MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Angola

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Angola, on the map of history

What was Angola before it was Angola? Below, every era of this land in the Maps of History collection — who ruled it, what it was called, and when control changed — each line linked to the dated map that shows it. Modern borders stand in as an honest approximation; every atlas says so on the map itself.

Angola · The Great War, 1914–1918

OPEN WWI ON THE LIVING MAP →

Angola · The Cold War, 1945–1991

Portugal’s abandoned colony became the proxy era’s main stage: Cuban regulars, South African columns, CIA cash — all before independence day 1975 (Ch. 8). The civil war the Cold War armed ran twenty-seven years, a decade past its patrons’ interest. Its oil and diamonds paid for everyone’s ammunition.

OPEN THE COLD WAR ON THE LIVING MAP →

Angola · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Angola fought Portugal from 1961, then plunged on independence in November 1975 into an internationalized civil war — Cuban troops and Soviet arms for the MPLA, South African columns and CIA money for UNITA and the FNLA — that lasted twenty-seven years. Oil and diamonds funded the fighting. The purest case on the map of a war of liberation handing straight over to a Cold War proxy war.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →