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Still Islam.In 1990, 1.1 billion people were Muslims, while in 2010, 1.6 billion people were Muslims.According to the BBC, a comprehensive American study concluded in 2009 the number stood at approximately 23% of the world population with 60% of Muslims living in Asia.From 1990 to 2010, the global Muslim population increased at an average annual rate of 2.2%. By 2030 Muslims are projected to represent about 26.4% of the global population (out of a total of 7.9 billion people)."Although the religion began in Arabia, by 2002 80% of all believers in Islam lived outside the Arab world". On the other hand, in 2010, Pew Forum finds "that statistical data for Muslim conversions are scarce and as per their available information, there is no substantial net gain or loss of Muslims due to religious conversion. It stated that "the number of people who embrace Islam and those who leave Islam are roughly equal. Thus, this report excludes the religious conversion as a direct factor from the projection of Muslim population growth."The growth of Islam from 2010 to 2020 has been estimated at 1.70%due to high birthrates in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. The report also shows that the fall in birth rate of the Muslims slowed down the growth rate during 1990 to 2010. It is due to the fall of fertility rate in many Muslim majority countries. Despite the decline Muslims still have the highest birth rate among the world's major religious groups.According to the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the World Christian Database as of 2007 has Islam as the fastest-growing religion in the world.A 2007 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report argued that some Muslim population projections are overestimated, as they assume that all descendants of Muslims will become Muslims even in cases of mixed parenthood.The mosque of Dumai, in Riau. Indonesia has the largest number of Muslims in the world.Resurgent Islam is one of the most dynamic religious movements in the contemporary world.The Vatican's 2008 yearbook of statistics revealed that for the first time, Islam has outnumbered the Roman Catholics globally. It stated that, "Islam has overtaken Roman Catholicism as the biggest single religious denomination in the world",and stated that, "It is true that while Muslim families, as is well known, continue to make a lot of children, Christian ones on the contrary tend to have fewer and fewer".According to the Foreign Policy, High birth rates were cited as the reason for the Muslim population growth.With 3.1 children per woman, Muslims have higher fertility levels than the world's overall population between 2010 and 2015. High fertility is a major driver of projected Muslim population growth around the world and in particular regions.Between 2010 and 2015, with exception of the Middle East and North Africa, Muslim fertility of any other region in the world was higher than the rate for the region as a whole.While Muslim birth rates are expected to experience a decline, it will remain above replacement level and higher fertility than the world's overall by 2050.As per U.N.'s global population forecasts, as well as the Pew Research projections, over time fertility rates generally converge toward the replacement level.Globally, Muslims were younger (median age of 23) than the overall population (median age of 28) as of 2010.While decline of Muslim birth rates in coming years have also been well documented.According to David Ignatius, there is major decline in Muslim fertility rates as pointed out by Nicholas Eberstadt. Based on the data from 49 Muslim-majority countries and territories, he found that Muslims birth rate has significantly dropped for 41% between 1975 and 1980 to 2005–10 while the global population decline was 33% during that period. It also stated that over a 50% decline was found in 22 Muslim countries and over a 60% decline in Iran, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Bangladesh, Tunisia, Libya, Albania, Qatar and Kuwait.Map of the world by population of Muslims. Although the faith began in Arabia, its three largest communities are found in Indonesia, Pakistan and India.According to the religious forecast for 2050 by Pew Research Center, between 2010 and 2050 modest net gains through religious conversion are expected for Muslims (3 million)and most of the net gains through religious conversion for Muslims found in the Sub Saharan Africa (2.9 million).The study also reveals that, due to young age & relatively high fertility rate among