also had a share in this. During the decolonization process in the twentieth century, Portuguese politics were subject to an “Africanization”. Political emanations tried to build closer ties legally, emotionally and due to the war effort public spending increasingly had to fund the war in Africa including local economies. Furthermore, the Portuguese armed forces relied to a growing extent on African soldiers. The sometimes still uncritical review of the colonial past and the difficulty to desist from a certain sense of mission might have some roots in the decades before 1974. Scholars even have stated that it was not Africa that had been liberated from Portugal, but Portugal from Africa.KeywordsPortuguese EmpireCarnation revolutionColonial warDecolonizationAfrica