Wars of national liberation

[1][3] In January 1961 Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev pledged support for "wars of national liberation" throughout the world.

[5][6][7] International law generally holds that a people with a legal right to self-determination are entitled to wage wars of national liberation.

It pitted self-liberated slaves against Imperial France, coming about during a period in history where interconnected movements such as the American and French Revolutions had caused a rise of national consciousness in the Atlantic world.

The Siege of Patras (1821) led to the Greek War of Independence, ending Ottoman domination in the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece.

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire, the Turkish National Movement fought a series of campaigns in the war of independence (1919-1922), which resulted in the subsequent withdrawal of Allied forces and establishment of the Republic of Turkey.

The Portuguese colonial wars finally led to the recognition of Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau as independent states in 1975, following the April Carnation Revolution.

The Rhodesian Bush War became a scene of guerrilla warfare by factors of the ZANLA and ZAPU against Rhodesia until white-majority rule came to an end in 1979 and the Lancaster House Agreement led to the independence of Zimbabwe in April 1980.

In February 1991, six months after the outbreak of the Gulf War, the coalition led by the United States launched a ground offensive to liberate Kuwait from Iraqi occupation.

The aftermath of the Rwandan genocide saw the AFDL invade Zaire, overthrowing the regime of Mobutu and reverting its name to the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In the first Libyan Civil War (2011), an uprising developed into a rebellion, toppling the regime of Muammar Gaddafi and the National Transitional Council declared the liberation of Libya from 42 years of his rule.