Portugal

When we say colonial power , which countries do you think of? Most people will immediately think of the British Empire, and others will imagine Spaniards crossing over the ocean, using their global firepower to take land and gold from the Incas. Others will imagine the strongest armies of the world converging in Africa, arguing over who gets which portion. Still others cannot imagine a more powerful army in the world than that of Ancient Rome, the army that ruled almost all of the known world during its time. But almost nobody mentions Portugal. Almost everyone has forgotten that for countries such as Angola, Guinea, and Mozambique, the Portuguese army was the strongest military in the world for many years, and it kept them as colonies right into the 1970s. From 1961 until 1974, wars raged in these countries as the locals demanded their right to self rule, and the Portuguese hung desperately onto their empire power. But in many ways, it is remarkable that they were able to keep going for so long. Portugal is hardly a big country, and they were trying to ensure that their army was successful in not one, not two, but three different and separate wars. You can be the strongest military in the world, but sometimes the odds are just against you. Now, of course, those three countries are completely independent and allowed to run themselves, but even within the last thirty years, the story of one of the last colonial wars has already been forgotten.