|
Angola
(Death toll from U.S.-backed civil war in Angola 1976-1992: 300,000)
1300s - Kongo kingdom consolidates in the north.
1483 - Portuguese arrive.
1575
- Portuguese found Luanda.
17th and 18th centuries - Angola becomes a major Portuguese trading arena for slaves. Between
1580 and 1680 a million plus are shipped to Brazil.
1836 - Slave trade officially abolished by the Portuguese government.
1885-1930 - Portugal consolidates colonial control over Angola, local resistance persists.
Angola under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality1951 - Angola's status changes from colony to overseas
province.
1956 - The early beginnings of the socialist guerrilla independence movement, the People's Movement for the
Liberation of Angola (MPLA), based in northern Congo.
1950s-1961 - Nationalist movement develops, guerrilla war begins.
1961
- Forced labour abolished after revolts on coffee plantations leave 50,000 dead. The fight for independence is bolstered.
1974 - Revolution in Portugal, colonial empire collapses.
Independence
1975 - Angola gains
independence but power struggle ensues between MPLA, backed by Cuba, and the FNLA plus Unita, backed by South Africa and the
USA.
Killing Hope by William Blum: Angola 1975-1980sThe CIAs Greatest Hits: AngolaSecret Third World Wars by John StockwellIn Search of Enemies by John Stockwell1976 - MPLA gains upper hand.
1979 - MPLA leader
Agostinho Neto dies. Jose Eduardo dos Santos takes over as president.
Secret Collaboration: U.S. and South Africa Foment Terrorist
Wars1987 - South African forces enter Angola to support
Unita.
Remembering Cuba’s Sacrifice for African Liberation The Secret Wars of the CIA by John Stockwell1988 - South Africa, Angola, Cuba sign agreement on
withdrawal of Cuba's 50,000 troops from Angola by mid-1991. South African army withdraws.
1989 - Dos Santos, Unita
leader Jonas Savimbi agree cease-fire, which collapses soon afterwards and guerrilla activity resumes.
Towards peace
1991 April - MPLA drops Marxism-Leninism in favour of social democracy.
1991 May - Dos Santos, Savimbi sign
peace deal in Lisbon which results in a new multiparty constitution.
1992 September - Presidential and parliamentary
polls certified by UN monitors as generally free and fair. Dos Santo gains more votes than Savimbi, who rejects results and
resumes guerrilla war.
1993 - UN imposes sanctions against Unita. The US acknowledges the MPLA.
1994 - Government,
Unita sign Lusaka Protocol peace accord.
1995 - Dos Santos, Savimbi meet, confirm commitment to peace. First of 7,000
UN peacekeepers arrive.
1996 - Dos Santos, Savimbi agree to form unity government join forces into national army.
1997
April - Unified government inaugurated, with Savimbi declining post in unity government and failing to attend inauguration
ceremony.
1997 May - Tension mounts, with few Unita troops having integrated into army.
1998 - Full-scale fighting
resumes. UN plane shot down. Angola intervenes in civil war in Democratic Republic of Congo on the side of President Laurent-Desire
Kabila.
1999 - UN ends its peacekeeping mission.
2002 February - Savimbi killed by government troops.
Angola After Savimbi2002 April - Government, Unita sign ceasefire.
Demobilisation
2002 May - Unita's military commander says 85% of his troops have gathered at demobilisation camps. There are concerns
that food shortages in the camps could threaten the peace process.
2002 June - UN appeals for aid for thousands of
refugees heading home after the ceasefire.
2002 August - Unita scraps its armed wing. "The war has ended," proclaims
Angola's defence minister.
2003 January - President Dos Santos appoints Fernando da Piedade Dias dos Santos, known
as Nando, as prime minister. The post had been vacant for more than three years.
2003 February - UN mission overseeing
the peace process winds up.
2003 June - Unita - now a political party - elects Isaias Samakuva as its new leader.
2004 April onwards - Tens of thousands of illegal foreign diamond miners are expelled in a crackdown on illegal mining
and trafficking. In December the government says 300,000 foreign diamond dealers have been expelled.
2004 September
- Oil production reaches one million barrels per day.
2005 March-May - Marburg virus, which is deadlier than Ebola,
kills more than 300 people, most of them in the north.
2005 June - Cholera epidemic claims 1,900 lives, mainly in
Luanda.
2006 August - The government signs a peace deal with a separatist group in the northern enclave of Cabinda.
2006 October - The UN refugee agency begins "final repatriation" of Angolans who fled the civil war to the neighbouring
DR Congo. Some 60,000 are still due to return under the scheme which began in 2003 and which has repatriated 180,000 people.
2007 February - President dos Santos says parliamentary elections will be held in 2008 and presidential polls in 2009.
Making a Killing: The Business of War A Rough Trade: The Role of Governments and Companies in the
Angolan ConflictThe human cost of international inaction on Angolan sanctionsThe devastating story of oil and banking in Angola’s privatised
warA Crude AwakeningAfrica's Oil Tycoons
|
