Africa
Angola is presented here as a historical economic dossier rather than a flat stat sheet: long-run macro cycles, public balance-sheet pressure, market depth, external buffers, and the events that likely bent the curve.
A tighter current-state read before dropping into the long historical charts.
The timeline is where macro numbers meet story: crises, wars, policy shifts, trade deals, and other shocks connected to Angola.
Start of Portuguese exploration and later colonization.
Angola gained independence from Portugal but immediately descended into civil war between three rival liberation movements backed by the Soviet Union, Cuba, and the United States. The devastating civil war lasted until 2002.
Portugal granted independence to Mozambique and Angola, ending its African colonial empire. Both nations immediately faced internal conflicts fueled by Cold War proxy competition.
Cuban military withdrawal, pivotal in ending South African apartheid.
The Second Congo War, sometimes called 'Africa's World War,' began as Rwanda and Uganda backed rebels against Laurent Kabila's government, eventually involving nine African nations. The conflict ultimately killed an estimated 5 million people through fighting and famine.