After WWII, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal clung to the concept that Mozambiqueand other portuguese possessiong were overseas provinces of the mother country, and emmigration to the colonies soared. Mozambique's Portugal population at the time of independencewas about 2,50,000. the drive for Mozambique's independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groupsformed the Front for the liberation of Mozambique( in Portuguese FRELIMO) with the Soviet and China's help.
The Mozambican War of Independence was an armed conflictbetween the guerrilla forces of the FRELIMO and Portuguese forces.The FRELIMO initiated a guerrilla campaign aginst Portuguese rule in Sept. 1964.This conflict along the two other Portuguese colony Angola nd Guinea- Bissau became part of the Portuguese colonial war(1961-1974). From a military standpoint, Portuguese regular armymaintained contrl of the populationcentres while the guerrilla forces sought to undermine their influence in rural and tribal areas in the north and the west.
After 10 years of sporadic warfare and Portugal's return to democracy through a leftist military coup in Lisbon which which replaced Portugal's Estado Novo regimeand gave independence to FRELOMO. Within a year , about 2,50,000 portuguese in Mozambique left for Portugal.
