During its anti-colonial struggle, FRELIMO managed to maintain friendly relations with both the Soviet Union and China, and received military and economic assistance from both.

After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal, under the Estado Novo regime, maintained that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas territories of the metropole (mother country).

Under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane, who was elected president of the newly formed organization, FRELIMO settled its headquarters in 1963 in Dar es Salaam.

Convinced by recent events, such as the Mueda massacre, that peaceful agitation would not bring about independence, FRELIMO contemplated the possibility of armed struggle from the outset.

During the ensuing war of independence, FRELIMO received support from the Soviet Union,[4] China,[4] the Scandinavian countries, and some non-governmental organisations in the West.

"[8] Frelimo's initial military operations were in the North of the country; by the late 1960s it had established "liberated zones" in Northern Mozambique in which it, rather than the Portuguese, constituted the civil authority.

As liberated areas grew, colonial governmental structures were replaced, as Frelimo activists and local chiefs assumed roles of authority.

FRELIMO came to regard economic exploitation by Western capital as the principal enemy of the common Mozambican people, not the Portuguese as such, and not Europeans in general.

The war of liberation was viewed as a rejection of “obstructionist, traditional-feudal and capitalist practices.”[13] The transformation of “social and economic relations” had significant implications for women.

Mondlane, along with Marcelino dos Santos, Samora Machel, Joaquim Chissano and a majority of the Party's Central Committee promoted the struggle not just for independence but to create a socialist society.

As FRELIMO's political campaign gained coherence, its forces advanced militarily, controlling one-third of the area of Mozambique by 1969, mostly in the northern and central provinces.

In 1970 the guerrilla movement suffered heavy losses as Portugal launched its ambitious Gordian Knot Operation (Operação Nó Górdio), which was masterminded by General Kaúlza de Arriaga of the Portuguese Army.

The April 1974 "Carnation Revolution" in Portugal overthrew the Portuguese Estado Novo regime, and the country turned against supporting the long and draining colonial war in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.

The country was bankrupt with almost all of its skilled workforce fleeing or already fled, a 95% illiteracy rate[19] and a brewing counter-revolutionary movement known as the "Mozambique National Resistance" (RENAMO) was beginning its first strikes against key government infrastructure with the assistance of Ian Smith's Rhodesia.

Large steps had already been taken towards the construction of a Mozambican socialist society by time of the 3rd Party Congress in February 1977, including the nationalisation of the land, many agricultural, industrial and commercial enterprises, rented housing, the banks, health and education.

Healthcare and Education became free and universal to all Mozambicans and the government begun a mass program of immunisations which was praised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as one of the most successful ever initiated in Africa.

[26] Frelimo’s dedication to accessible education had long-lasting consequences as previously marginalized groups, such as women, were able to engage intellectually and be involved in formal political and economic structures for the first time.

Neighbouring states, firstly Rhodesia and then South Africa, made direct armed incursions and promoted the growing RENAMO insurgency which continued to carry out economic sabotage and terrorism against the population.

[29] Natural disasters compounded the already devastating situation, with large scale floods in some regions from Tropical Storm Domoina in 1984, followed by extensive droughts.

[33] Agriculture fell into disarray as farms were burnt and farmers fled into the cities for safety, industrial production slowed as many workers were conscripted into battle against RENAMO and frequent raids against key roads and railways caused economic chaos across the country.

[34][page needed] FRELIMO's focus rapidly shifted from socialist construction to maintaining a basic level of infrastructure and protecting the towns and cities as best they could.

Despite small scale reforms in the party and state and the growing war Machel continued to maintain a hardline Marxist–Leninist stance and refused to negotiate with RENAMO.

In 1986 while returning from a meeting with Zaire and Malawi, President Samora Machel died in a suspicious airplane crash many blamed on the apartheid regime in Pretoria.

[39][40][41] With the removal of the final vestiges of Marxism from FRELIMO at the 5th Party Congress, greater economic reform programs commenced with the help of the World Bank, IMF and various international donors.

In 1992 Frelimo implemented a voluntary quota system like many other "post-conflict countries that had left-leaning parties in power with longstanding commitments to gender equality.

FRELIMO has received support[clarification needed] from the governments of Tanzania, South Africa, Algeria, Ghana, Zambia, Libya, Sweden,[52] Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Cuba, China, the Soviet Union,[53] Egypt, SFR Yugoslavia[54] and Somalia.