From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

África Ocidental Portuguesa Portuguese West Africa Portuguese colony ←   ←   ← 1655 – 1951 → Flag Coat of arms Portuguese West Africa (Angola and Cabinda) Capital Luanda Language(s) Portuguese Political structure Colony Head of state  - 1640-1656 John IV of Portugal, king  - 1974-1975 Francisco da Costa Gomes, president Governor-general  - 1837-1839 (first) Manuel Bernardo Vidal  - 1975 (last) Leonel Alexandre Gomes Cardoso Governor  - 1589-1591 (first) Luís Serrão  - 1836- (last) Domingos de Saldanha Oliveira e Daun Historical era Imperialism  - Established 1655  - Fall of Portuguese Empire 11 November, 1951 Currency Portuguese Escudo

Angola
This article is part of the series: History of Angola
Precolonial history (Paleolithic era to 1655)
Colonial history (1655 to 1951)
1940s (1940s)
1950s (1950s)
War of Independence (1961 to 1975)
1960s (1960s)
Civil War (1975 to 2002)
2000s (2000s)

The colonial history of Angola lasted from its annexation as a colony in 1655 until its designation as an overseas province, effective October 20, 1951. The Portuguese government incorporated Angola as a colony on May 12, 1886.^[1][2]

Contents 1 17th century 2 Colony of Benguela 3 Eighteenth century 4 Nineteenth century 5 See also 6 References

While Portugal defeated the Kongo Kingdom in the Battle of Mbwila on October 29, 1665,^[3] the Portuguese suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Kitombo when they tried to invade Kongo in 1670. Their principal ally in the war against Njinga, defected when Portugal agreed to accept her claim as Queen of Ndongo in 1657. She revolted in 1670. Although the Portuguese managed to defeat him in a long siege of his capital of Mpungo Andongo in 1671 in was a costly victory. Further interference in Matamba and the affairs of Matamba and Kasanje in 1680s led to another defeat at the Battle of Katole in 1684. Following this affair, Portugal turned its attention away from war in the north either against Kongo or Ndongo.

In 1684 the bishop's seat was moved to São Paulo de Luanda, and São Salvador declined in importance, especially after its abandonment in 1678 as the civil war in that country intensified. Even after Pedro IV restored the city and repopulated it in 1709, the ecclesiastical center of gravity in Angola rested with the Portuguese colony.

The attention of the Portuguese was, moreover, now turned more particularly to the southern districts of Angola. The colony of Benguela had been founded by governor Manuel Cerveira Pereira in 1617. Initially, he had hoped to make it an aggressive military colony like Angola, but after an unsuccessful alliance with the local Imbangala, had had to abandon these plans. His plans to further strengthen the colony by seizing rich copper mines reputed to be in Sumbe also came to naught. Other attempts to expand from Benguela, such as the lengthy campaign of Lopo Soares Lasso in 1629 failed to produce many slaves or conquests.

In the 1680s, following the failure of northern warfare, Portuguese governors tried again to make more war in the south. They embroiled themselves in the politics of the Ovimbundu Kingdoms that lay in the central highlands (Bihe Plateau) of Angola. These campaigns, especially ambitious ones in 1770s did result in formal agreements of vassalage between some of the more important of the kingdoms, such as Viye and Mbailundu, but were never either large sources of slaves or real conquests from which resources or tribute could be drawn.

In the eighteenth century Portuguese governors sought to limit what they considered illegal trade by merchants in their colony with Dutch, French and English merchants who frequently visited the northern kingdoms of Kongo and Loango. To this end, they established a fort and settlement at Encoje (near Mbwila) to block travel through the mountainous gap that allowed merchants to cross to Kongo. In 1783-1784 they sought to occupy Cabinda on the north coast, but were driven away, and from 1789 to 1792 the Portuguese carried on a war against the Marquisate of Mussolo (the district immediately south of Ambriz in Kongo's territory) without much success. In 1791 they built a fort at Quincolo on the Loje, and worked the mines of Bembe.

At the same time, Portugal also sought to extend its relations into the interior, especially the lands beyond the Kwango River. Matamba and Kasanje had consistently blocked attempts by Portuguese merchants to penetrate into their lands, and in 1755-56, Manuel Correia Leitão, visited Kasanje and reported on the lands across the Kwanza. Among them was the powerful Lunda Empire whose armies had conquered much of the territory there. Lunda eventually entered into diplomatic relations with Portugal, sending an embassy there in the early nineteenth century and receiving counter embassies from Luanda.