Muslims by 2050 there will be near parity between Muslims (2.8 billion, or 30% of the population) and Christians (2.9 billion, or 31%), possibly for the first time in history.According to Pew Research Center the projected Muslims population will equal the Christian population by 2070. While both religions will grow but Muslim population will exceed the Christian population and by 2100, Muslim population (35%) will be 1% more than the Christian population (34%).By the end of 2100 Muslims are expected to outnumber Christians.According to the same study, Muslims population growth is twice of world's overall population growth due to young age and relatively high fertility rate and as a result Muslims are projected to rise to 30% (2050) of the world's population from 23% (2010).While the total Fertility Rate of Muslims in North America is 2.7 children per woman in the 2010 to 2015 period, well above the regional average (2.0) and the replacement level (2.1).Europe's Muslim population also has higher fertility (2.1) than other religious groups in the region, well above the regional average (1.6).A new study of Population Reference Bureau by demographers Charles Westoff and Tomas Frejka suggests that the fertility gap between Muslims and non-Muslims is shrinking and although the Muslim immigrants do have more children than other Europeans but their fertility tends to decline over time, often faster than among non-Muslims.Generally, there are few reports about how many people leave Islam in Muslim majority countries. The main reason for this is the social and legal repercussions associated with leaving Islam in many Muslim majority countries, up to and including the death penalty for apostasy. However, the report also suggest that in future, it is also possible that these societies could allow for greater freedom to religiously disaffiliate.On the other hand the increasingly large ex-Muslim communities in the Western world that adhere to no religion have been well documented.A 2007 Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report argued that some Muslim population projections are overestimated, as they assume that all descendants of Muslims will become Muslims even in cases of mixed parenthood.Equally, Darren E. Sherkat questioned in Foreign Affairs whether some of the Muslim growth projections are accurate as they do not take into account the increasing number of non-religious Muslims. Quantitative research is lacking, but he believes the European trend mirrors the American: data from the General Social Survey in the United States show that 32 percent of those raised Muslim no longer embrace Islam in adulthood, and 18 percent hold no religious identification.Studies show that about half of the 4.2 million persons from Muslim background in Germany are no longer embrace Islam in adulthood.Many Muslims who leave Islam face social rejection or imprisonment and sometimes murder or other penalties.According to Harvard University professor Robert D. Putnam, there is increasing numbers of Americans who are leaving their faith and becoming unaffiliated and the average Iranian is slightly less religious than the average American.According to Public Affairs Alliance of Iranian Americans, the number of Iranian Americans Muslims decreased from 42% in 2008 to 31% in 2012.On the other hand, conversion into Islam have also been well documented.It is reported that around 5,000 British people convert to Islam every year (most of them are women).According to a report by CNN, "Islam has drawn converts from all walks of life, most notably African-Americans".Studies estimated approximately 30,000 converting to Islam annually in the United States.By 2010 an estimated 44 million Muslims were living in Europe (6%), up from 4.1% in 1990. By 2030, Muslims are expected to make up 8% of Europe's population including an estimated 19 million in the EU (3.8%),including 13 million foreign-born Muslim immigrants.Islam is widely considered as the fastest growing religion in Europe due primarily to immigration and above average birth rates.Between 2010 and 2015 the Muslim fertility rate in Europe was (2.1). On the other hand, the fertility rate in Europe as a whole was (1.6).Pew study also reveals that Muslims are younger than other Europeans. In 2010, the median age of Muslims throughout Europe was (32), eight years younger than the median for all Europeans (40).According to a religious forecast for 2050 by Pew Research Center conversion does not add significantly to the growth of the Muslim population in Europe, according to the same study the net loss is (−60,000) due