Constitution of Angola to remain president until 2022. Angola was a colony of Portugal for more than 400 years from the 15th century. Demands for independence picked up momentum during the early 1950s. The principal protagonists included the MPLA, founded in 1956, the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA), which appeared in 1961, and the UNITA, founded in 1966. After many years of conflict that weakened all of the insurgent parties, Angola gained independence on 11 November 1975, after the Carnation Revolution in Portugal overthrew the Portuguese regime headed by Marcelo Caetano. A fight for dominance broke out immediately between the
1960s in Angola 1960s in Angola The 1960s in Angola were marked by the War of Independence (1961–1975). Portuguese police arrested Agostinho Neto of the MPLA and future President of Angola (1975–1979) in 1960 for the third time. Delegates discussed Cabinda's self-determination in relation to Angola at the 4th Commission of the United Nations on Decolonization in New York in 1962. Cabinda became a member of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) as the 39th colonized country in 1964. Angola's industries grew by an annual average rate of 17% in the 1960s as ethnic Europeans seized natives' lands and increased mineral production. Mineral