In present-day Angola Portugal settles in 1483 at the river Congo, where the Kongo State, Ndongo and Lunda exist. The Kongo State stretches from modern Gabon in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. Portugal establishes in 1575 a Portuguese colony at Luanda based on the slave trade. The Portuguese gradually took control of the coastal strip throughout the 16th century by a series of treaties and wars. They form the colony of Angola. The Dutch occupy Luanda from 1641-48, providing a boost for anti-Portuguese states. In 1648 Portugal retakes Luanda and initiates a process of military conquest of the Kongo and Ndongo states that ends with Portuguese victory in 1671. Full Portuguese administrative control of the interior doesn't occur until the beginning of the 20th century. In 1951 the colony is restyled as an overseas province, also called Portuguese West Africa.

When Portugal refuses a decolonization process three independence movements emerge: the Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (Popular Liberation Movement of Angola, MPLA), with a base among Kimbundu and the mixed-race intelligentsia of Luanda, and links to communist parties in Portugal and the East Bloc; the Frente Nacional de Libertação de Angola (National Liberation Front of Angola, FNLA), with an ethnic base in the Bakongo region of the north and links to the United States and the Mobutu regime in Kinshasa; and the União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola (Union for the Total Independence of Angola, UNITA), led by Jonas Malheiro Savimbi with an ethnic and regional base in the Ovimbundu heartland in the center of the country.

After a long liberation war and the revolution in Portugal in 1975 Portugal ceases the war and agrees to hand over power to a coalition of the three movements. The coalition quickly breaks down and turns into a civil war. By late 1975, Cuban forces intervene on behalf of the MPLA and South African troops for UNITA, effectively internationalizing the Angolan conflict.

In control of Luanda and the coastal strip (and increasingly lucrative oil fields), the MPLA declares independence in 1975. Agostinho Neto becomes the first president of the Republic of Angola, a one-party state ruled by the MPLA. A civil war between the government and the two other movements starts. The FNLA is defeated quickly, but the war with UNITA is continuing. Neto is succeeded in 1979 by José Eduardo dos Santos. The civil war seemds to end in 1989 and elections under the supervision of the United Nations are agreed on. In 1992 Angola formally becomes a presidential democratic republic, but the ruling party keeps control of the government.

The first multi-party elections in 1992 are won by the MPLA and Dos Santos wins the presidential elections. UNITA refuses to accept the results and the civil war is restarted. Due to the civil war no new elections are held since that moment. With the defeat of the UNITA in 2002 the civil war ends. National elections are projected for 2004 or 2005. In the interim period, both sides will need to focus on national reconciliation and the resettlement/reintegration of over 4 million Angolans displaced by the decades of conflict.