to religious switching.The Pew Research Center notes that "the data that we have isn't pointing in the direction of 'Eurabia' at all",and predicts that the percentage of Muslims is estimated to rise to 8% in 2030, due to immigration and above average birth rates. And only two western European countries – France and Belgium – will become around 10 percent Muslim, by 2030. According to Justin Vaïsse the fertility rate of Muslim immigrants declines with integration.He further points out that Muslims are not a monolithic or cohesive groupMost academics who have analysed the demographics dismiss the predictions that the EU will have Muslim majorities.It is completely reasonable to assume that the overall Muslim population in Europe will increase, and Muslim citizens have and will have a significant impact on European life.The prospect of a homogenous Muslim community per se, or a Muslim majority in Europe is however out of the question.Eric Kaufman of University of London denied the claims of Eurabia. According to him, Muslims will be a significant minority rather than majority in Europe and as per their projections for 2050 in the Western Europe, there will be 10–15 per cent Muslim population in high immigration countries such as Germany, France and the UK.Eric Kaufman also argue that the main reason why Islam is expanding along with other religions, is not because of conversion to Islam, but primarily to the nature of the religion, as he calls it "pro-natal", where Muslims tend to have more children.However, Doug Saunders states that by 2030 Muslims and Non-Muslims birth rates will be equal in Germany, Greece, Spain and Denmark without taking account of the Muslims immigration to these countries. He also states that Muslims & Non-Muslims fertility rate difference will decrease from 0.7 to 0.4 and this different will continue to shrink as a result of which Muslims and non-Muslims fertility rate will be identical by 2050.It is often reported from various sources, including the German domestic intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst), that Salafism is the fastest-growing Islamic movement in the world.Most other sects have a growth rate of less than 3%.In 2010 Asia was home for (62%) of the world's Muslims, and about (20%) of the world's Muslims lived in the Middle East and North Africa, (16%) in Sub Saharan Africa, and 2% in Europe.By 2050 Asia will home for (52.8%) of the world's Muslims, and about (24.3%) of the world's Muslims will live in Sub Saharan Africa, (20%) the Middle East and North Africa, and 2% in Europe. As per the Pew Research study, Muslim populations will grow in absolute number in all regions of the world between 2010 and 2050. The Muslim population in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to reach nearly 1.5 billion by 2050, up from roughly 1 billion in 2010. The growth of Muslims is also expected in the Middle East-North Africa region, It is projected to increase from about 300 million in 2010 to more than 550 million in 2050. Besides, the Muslim population in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to grow from about 250 million in 2010 to nearly 670 million in 2050 which is more than double. The absolute number of Muslims is also expected to increase in regions with smaller Muslim populations such as Europe and North America.Due to young age & relatively high fertility rate,Muslim population will rise nearly 30% in 2050. In Europe Muslim population will be nearly double (from 16% to 30%). In North America, it will grow 10% to 20%. In Asia Pasific region, Muslims will surpass the Hindus by the time. In 2010 Indonesia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria was home for (48%) of the world's Muslims. By 2050 Pakistan is projected to have the world's largest Muslim population followed by India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh, and expected to be home for (45%) of the world's Muslims.Conversions to Islam.A[edit]Ahmed Abdullah – American jazz trumpeter[5]Nicolas Anelka – French football manager and former player[6]Thomas J. Abercrombie – photographer and writer for National Geographic[7]Hasan Akbar (born Mark Fidel Kools) – American sentenced to death for the murder of two fellow soldiers during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.[8]Shaheed Akbar (a.k.a. The Jacka) – American rapper[9]Akhenaton – French rapper and producer; born Philippe Fragione[10]Baba Ali – Iranian-born American film developer, games developer and businessman[11]Muhammad Ali – professional boxer, activist and philanthropist.