The
Angolan War of Independence (1961–1974) began as an uprising against forced cotton cultivation, and became a multi-faction struggle for the control of Portugal's
Overseas Province of Angola among three nationalist movements and a separatist movement. The war ended when a
leftist military coup in
Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's
Estado Novo regime, and the new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay.