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.
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NAUMACHIA TRUTH BEHIND ROME'S GLADIATOR SEA BATTLES
In their quest for evermore novel and bloody entertainment, the Romans staged enormous naval fights on artificial lakes
OPERATION MANNA
In late April 1945, millions of Dutch civilians were starving as Nazi retribution for the failed Operation Market Garden cut off supplies. eet as In response, Allied bombers launched a risky mission to air-drop food
GASSING HITLER
Just a month before the end of WWI, the future Fuhrer was blinded by a British shell and invalided away from the frontline. Over a century later, has the artillery brigade that launched the fateful attack finally been identified?
SALAMANCA
After years of largely defensive campaigning, Lieutenant General Arthur Wellesley went on the offensive against a French invasion of Andalusia
HUMBERT 'ROCKY'VERSACE
Early in the Vietnam War, a dedicated US Special Forces officer defied his merciless Viet Cong captors and inspired his fellow POWs to survive
LEYTE 1944 SINKING THE RISING SUN
One of the more difficult island campaigns in WWII's Pacific Theatre saw a brutal months-long fight that exhausted Japan’s military strength
MAD DAWN
How technology transformed strategic thinking and military doctrine from the Cold War to the current day
BRUSHES WITH ARMAGEDDON
Humanity came close to self-annihilation with the Cuban Missile Crisis, Broken Arrows’ and other nuclear near misses
THE DEADLY RACE
How the road to peace led to an arms contest between the USA and USSR, with prototypes, proliferation and the world’s biggest bomb
THE MANHATTAN PROJECT
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