[12]Lewis Arquette – actor; father of actors David, Rosanna, Patricia, Alexis and Richmond Arquette; son of Cliff Arquette[13]B[edit]B.G. Knocc Out – American rapper[14]Yasin Abu Bakr – leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, a Muslim group in Trinidad and Tobago[15]Mutah Beale – better known as Napoleon, former member of Tupac Shakur's rap group, the Outlawz[16]Maurice Béjart – French choreographer[17]Robert "Kool" Bell – musician[18]Mohammed Knut Bernström – Swedish ambassador[19]Wojciech Bobowski – Polish musician; Bible translator[20]Lauren Booth – British[21] broadcaster, journalist and human rights activist[22][23]Charles Brooks, Jr. – convicted murderer, first person in the United States to be executed using lethal injection[24]H. Rap Brown – civil rights activist[25]Jonathan A.C. Brown – American Islamic scholar and assistant professor at Georgetown University[26]Abdullah ibn Buhaina – American musician, also known as Arthur "Art" Blakey, American jazz drummer and bandleader; stopped being a practicing Muslim in the 1950s and continued to perform under the name "Art Blakey" throughout his career[27]Titus Burckhardt – Swiss writer and scholar[28]Amir Butler – UK/Australian author, engineer and Islamic activist[29]C[edit]Celestino Caballero – boxer and former Super Bantamweight Champion[30]Dave Chappelle – American comedian, screenwriter, television/film producer, actor, and artist[31]Kérim Chatty – Swedish bodybuilding stuntman who was once suspected of attempted hijacking; the preliminary inquiry was dropped[32]Zachary Adam Chesser – American Muslim convert to Sunni Islam; sentenced to 25 years in a federal prison on February 24, 2011[33]Lady Evelyn Cobbold – Scottish noblewoman[34]Louis du Couret – French explorer, writer and military officer[35]D[edit]Uri Davis – Middle East academic and activist who works on civil rights in Israel, Palestinian National Authority and the Middle East[36]Bob Denard – French mercenary[37]Jeffrey Mark Deskovic – served 15-year wrongful imprisonment sentence[38]Diam's – French rapper, born Mélanie Georgiades, converted in 2010[39]Deso Dogg – former rapper who went to fight in Syria[40]E[edit]Dave East - American rapper and actor[41]Isabelle Eberhardt – explorer and writer[42]Baron Omar Rolf von Ehrenfels – Austrian anthropologist and orientalist[43]Everlast – American rapper and singer-songwriter[44]F[edit]Alys Faiz – human rights and peace activist; converted at the time of her marriage to Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz[45]Michael Finton – converted to Islam while in prison; attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in downtown Springfield, Illinois in 2009[46][47]Patrice Lumumba Ford (of the Portland Seven) – part of a group based in the U.S. charged with aiding the Taliban and al-Qaeda[48]Jeff Fort – former Chicago gang leader, co-founder of the Black P. Stones gang, and founder of its El Rukn faction; convicted in 1987 of conspiring with Libya to perform acts of domestic terrorism[49][50]Philippe Fragione – French rapper and producer of French hip hop[51]Sultaana Freeman – attempted to sue the state of Florida in order to wear a face veil for her driver's license picture[52]G[edit]Christian Ganczarski – German citizen convicted by a French court sentenced to 18 years in prison for the bombing of a synagogue[53]Juan Carlos Gomez – former Cruiserweight Boxing Champion[54]Khalid Gonçalves – Portuguese American actor and musician (born Paul Pires Gonçalves), convert to Islam from Catholicism[55]Abdur Raheem Green (born Anthony Greene) – Islamic preacher and founder of iERA[56]Philippe Grenier – French doctor; first Muslim MP in France[57]Gigi Gryce – American saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator[58]H[edit]Walt Hazzard – former NBA player[59]Yusuf Hazziez – American musician, born Joseph Arrington, Jr.; formerly known professionally as Joe Tex[60]Aribert Heim – Austrian SS doctor, also known as Dr. Death[61]David Hicks – convicted by the United States Guantanamo military commission under the Military Commissions Act of 2006, on charges of providing material support for terrorism[62][63]Tony Hussein Hinde – Australian-born Maldivian surfer and surfing pioneer who converted to Islam[64]Lim Yew Hock – Singapore’s second Chief Minister from 1956 to 1959[65]Ibrahim Hooper (Douglas Hooper) – Islamic activist, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR)[66]I[edit]Abdullah Ibrahim – South African jazz musician[67]Andrew Ibrahim – convicted of preparing terrorist acts in the UK[68]Muhammad Hussain Inoki (born Kanji Inoki) – Japanese professional wrestling and mixed martial arts promoter, politician, and retired professional wrestler and martial artist, best known as Antonio Inoki. He converted to Islam in 1990, something he publicly revealed in 2012.