MAPS OF HISTORY · HISTORY OF · Guinea-Bissau

ONE LAND · 3 ATLASES

Guinea-Bissau, on the map of history

What was Guinea-Bissau before it was Guinea-Bissau? 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.

Guinea-Bissau · The Great War, 1914–1918

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Guinea-Bissau · The Cold War, 1945–1991

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Guinea-Bissau · The Decolonization of Africa, 1945–1994

Portuguese Guinea produced the liberation struggle historians most admire: Amílcar Cabral’s PAIGC built schools, clinics and people’s courts inside its liberated zones, and by 1973 held most of the countryside — declaring independence that September from inside the country, recognized by much of the UN before Lisbon conceded. Cabral was assassinated in Conakry in January 1973, months short of victory; the unwinnable war he designed did as much as any to push the Portuguese army into the Carnation Revolution. Recognized in September 1974 — the first Portuguese colony freed, and a key to freeing the rest.

OPEN THE DECOLONIZATION OF AFRICA ON THE LIVING MAP →