La lotta di liberazione nelle colonie portoghesi in Africa e la crisi mediorientale del 1973

Abstract

The Liberation Struggle in the Portuguese Colonies in Africa and the Middle Eastern Crisis of 1973

Since the early 1960s, many newly independent sub-Saharan African countries maintained various forms of cooperation with Israel, but almost all of them broke their relations with Tel Aviv during the Yom Kippur War of 1973; then, they gradually resumed forms of economic cooperation in the following years. However, with the partial exception of Guinea Bissau, in 1973 the Portuguese colonies were not yet independent. The African nationalist movements in these colonies nevertheless pursued their own diplomatic policy on the international stage, and before the 1973 conflict they had supported the Palestinian cause while also cultivating relations with Israel. From the perspective of the international politics of these nationalist movements, it is interesting to analyse how 1973 marked the convergence of a number of long-term processes involving Portugal, the United States, apartheid South Africa and other actors in the dynamics of the Cold War.