[69]Umar Islam – one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom[70]Yusuf Islam – English singer-songwriter, instrumentalist and activist; born Steven Demetre Georgiou; known professionally as Cat Stevens[71]Abu Izzadeen – spokesman for Al Ghurabaa, a Muslim organization banned under the Terrorism Act 2006 for the glorification of terrorism, that operated in the United Kingdom[72]J[edit]Tiara Jacquelina – Malaysian actress[73]Janet Jackson -Youngest of Jackson family[74]Ahmad Jamal – American jazz pianist[75]Maryam Jameelah – formerly Margret Marcus; author of many books covering several subjects, including modernism, sociology, history, jihad, theology and technology[76]Jan Janszoon – Dutch pirate[77]Nur al-Anwar al-Jerrahi (born Lex Hixon) – syncretist, Sufi convert, and co-founder of the Nur Ashki Jerrahi Sufi Order in the United States[78]Larry Johnson – retired American professional basketball player[79]Gustave-Henri Jossot – French caricaturist, illustrator and Orientalist painter[80]Jemima Goldsmith – British socialite and ex-wife of Imran Khan [81]K[edit]Frédéric Kanouté – French Malian former football player[82]Peter Kassig – American aid worker, taken hostage and ultimately beheaded by The Islamic State; while in captivity, Kassig, formerly a Methodist, converted to Islam and changed his name to Abdul-Rahman Kassig sometime between October and December 2013[83][84][85]Khalid Kelly – former leader of Al-Muhajiroun in Ireland[86]Saida Miller Khalifa – British author, originally named Sonya Miller[87][88]Begum Om Habibeh Aga Khan (born Yvette Blanche Labrousse) – Miss France 1930, wife of Aga Khan III[89]Vladimir Khodov – leader of the Beslan school hostage crisis; converted in prison[90]Abd al Haqq Kielan – Swedish cleric[91]James Achilles Kirkpatrick – was the British Resident in Hyderabad[92]Pavel Kosolapov – Chechen rebel wanted by the Federal Security Service of Russia for suspected terrorist attacks[93]L[edit]Colleen LaRose – alleged intended assassin of Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks[94]Yusef Lateef – American jazz musician[95]Johann von Leers – advisor to Muhammad Naguib known for his antisemitic polemics[96][97]Gary Legenhausen – American philosopher and writer[98]Omar Ong Yoke Lin (1917–2010) – Malaysian politician, former government minister and founder of the Malaysian Chinese Association[99]M[edit]Abd al Malik (born Régis Fayette-Mikano) – French rapper of Congolese descent[100]Mike Tyson - Former world heavy weight champion.[101]Khalid Masood - Perpetrator of 2017 Westminster Attack[102]Brandon Mayfield – American lawyer who was erroneously linked to the 2004 Madrid train bombings[103]Monica – former Indian film actress, starred predominantly in Tamil language films; converted to Islam in 2014[104]Jesse Curtis Morton – co-founder of Revolution Muslim, jailed for threats against the creators of South Park[105]Ali Shaheed Muhammad – member of A Tribe Called Quest[106]Idris Muhammad – American jazz musician[107]John Allen Muhammad – convicted murderer who carried out the Beltway sniper attacks of October 2002 with 17-year-old partner, Lee Boyd Malvo; John Allen Muhammad was later executed[108]Anthony Mundine – Australian boxer; former two-time Super Middleweight champion[109]N[edit]Li Nu – Chinese scholar in the Ming dynasty who visited Persia, converted to Islam, married a Persian or an Arab girl and brought her back to Quanzhou in Fujian[110][111][112]O[edit]Sinéad O'Connor (Shuhada' Davitt) – an Irish singer-songwriter; a former excommunicated Roman Catholic before becoming as Nondenominational Trinitarian Christian for several years and later [Sunni] Islam over theological reasons[113][114][115]Susanne Osthoff – German archaeologist who had worked in Iraq since 1991 and had been taken captive there for three weeks[116]P[edit]José Padilla – respondent in Rumsfeld v. Padilla currently on trial as an alleged al-Qaida operative, converted while in prison for aggravated assault[117]Wayne Parnell – South African cricketer[118][119]Cory Paterson – Australian professional rugby league player[120]Christopher Paul – member of al Qaeda, who has pleaded guilty to acts of terrorism[121]Bilal Philips – contemporary Muslim teacher, speaker, and author[122]Neil Prakash, Australian Islamic State group recruiter[123]Charles John Pelham (Abdul Mateen) – 8th Earl of Yarborough[124]R[edit]Raekwon – American