History (AS)·International relations since 1919 · NSSCAS 1.6
Cold War rivalries & African independence: Angola
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When African colonies fought for their freedom, the world's two superpowers turned those struggles into proxy wars. In this lesson we travel to Angola, meet its three rival liberation movements — the MPLA, UNITA and the FNLA — and follow the rush to independence in 1975 that collapsed into a civil war fed by outsiders. We'll draw the vital link to our own Namibia, from the Cassinga raid to the great battle at Cuito Cuanavale and the 1988 New York Accords, and finish with the great AS question: was Angola's war a Cold War proxy conflict, or a local power struggle amplified by outsiders?
What you'll learn in this lesson
By the end you should be able to (NSSCAS History (AS) 1.6):
- Evaluate the role of Cold War rivalries in African independence, using Angola as a case study
- Describe the rival Angolan liberation movements — the MPLA, UNITA and the FNLA
- Explain the impact of United States and Soviet involvement on the war
- Assess how far Angola's conflict was driven by the Cold War rather than by local factors
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