Guinea-Bissau Independence Day

Today celebrate the unilateral declaration of independence from Portugal in 1973. The first European to explore this area was Portuguese in 1455, and they set up trading posts along the coast during the 16th century. But Portugal made very little effort to colonise, and it took until 1915 that the whole country came under Portuguese control. Having been previously administered as part of the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands Islands, Guinea-Bissau became the separate colony of Portuguese Guinea in 1879. In 1956, Amilcar Cabral established the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). They pushed for independence through peaceful means initially, but in 1963, disillusioned by Portugal’s use of force to suppress local demonstrations, the PAIGC launched a military campaign beginning the war of independence. By 1973 they controlled about two-thirds of the country, and despite Cabral’s assassination in January 1973, they declared itself an independent republic later that year.