rapper, born as Corey Woods[125]A. R. Rahman – Indian composer, musician, singer-songwriter, producer and philanthropist; he converted to Islam along with other members of his family in 1989 at age 23, changing his name from A. S. Dileep Kumar Mudhaliar to Allah Rakka Rahman[126][127]Yuvan Shankar Raja – Indian musician; music director from Tamil Nadu[128]Richard Reid - "shoe bomber" sentenced to three life terms and 110 years for terrorism, attempt to blow up American Airlines Flight thwarted by intervention of passengers and stewardesses[129]Nicky Reilly – convicted of the 2008 Exeter attempted bombing[130]MC Ren – American rapper and hip-hop producer[131]Franck Ribéry – French national football team player[132][133]Hamza Robertson (born Tom Robertson) – English singer[134]Jack Roche – convicted of involvement in an al-Qaeda plot to blow up the Israeli embassy in Canberra[135]S[edit]Malik ul Salih – established the first Muslim state of Samudera Pasai[136]Ilich Ramírez Sánchez – aka "Carlos the Jackal", convicted murderer and terrorist, currently in prison in France[137]Ibrahim Savant – one of the suspects arrested in the UK in connection to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft terrorist plot in the United Kingdom[70]Stephen Schwartz – American journalist, columnist, and author[138]Derrick Shareef – charged in a plot to set off four hand grenades in garbage cans at the CherryVale Mall in Rockford, Illinois during the Christmas rush[139]Sahib Shihab – American jazz saxophonist and flautist[140]Felix Siauw − Chinese-Indonesian Islamic cleric and author affiliated with Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia[141]Roger Stockham – responsible for the 2011 Dearborn mosque bombing plot[142]Divine Styler – American hip hop musician[143]Abdalqadir as-Sufi (born Ian Dallas) is a Scottish convert, a Shaykh of Instruction, leader of the Darqawi-Shadhili-Qadiri Tariqa, founder of the Murabitun World Movement.Nahshid Sulaiman – alternative hip hop artist[144]Kabir Suman (born Suman Chattopadhyay) – Indian singer, songwriter, musician, music director, poet, journalist, political activist, TV presenter, and occasional actor; he stated, "I wanted to keep the name my parents gave me, so I kept Suman. I took the name Kabir after Sheikh Kabir, a Bengali Muslim poet who wrote Baishnab Padabali."[145]T[edit]William Thorson – former Swedish poker player[146]Apisai Tora – Fijian politician[147]Rodrigo de Triana – sailor and the first European since the Vikings known to have seen America who converted to Islam from Judaism[148] or Christianity[149]Mike Tyson – boxer, performer[150]U[edit]James Ujaama – convicted felon who was found guilty of supporting al-Qaeda[151]Maulana Ubaidullah Sindhi – was a well known political, religious and revolutionary scholar[152]V[edit]Jorvan Vieira – Luso-Brazilian football coach[153][154][155]Bryant Neal Vinas – Hispanic American convicted of participating in and supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S.[156]Pierre Vogel – German former boxer, now an Islamic preacher[157]W[edit]Jason Walters – Dutch member of the Hofstad Network, convicted on charges of terrorism[158]Sonny Bill Williams – New Zealand rugby player and heavyweight boxer[159]Timothy Winter (a.k.a Abdul Hakim Murad) is an English convert who is the Director of Studies (Theology and Religious Studies) at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge.[160]Michael Wolfe – American poet, author, and the President and Executive Producer of Unity Productions Foundation[161]X[edit]Malcolm X (1925–1965) – black revolutionary and civil rights activist[162]Y[edit]Felixia Yeap – Malaysian supermodel, former Playboy Bunny[163][164]Mohammad Yousuf – former Pakistani cricketer[165]You pick up any religion you would not see so many converts to a religion including celebrities, scholars and common people.sourceList of converts to Islam - Wikipedia

