Portuguese Angola

Coordinates: 12°30′S 18°30′E / 12.500°S 18.500°E / -12.500; 18.500
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Angola (Portugal)
)

Province of Angola
Província de Angola
1575–1975
Anthem: "
Sebastian I of Portugal
• 1974–75
President Francisco da Costa Gomes
Governor General 
• 1575–1589
Paulo Dias de Novais[2]
• 1975
Leonel Alexandre Gomes Cardoso
Historical eraImperialism
• Establishment of Luanda
1575
• Independence of Angola
11 November 1975
CurrencyPortuguese real (1575-1911)
Portuguese escudo (1911–14)
Angolan escudo (1914–28; 1958–77)
Angolan angolar (1926–58)
ISO 3166 codeAO
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Kingdom of Kongo
Kingdom of Ndongo
Lunda Empire
Mbunda Kingdom
People's Republic of Angola
Today part ofAngola
Part of a series on the
History of Angola
Portuguese province
 1951–1961
War of Independence 1961–1974
Sovereign socialist state 1975–1992
Civil War 1975–2002
Post-war Angola’s
See also
Years in Angola

Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a colony of the Portuguese Empire (1575–1951) in southwestern Africa, an Overseas Province of the Portugal or Portuguese West Africa (officially the State of West Africa) (from 1951–1972), then a State of the Portuguese Empire (1972–1975).

In the 16th and 17th century Portugal ruled along the coast and engaged in military conflicts with the Kingdom of Kongo, but in the 18th century Portugal gradually managed to colonise the interior Highlands. Full control of the entire territory was not achieved until the beginning of the 20th century, when agreements with other European powers during the Scramble for Africa fixed the colony's interior borders. On 11 June 1951, its name was changed to the Overseas Province of Angola and in 1973, the State of Angola. In 1975, Portuguese Angola became the independent People's Republic of Angola.

History

The history of Portuguese presence on the territory of contemporary Angola lasted from the arrival of the explorer Diogo Cão in 1484[3] until the decolonization of the territory in November 1975. Over these five centuries, several different situations existed.

Colony, 1575–1951

Queen Nzinga in peace negotiations with the Portuguese governor in Luanda
, 1657
Main article: Colonial history of Angola

When in 1484

Cabinda exclave.[citation needed
]

In 1575, the settlement of

conversion
of foreign peoples.

In the 17th century, conflicting economic interests led to a military confrontation with the Kongo Kingdom. Portugal defeated the Kongo Kingdom in the Battle of Mbwila on 29 October, 1665, but suffered a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Kitombo when they tried to invade Kongo in 1670. Control of most of the central highlands was achieved in the 18th century. Further reaching attempts at conquering the interior were undertaken in the 19th century.[6] However, full Portuguese administrative control of the entire territory was not achieved until the beginning of the 20th century.

In 1884, the

King Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy in 1905.[3]

During the period of Portuguese colonial rule of Angola, cities, towns and trading posts were founded, railways were opened, ports were built, and a

Westernised society was being gradually developed, despite the deep traditional tribal heritage in Angola which the minority European rulers were neither willing nor interested in eradicating. From the 1920s, Portugal's administration showed an increasing interest in developing Angola's economy and social infrastructure.[7]

Between 1939 and 1943 the Portuguese army "carried out operations" against the nomadic

forced labor camps, where the great majority of them perished due to the brutality of the work system, undernourishment and executions.[8]

Overseas province, b1951-1971 beginning of the colonial war

Main articles: Angolan War of Independence and Portuguese Colonial War
Portuguese troops during the Colonial War

In 1951, the Portuguese Colony of Angola became an

economic boom
.

Organised

Bakongo militants.[9]

Portuguese soldiers in Angola

Holden Roberto launched an incursion into Angola on 15 March 1961, leading 4,000 to 5,000 militants. His forces took farms, government outposts, and trading centres, killing everyone they encountered. At least 1,000 whites and an unknown number of blacks were killed.

dictatorial Estado Novo regime of António de Oliveira Salazar and later Marcelo Caetano
, sent thousands of troops from Europe to perform counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations.

In 1963 Holden Roberto established the Revolutionary Government of Angola in Exile (Portuguese: Governo revolucionário de Angola no exílio, GRAE) in Kinshasa in an attempt to claim on the international scene the sole representation of forces fighting Portuguese rule in Angola. In 1966, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) also started pro-independence guerrilla operations. Despite the overall military superiority of the Portuguese Army in the Angolan theatre, the independence guerrilla movements were never fully defeated.[citation needed]

Luanda, Portuguese Angola 1972.

