Portugal recognizes Guinea-Bissau’s independence

Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered to the joint command of Bangladeshi and Indian forces. The surrender ended the nine-month liberation war and established Bangladesh as an independent...

The Bahamian archipelago became an independent state after a constitutional process led by the Progressive Liberal Party. Independence followed a long struggle over racial equality, labor rights,...

Grenada became independent after British rule. The transition followed organizing by workers, trade unions, and political movements in a plantation society shaped by slavery and colonial...

The Armed Forces Movement overthrew Portugal’s Estado Novo dictatorship. Portugal’s prolonged and increasingly costly wars against African liberation movements were a major cause of the coup. The...

The General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order. Newly independent states argued that political independence without control over trade,...

The OAU’s Dar es Salaam Declaration called for support to consolidate liberation and reconstruct territories emerging from Portuguese rule. The document reflected a continental strategy:...

Mozambique became independent after FRELIMO’s long armed and political struggle against Portuguese colonial rule. Portugal transferred power to a FRELIMO-led government under the Lusaka agreement....

Cape Verde became independent after Portugal accepted the end of its colonial empire. PAIGC linked the archipelago’s future to the liberation struggle in Guinea-Bissau, though the two territories...

The Comorian Chamber of Deputies declared independence from France. Mayotte’s voters had chosen to remain linked to France, and France treated the islands separately, leaving the archipelago...

São Tomé and Príncipe became independent after Portugal’s Carnation Revolution opened negotiations with African liberation movements. The islands’ colonial economy had relied on plantation labor under...