The decolonisation of settler colonies was invariably bloody for the simple reason that both sides thought themselves to be fighting over their home. Portugal’s African aspirations were tethered to the worldview of the era of the 1492 treaty of Tordesillas. They aspired for an empire in Africa of literal American proportions, stretching from the Atlantic sea to the Indian ocean. The fact that in between the Lusophone countries of Mozambique and Angola are three English-speaking countries ought to hint at who exactly put the kibosh on those dreams.Empire in Africa was a major part of the conception the Portuguese government had of its place in the world. Even as it was outstripped by the Northern industrial powers, as long as it held on to Empire, it could still consider itself a member of that exclusive class of imperial powers, a Great Power in other words.That is why when word of diplomatic manoeuvring between the British and the Germans to partition Angola in 1898 filtered out, the Portuguese had to act and act then [now!]. Their man on the spot was a Luso-Irish officer by the name of Paiva Couceiro. Acting on the basis of urgent orders, he mustered a few troops and raced to “effectively occupy” as much territory as he could. His reward came in 1907 when he was made the Governor-General of Angola. His vision—to make Angola into a settler colony was executed by Norton de Matos.The colonial settlement policy survived the fall of the Saxe-Coburg monarchs and the rise of a Republican administration. They, for many years, encouraged Jewish migration into the area, part of the mooted plans to create a Jewish State in the African interior—Uganda was another choice.A bill to formalise what was the settlement pushed by Israel Zangwill with the tacit support of some of the Jewish financiers of Witwatersrand and the Congo copper belt was brought before parliament on June 20 1912. Its sticking point was the insistence of anti-clerical Republicans in Parliament at the completely secular nature of the project. There would be no propagation of either the Jewish faith or culture. They were interested in bodies to occupy conquered territory on their behalf, not an ideological project.By 1920, the settler population was a mere 20,000 and the colonial project looked to be progressing if not at a rapid pace, then steadily. Then the Great Depression hit. Amidst the global wave of regime change was a military coup which brought Antonio Salazar, a former journalist to power. His financial program was austerity-focused, slashing the subsidies necessary to maintain Norton’s vision of self-reliant yeomen. Salazar’s new colonial vision would instead be underpinned by cheap native labour. They were to be the hewers of wood and drawers of water. More valuably, they would also become diamond miners, their women held in prisons to encourage shirkers to return to the mines. As the fastest way to raise the price of labour was education, that by necessity had to be kept at a rudimentary level.Much like the French saw Algeria, Salazar conceived of Portugal’s overseas territories as provinces in what was essentially a unitary State. For the Blacks within, citizenship was attained by demonstrating fluent Portuguese, being strictly monogamous, showing adequate dexterity with the fork and knife and being deemed by a moral inspectorate to display adequate European manners. Old assimilados, new assimilados and mestizos were the class groupings of Angolan Portuguese citizens. The system looked to be stable enough but you know what they say about straw and the camel’s back. In this case, cotton broke the camel’s back.One of the main purposes of the colonies in Salazar’s conception was value extraction. At this time, in the 1940s, Portugal was one of Europe’s poorest countries. The settler project was no USA, due to the plain unattractiveness of Angola compared to the USA or the gold and diamond paved streets of South Africa. Government policy also did not help. They had initially thought to use Angola as a convict colony for Portuguese undesirables. Problem is these were mostly single men and the government abhorred miscegenation so the obvious happening led to a discontinuation of the project.They were in a catch-22. They had all these Africans, who were needed to be kept dirt-cheap to keep the whole edifice running, but too many, especially if not engaged in some task and they might prove a menace to citizens. So they came up with the genius idea of creating large cotton plantations in the hinterlands. Cotton is, of course, a hungry, soil fertility sapping crop and the natives could tolerate a lot but, a hungry man is an angry man after all.In January 1961, villagers burnt down the warehouses holding the entire planting season’s crop. In response, Salazar sent planes to bomb their villages, triggering flight into the forests of the Congo, and more importantly, laying the foundation of the transnational networks that the fighters in the wars that would soon grip the region would continually tap into.On 4 February 1961, an attempted jailbreak sparked a racial pogrom whose primary victims were the Black assimilados who were cognizant of the rapid decolonisation then occurring on the continent. They too demanded that jobs previously barricaded by