The History of Angola
Angola is located southwest in Africa; the name itself comes from the word N'gola that means King. The very first inhabitants of the country were believed to be Khosian Speakers. Soon after about 1000 members of the Bantu speakers came over to the region they became the dominant speakers. On 1482, the region was said to be explored by a Portuguese Navigator named Diego Cao. Soon Angola was a stop in the trade lines with India and Southeast Asia. A few years later they were a major source for slaves during Portugal's New World Colony in Brazil .A government was starting to come together after the Berlin Conference back in 1885. The borders were secure and soon the British and Portuguese started investing into the colony, they brought over fostered mining, agriculture as well as the first railways in the country.
After World War ll, many independence movements started popping up in the region and they were shut down by the Portuguese Military. The major players in these movements were the MPLA or the very popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, which were part of the Marxist Party as well as the National Front for the Liberation of Angola. After the war, which lasted about 14 years had come to an end, Portugal allowed Angola to be free in 1975. The Movement for the Liberation of Angola took over as the government has been in charge ever since then.
Peace did not last, soon UNITA challenged the MPLA and their accession to run the government and soon a Civil War broke out. Angola soon became the battleground for the cold war. The Cold War ending, Cuban Troops started withdrawing in 1989, the MPLA started to change the government to a Multi Party Democracy. The war still continued and the UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi took control of 80% of the country's diamond trade. In 1992, they held a free election and Jose Eduardos Dos Santos who was part of the MPLA won the election, but Savimbi charge the government with election fraud and the civil war raged on.
In the years of 1994 and 1998, there was peace, the United Nations and 1.6 billion dollars oversaw the 1994 Lusaka Peace Accord. By 1997, the coalition government with UNITA would be started. Savimbi violated the accord by not giving up his stronghold in the county. In 1998, the coalition was suspended and the civil war was reignited. About 4 million residents of the country suffered from the government's inability to control Savimbi. In 2002, Savimbi was killed by government troops and a cease-fire was signed 6 weeks later. Though peace does exist the residence are still with hardships, more than 500,000 people suffer from starvation.
Angola is the second largest oil producer in what is called the Sub Saharan Africa. Their people are still considered to the poorest in the region. It is said that the Dos Santos Government was corrupt and mostly to blame for the economic status of their country. In 2006, a peace deal was signed with the rebels from the Cabinda Region and that clash of the rebels is what Angola calls the Forgotten War.