 From a military standpoint , the Portuguese regular army held the upper hand during the conflict against the <unk> guerrilla forces . Nonetheless , Mozambique succeeded in achieving independence on June 25 , 1975 , after a civil resistance movement known as the Carnation Revolution backed by portions of the military in Portugal overthrow the military dictatorship sponsored by US , thus ending 470 years of Portuguese colonial rule in the East African region . According to historians of the Revolution , the military coup in Portugal was in part fuelled by protests concerning the conduct of Portuguese troops in their treatment of some local Mozambican populace . The role of the growing communist influence over the group of Portuguese military insurgents who led the Lisbon 's military coup , and , on the other hand , the pressure of the international community over the direction of the Portuguese Colonial War in general , were main causes for the final outcome . 
