Angola–Portugal relations recession, had made buying large corporations that they would not have been able to afford if Portugal had not been in a crisis an easy picking for the Angolan government. Portugal had also sold some real estate and port wine estates. Angola now had stakes in the Portuguese economy from banking to energy to media. Angola–Portugal relations Angola–Portugal relations have significantly improved since the Angolan government abandoned communism and nominally embraced democracy in 1991, embracing a pro-U.S. and to a lesser degree pro-Europe foreign policy. Portugal ruled Angola for 400 years, colonizing the territory from 1483 until independence in 1975.
Cuban intervention in Angola first country to send troops to Angola in March 1975 and to engage in fighting against the MPLA by the summer of that year. In the summer of 1974 China was first to act after the Portuguese Revolution and posted 200 military instructors to Zaire where they trained FNLA troops and supplied military assistance. Chinese involvement was a measure against Soviet influence rather than that from western countries. On 27 October 1975, they were also the first to withdraw their military instructors. UNITA, which split away from FNLA in 1965/66 was initially Maoist and received some support from China. North