From 1966 to 1970, the pro-independence guerrilla movement MPLA expanded their previously limited insurgency operations to the East of Angola. This vast countryside area was far away from the main urban centres and close to foreign countries where the guerrillas were able to take shelter. The UNITA, a smaller pro-independence guerrilla organisation established in the East, supported the MPLA. Until 1970, the combined guerrilla forces of MPLA and UNITA in the East Front were successful in pressuring

Silva Porto. In 1970, the guerrilla movement decided to reinforce the Eastern Front by relocating troops and armament from the North to the East.[citation needed
]

Campaign in the Eastern Front, 1971

Main article: Frente Leste

In 1971, the Portuguese Armed Forces started a successful counter-insurgency military campaign that expelled the three guerrilla movements operating in the East to beyond the frontiers of Angola, the Frente Leste. The last guerrillas lost hundreds of soldiers and left tons of equipment behind, disbanding chaotically to neighbouring countries or, in some cases, joining or surrendering to the Portuguese. In order to gain the confidence of the local rural populations, and to create conditions for their permanent and productive settlement in the region, the Portuguese authorities organised massive vaccination campaigns, medical check-ups, and water, sanitation and alimentary infrastructure as a way to better contribute to the economic and social development of the people and dissociate the population from the guerrillas and their influence. On 31 December 1972, the Development Plan of the East (Plano de Desenvolvimento do Leste) included in its first stage 466 development enterprises (150 were completed and 316 were being built). Nineteen health centres had been built and 26 were being constructed. 51 new schools were operating and 82 were being constructed[12][13] By 1972, after the Frente Leste, complemented by a pragmatic hearts and minds policy, the military conflict in Angola was effectively won for the Portuguese.[citation needed]

Federated state status, 1972

In June 1972, the

autonomous state with authority over some internal affairs, while Portugal was to retain responsibility for defense and foreign relations. However, the intent was by no means to grant Angolan independence, but was instead to "win the hearts and minds" of the Angolans, convincing them to remain permanently a part of an intercontinental Portugal. Renaming Angola (like Mozambique) in November 1972 (in effect 1 January 1973)[14] "Estado" (state) was part of an apparent effort to give the Portuguese Empire a sort of federal structure, conferring some degree of autonomy to the "states". In fact, the structural changes and increase in autonomy were extremely limited. The government of the "State of Angola" was the same as the old provincial government, except for some cosmetic changes to personnel and titles. As in Portugal itself, the government of the "State of Angola" was entirely composed of people aligned with the Estado Novo regime's establishment. While these changes were taking place, a few guerrilla nuclei stayed active inside the territory, and continued to campaign outside of Angola against Portuguese rule. The idea of having the independence movements take part in the political structure of the revamped territory's organization was absolutely unthinkable (on both sides).[15]

Carnation Revolution, 1974 and independence, 1975

Main articles: Carnation Revolution, Alvor Agreement, and People's Republic of Angola

However, the Portuguese authorities were unable to defeat the guerrillas as a whole during the Portuguese Colonial War, particularly in Portuguese Guinea, and suffered heavy casualties in the 13 years of conflict. Throughout the colonial war Portugal faced increasing dissent, arms embargoes and other punitive sanctions from most of the international community. The war was becoming even more unpopular in Portuguese society due to its length and costs, the worsening of diplomatic relations with other United Nations members, and the role it played as a factor in the perpetuation of the Estado Novo regime. It was this escalation that would lead directly to the mutiny of members of the Portuguese armed forces in the Carnation Revolution of April 1974 – an event that would lead to the independence of all of the former Portuguese colonies in Africa.[citation needed]

Portuguese soldiers being withdrawn from the Nova Lisboa garrison, Angola, 1975.

On 25 April 1974, the Portuguese Government of the

captains against the 1973 decree law Dec. Lei n.o 353/73.[18][19]

These events prompted a mass exodus of Portuguese citizens, overwhelmingly white but some

retornados.[20] On 11 November 1975 Angola became a sovereign state in accordance with the Alvor Agreement and the newly independent country was proclaimed the People's Republic of Angola.[citation needed
]

Government

Proposed flag for Portuguese Angola

In the 20th century, Portuguese Angola was subject to the Estado Novo regime. In 1951, the Portuguese authorities changed the statute of the territory from a colony to an overseas province of Portugal. Legally, the territory was as much a part of Portugal as Lisbon but as an overseas province enjoyed special derogations to account for its distance from Europe. Most members of the government of Angola were from Portugal, but a few were Angolan. Nearly all members of the bureaucracy were from Portugal, as most Angolans did not have the necessary qualifications to obtain positions.[citation needed]

The government of Angola, as it was in Portugal, was highly centralised. Power was concentrated in the

chain of command. The authority of the government of Angola was residual, primarily limited to implementing policies already decided in Europe. In 1967, Angola also sent a number of delegates to the National Assembly in Lisbon.[citation needed
]

