Portugal's First Domino: ‘Pluricontinentalism’ and Colonial War in Guiné-Bissau, 1963–1974

Abstract

Portugal's presence in Guiné-Bissau through eleven years of intense guerrilla war was justified by the doctrine of ‘pluricontinentalim’. In this view concession to nationalist pressure in one part of the ‘indivisible state’ would lead inevitably to the collapse of the whole. The defence of Portuguese Guiné, therefore, was the price to be paid for the maintenance of the infinitely more valuable territories of Angola and Mozambique. While the Salazar regime was rigid in its adherence to this doctrine, some movement was detectable under his successor from 1968, Marcello Caetano. The governor-general in Guiné, General Spínola, was permitted to explore possibilities of negotiation. Politically insecure in the face of residual Salazarist power in the regime, however, Caetano abandoned this approach in 1972. This apparent loss of nerve would contribute to the overthrow of the Lisbon regime by its own military in 1974 – despite recently revealed secret talks between Lisbon and the Guinea nationalists on the very eve of the coup.

Still standing: neighbourhood wars and political stability in Guinea

“…Although outnumbered and out-funded by the Portuguese counter-insurgency campaign, the Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (African Party for the Independence of Guinea [Bissau] and Cape Verde, or PAIGC) proved to be extremely effective : by 1970, it had established itself as ' the most successful nationalist movement in Black Africa' -or, in the words of its opponents, ' the most consequential terrorist movement in the African continent ' (Chabal 1983: 60, 2 ;Spínola 1970: 24). The PAIGC's campaign would eventually help spark a military coup in Portugal in 1974 and full decolonisation for Portugal's African territories (MacQueen 1999).…”

“…3 Less remarked on in recent years are the links between Guinea and its unstable neighbour to the northwest, Guinea-Bissau, which, in addition to an insurgency against the Portuguese colonial government from the mid 1960s through to independence in 1974, experienced an army mutiny that spiralled into a wider conflict in 1998and 1999, the emergence of a rebel movement in northern Côte d'Ivoire seemed to prove the inexorable advance of warfare across the region.…”

Indigenous Peoples and Imperialism

“…The inclination was strongly reinforced by the necessity of liberating the French colonies of Indochina and Algeria as well as Portugal's African colonies through armed struggle, and, following the success of the Cuban revolution in 1959, the rapid proliferation of unabashedly Marxist guerrilla formations throughout the neocolonies of Latin America. For a while, it was argued that the 1966 Tricontinental Conference marked "the coming of a New International" capable of eradicating imperialism once and for all (Windrow 1998;Horne 1977;McQueen 1999;Abbott and Rodrigues 1998;Gross 1995;Prashad 2007, pp. 105-115;Gerassi 1971, pp.…”

Marcello Caetano no (Jornal do) Brasil: Repercussões da direita portuguesa na ditadura militar (1968-1974)

“…Não por acaso, como disse António Costa Pinto, a visão de Caetano em relação à África e à Europa não se distanciava muito daquela defendida por seu antecessor (Pinto, 2005). Corroborando com esta visão tradicionalista, para Caetano naquele momento, a guerra colonial devia ser entendida em sua globalidade, e não colônia a colônia, o que impedia soluções locais (MacQueen, 2004;1999). Talvez por esse motivo o jornal afirmasse que Caetano, ex-ministro das Colônias, conhecia bem os problemas africanos e que "defende a determinação portuguesa de manter intactas suas conquistas na África".…”