The Portuguese from Benguela sought increasingly to expand their power and limit trade to their merchants in the Bihe Highlands during the eighteenth century, and following their intervention in the Mbailundu War in the 1770s had treaty relationships (which they described as vassalage) with the various states there. These arrangements included gathering Portuguese merchants in capital cities and making permanent presences in the capitals of these states. From these bases, Portugal sought to explore trade relations with Lunda that avoided the Kwango River states.

Portuguese possessed no fort or settlement on the coast to the north of Ambriz, which had been first occupied in 1855, until the "scramble for Africa" in 1884. In 1855-56, Portuguese forces intervened in a civil war between 1855 and 1856, helping Pedro V Agua Rosda come to the throne of Kongo. They left a fort at São Salvador, which they maintained until 1866. Pedro V reigned over thirty years. In 1888 a Portuguese resident was stationed at Salvador, when Pedro agreed to become a Portuguese vassal. He hoped to use Portuguese to assist in his attempt to rebuild royal authority in other parts of Kongo.

Full Portuguese administrative control of the interior did not occur until the beginning of the twentieth century.

In 1884 Britain, which up to that time had steadily refused to acknowledge that Portugal possessed territorial rights north of Ambriz, concluded a treaty recognizing Portuguese sovereignty over both banks of the lower Congo, but the treaty, meeting with opposition in England and Germany, was not ratified. Agreements concluded with the Congo Free State, Germany and France in 1885-1886 (modified in details by subsequent arrangements) fixed the limits of the province, except in the south-east, where the frontier between Barotseland (north-west Rhodesia) and Angola was determined by an Anglo-Portuguese agreement of 1891 and the arbitration award of the king of Italy in 1905.

Up to the end of the 19th century the hold of Portugal over the interior of the province was slight, though its influence extended to the Congo and Zambezi basins. The abolition of the external slave trade proved very injurious to the trade of the seaports. From 1860 onward, the agricultural resources of the country were developed with increasing energy, a work in which Brazilian merchants took the lead. After the definite partition of Africa among the European powers, Portugal applied herself with some seriousness to exploit Angola and her other African possessions. Nevertheless, in comparison with its natural wealth, the development of the country had been slow.

Slavery and the slave trade continued to flourish in the interior in the early years of the 20th century, despite the prohibitions of the Portuguese government. The extension of authority over the inland tribes proceeded very slowly and was not accomplished without occasional reverses. In September 1904 a Portuguese column lost over 300 men, including 114 Europeans, in an encounter with the Kunahamas on the Kunene, not far from the German frontier. The Kunahamas are a wild, raiding tribe and were probably largely influenced by the revolt of their southern neighbours, the Hereros, against the Germans. In 1905 and again in 1907, there was renewed fighting in the same region.

Portugal's primary interest in Angola was slavery. The slaving system began early in the sixteenth century with the purchase from African chiefs of people to work on sugar plantations in São Tomé, Principe, and Brazil. Whilst the economic development of the country was not entirely neglected and many useful food products were introduced, the prosperity of the province was very largely dependent on the slave trade with Brazil, which was not legally abolished until 1830 and in fact continued for many years subsequently. Many scholars agree that by the nineteenth century, Angola was the largest source of slaves not only for Brazil, but for the Americas, including the United States. By the end of the 19th century, a massive forced labor system had replaced formal slavery and would continue until outlawed in 1961. Portuguese colonial rule in the twentieth century was characterized by rigid dictatorship and exploitation of African labor.

It was this forced labor that provided the basis for development of a plantation economy and, by the mid-20th century, a major mining sector. Forced labor combined with British financing to construct three railroads from the coast to the interior. The most important of these was the transcontinental Benguela railroad that linked the port of Lobito with the copper zones of the Belgian Congo and what is now Zambia.

Colonial economic development did not transform into social development for native Angolans. The Portuguese regime encouraged white immigration, especially after 1950, which intensified racial antagonisms, many new Portuguese settlers arrived after World War II.