racial privilege be opened fully to them. The gunpowder was the willingness of settlers with very little to gain by surrendering their racial privileges either in Angola or through a return to Europe to attack Black citizens throughout Luanda, driven by an atmosphere of envy and fear.In March 1961, owed salaries prompted a labour protest on a coffee plantation. The settlers were already highly strung due to the unprecedented series of crises. In addition, news and rumours of native attacks were filtering in from other settler colonies on the continent. An attempt was made to suppress the protest with force and in the ensuing uprising, more whites were killed than in the more famous Mau Mau wars.Seeing the stirrings of a full-scale war, Salazar introduced conscription in Portugal for deployment in the remaining Portuguese colonies and played the anti-Communist card. In response, President John F Kennedy supplied him with napalm. More Angolan refugees fleeing their burning villages ran into the welcoming arms of the January cohort. They commiserated with them, then armed them. Some of them [MPLA] really had Communist support.The furnace of war also changed the Portuguese, first the army from an ornamental to a fighting army and Salazar’s autarkic policies into an FDI friendly one. Royalties from Angolan oil wells paid for the armies that tried to suppress them.From their main bases outside of Angola, the major freedom fighting outfits—The FNLA led by Holden Roberto, UNITA led by Jonas Savimbi and MPLA led by Agostinho Neto organised a guerrilla campaign marked by acts of sabotage and cross-border raids across the country.The revolution was no straightforward tale but instead shot through with the various contradictions of Angola itself. The movements were united in their aspirations to seize power and divided by the personalities of their leaders. Holden was BaKongo royalty, Savimbi and Neto were Portuguese scholarship boys. The BaKongo did not particularly care for the Ovimbundu and both were circumspect about the mestizos. Augustinho Neto’s white wife was brought up more than was necessary to question his revolutionary credentials. The UNITA eventually sought a settlement with the colonial government. Not just they. A decision by the central government to overrule the settlers and seek to conciliate the assimilados left many of them wary of turning over power to young radicals quoting Castro, Mao and Lenin.There was not so much a total victory as in Mao, Trotsky or Castro’s case as there was imperial retreat and rapid disintegration. Salazar died and his less adept successor was overthrown by army units on April 25 1974. Given a choice between cosy deployments as a NATO member and avoiding mines in the forests of Angola, they chose the former. As for the businesses footing the expenses of the war, the gleam of the Europe of Monnet’s dream, one whose industries were humming again was simply shinier than Angolan savannahs, coffee plantations be damned! The result was a hastily organised transition to an independent Angola. The Soviets and the Cubans were invested, the Portuguese had a seat at the table and the ostensible government of national unity comprising all three liberation outfits absolutely hated each others guts.What could wrong?Well, the government of National Unity was formed in January 1975, by July same year MPLA troops drove out UNITA and FNLA troops from the capital, Luanda. By September, same year UNITA was already sending out feelers to the South African military for weapons, advice and possibly troops. The quid was a blind eye to apartheid and hostility to anti-apartheid bases should it come to power. The MPLA, in turn, turned to its Cuban and Soviet allies, a contingent of 500 Cuban troops soon had boots on the ground. Meanwhile, South African armoured divisions Zulu and Foxbat had captured an Angolan port.On 10 November 1975, while Cubans and MPLA troops held off a South African invasion to install UNITA in the South, having foiled a coup attempt by American and Mobutu backed mercenaries to install the pro-American FNLA, Portugal finally withdrew from Angola. Sovereignty had been transferred to the people of Angola, the last Portuguese Governor-General declared as he sailed away. I can only assume his ship’s hold was filled with popcorn.After celebrating its independence on 11 November 1975, the MPLA attacked UNITA positions, there would not be peace until 2002.If you disliked this, do a drive-by in the comments. If you like it and are in the mood, a few chinks from you to my Patreon would make me a real happy camper.