Mozambique Establishes a Transitional Authority
On 18 September 1974, the Portuguese government handed over power to a transitional government, dominated by FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique – Front for the Liberation of Mozambique), pending the territory’s receipt of full independence. FRELIMO was formed in 1962, as a national liberation movement set up by Mozambican exiles in Tanganyika, and was headed by Eduardo Mondlane. The movement waged a successful guerrilla war against the Portuguese colonisers from 1964 to 1974. FRELIMO received support from the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), Algeria, Egypt, Zaire (Democratic Republic of Congo) and, to a limited extent, the People’s Republic of China.
The Portuguese Armed Forces staged a bloodless coup in Portugal in 1974, popularly known as the “Carnation Revolution”, which abruptly ended Salazar’s dictatorship in Portugal and instituted a democratic dispensation. The revolutionary coup was organised by the “Movimento das Forças Armadas” (Armed Forces Movement), composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but it was soon coupled with an unanticipated popular civil resistance campaign. General Antonio Spinola became Portugal’s first president after democracy and the coup also resulted in the granting of freedom for overseas colonies, thus ending the long and draining colonial war in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.
The colonial withdrawal from Mozambique was exclus