• 1940s in Angola
• 1950s in Angola

v • d • e Portuguese Empire

North Africa  15th century 1415–1640  Ceuta 1458–1550  Alcácer Ceguer (El Qsar es Seghir) 1471–1550  Arzila (Asilah) 1471–1662  Tangier 1485–1550  Mazagan (El Jadida) 1487- middle 16th century  Ouadane 1488–1541  Safim (Safi) 16th century 1505–1769  Santa Cruz do Cabo de Gué (Agadir) 1506–1525  Mogador (Essaouira) 1506–1525  Aguz (Souira Guedima) 1506–1769  Mazagan (El Jadida) 1513–1541  Azamor (Azemmour) 1577–1589  Arzila (Asilah) Sub-Saharan Africa  15th century 1455–1633  Arguin 1470–1975  São Tomé1 1474–1778  Annobón 1478–1778  Fernando Poo (Bioko) 1482–1637  Elmina (São Jorge da Mina) 1482–1642  Portuguese Gold Coast 1496–1550  Madagascar (part) 1498–1540  Mascarene Islands 16th century 1500–1630  Malindi 1500–1975  Príncipe1 1501–1975  Portuguese E. Africa (Mozambique) 1502–1659  St. Helena 1503–1698  Zanzibar 1505–1512  Quíloa (Kilwa) 1506–1511  Socotra 1557–1578  Accra 1575–1975  Portuguese W. Africa (Angola) 1588–1974  Cacheu2 1593–1698  Mombassa (Mombasa) 17th century 1642–1975  Cape Verde 1645–1888  Ziguinchor 1680–1961  São João Baptista de Ajudá 1687–1974  Bissau2 18th century 1728–1729  Mombassa (Mombasa) 1753–1975  São Tomé and Príncipe 19th century 1879–1974  Portuguese Guinea 1885–1975  Portuguese Congo (Cabinda) 1 Part of São Tomé and Príncipe from 1753.   2 Part of Portuguese Guinea from 1879. Southwest Asia  16th century 1506–1615  Gamru (Bandar Abbas) 1507-1643  Sohar 1515–1622  Hormuz (Ormus) 1515-1648  Quriyat 1515-?   Qalhat 1515–1650  Muscat 1515?-?   Barka 1515-1633? Julfar (Ras al-Khaimah) 1521–1602  Bahrain (Al Muharraq and Manama) 1521-1529?  Qatif 1521?-1551? Tarut Island 1550-1551  Qatif 1588-1648  Matrah 17th century 1620-?   Khor Fakkan 1621?-?   As Sib 1621-1622  Qeshm 1623-?   Khasab 1623-?   Libedia 1624-?   Kalba 1624-?   Madha 1624-1648  Diba al-Hisn 1624?-?   Bandar-e Kong Indian subcontinent  15th century 1498–1545  Laccadive Islands (Lakshadweep) 16th century Portuguese India    1500–1663  Cochim (Kochi)    1502–1661  Quilon (Coulão/Kollam)    1502–1663  Cannanore (Kannur)    1507–1657  Negapatam (Nagapattinam)    1510–1962  Goa    1512–1525  Calicut (Kozhikode)    1518–1619  Paliacate (Pulicat)    1521–1740  Chaul    1523–1662  São Tomé de Meliapore    1528–1666  Chittagong    1534–1601  Salsette Island    1534–1661  Bombay (Mumbai)    1535–1739  Baçaím (Vasai-Virar)    1536–1662  Cranganore (Kodungallur)    1540–1612  Surat    1548–1658  Tuticorin (Thoothukudi)    1559–1962  Daman and Diu    1568–1659  Mangalore    1579–1632  Hughli    1598–1610  Masulipatnam (Machilipatnam) 1518–1521  Maldives 1518–1658  Portuguese Ceylon (Sri Lanka) 1558–1573  Maldives 17th century Portuguese India    1687–1749  São Tomé de Meliapore 18th century Portuguese India    1779–1954  Dadra and Nagar Haveli East Asia and Oceania  16th century 1511–1641  Malacca 1512–1621  Banda Islands 1512–1621  Moluccas (Maluku Islands)    1522–1575  Ternate    1576–1605  Ambon    1578–1650  Tidore 1512–1665  Makassar 1553–1999  Macau 1533-1545  Ning-po 1571–1639  Decima (Dejima, Nagasaki) 17th century 1642–1975  Portuguese Timor (East Timor)1 19th century Macau    1864–1999  Coloane    1851–1999  Taipa    1890–1999  Ilha Verde 20th century Macau    1938–1941  Lapa and Montanha (Hengqin) 1 1975 is the date of East Timor's Declaration of Independence and subsequent invasion by Indonesia. In 2002, the independence of East Timor was recognized by Portugal and the rest of the world. North America and the North Atlantic Ocean  15th century 1420           Madeira 1432           Azores 16th century 1501–1570?  Terra Nova (Newfoundland) 1501-1570?  Labrador 1519–1570?  Nova Scotia Central and South America  16th century 1500–1822  Brazil 1536–1620  Barbados 17th century 1680–1777  Nova Colônia do Sacramento 19th century 1808–1822  Cisplatina (Uruguay) Portuguese colonization of the Americas