The highest official in the province was the governor-general, appointed by the Portuguese cabinet on recommendation of the Overseas Minister. The governor-general had both executive and legislative authority. A Government Council advised the governor-general in the running of the province. The functional cabinet consisted of five secretaries appointed by the Overseas Minister on the advice of the governor. A Legislative Council had limited powers and its main activity was approving the provincial budget. Finally, an Economic and Social Council had to be consulted on all draft legislation, and the governor-general had to justify his decision to Lisbon if he ignored its advice.[citation needed]

In 1972, the

autonomous state with authority over some internal affairs; Portugal was to retain responsibility for defense and foreign relations. In 1973, elections were held in Angola for a legislative assembly.[16]

Geography

Portuguese Angola was a territory covering 1,246,700 km2, an area greater than

Moco Mountain
(2,620 m) and Meco Mountain (2,538 m).

Kwanza River

Most of Angola's rivers rose in the central mountains. Of the many rivers that drain to the Atlantic Ocean, the

Cubango Rivers, both of which drain generally southeast to the Okavango Delta. As the land drops from the plateau, many rapids and waterfalls plunge downward in the rivers. Portuguese Angola had no sizable lakes, besides those formed by dams and reservoirs built by the Portuguese administration.[citation needed
]

The Portuguese authorities established several national parks and natural reserves across the territory:

Bicauri, Cameia, Cangandala, Iona, Mupa, Namibe and Quiçama
. Iona was Angola's oldest and largest national park, it was proclaimed as a reserve in 1937 and upgraded to a national park in 1964.

Angola was a territory that underwent a great deal of progress after 1950. The Portuguese government built dams, roads, schools, etc. There was also an economic boom that led to a huge increase of the European population. The white population increased from 44,083 in 1940 to 172,529 in 1960. With around 1,000 immigrants arriving each month. On the eve of the end of the colonial period, the ethnic European residents numbered 400,000 (1974) (excluding enlisted and commissioned soldiers from the mainland) and the mixed race population was at around 100,000 (many were

Cape Verdian migrants working in the territory). The total population was around 5.9 million at that time.[citation needed
]

Tombua) in the south where the white population was more established. All of these cities had European majorities from 50% to 60%.[citation needed
]

Cities

The capital of the territory was Luanda,[21][22] officially called São Paulo de Luanda. Other cities and towns were:[23]

Topographic map of Angola

The exclave of

international recognition
.

Economy

Main articles:
Mining in Angola, and Slavery in Angola

colony of Brazil in the New World. Brazilian ships were the most numerous in the ports of Luanda and Benguela.[citation needed] By this time, Angola, a Portuguese colony, was in fact more like a colony of Brazil, another Portuguese colony. A strong Brazilian influence was also exercised by the Jesuits in religion and education.[32]

The

Bié and Bailundo, the latter being noted for its production of foodstuffs and rubber. The colonial power, Portugal, becoming ever richer and more powerful, would not tolerate the growth of these neighbouring states and subjugated them one by one, enabling Portuguese hegemony over much of the area. During the period of the Iberian Union (1580–1640), Portugal lost influence and power and made new enemies. The Dutch, a major enemy of Castile, invaded many Portuguese overseas possessions, including Luanda. The Dutch ruled Luanda from 1640 to 1648 as Fort Aardenburgh. They were seeking black slaves for use in sugarcane plantations of Northeastern Brazil (Pernambuco, Olinda and Recife), which they had also seized from Portugal. John Maurice, Prince of Nassau-Siegen, conquered the Portuguese possessions of Saint George del Mina, Saint Thomas, and Luanda on the west coast of Africa. After the dissolution of the Iberian Union in 1640, Portugal reestablished its authority over the lost territories of the Portuguese Empire.[32]

The Portuguese started to develop townships, trading posts,

Portuguese Brazil became independent
in 1822, and the slave trade was abolished in 1836.

In 1844, Angola's ports were opened to legal foreign shipping. By 1850, Luanda was one of the most developed cities outside

Mainland Portugal in the Portuguese Empire: it was full of trading companies, exporting (together with Benguela) palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among many other products. Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born.[32] From the 1920s to the 1960s, strong economic growth, abundant natural resources and development of infrastructure, led to the arrival of even more Portuguese settlers from the metropole.[32]

sugar plantations.[citation needed
]

On the whole, African laborers performed brutal work in poor conditions for very little pay that they were frequently cheated of. The American sociologist Edward Ross visited rural Angola in 1924 on behalf of the Temporary Slavery Commission of the League of Nations and wrote a scathing report describing the labor system as "virtually state serfdom", that did not allow Africans time to produce their own food. In addition, when their wages were embezzled and they were denied access to the colonial judicial system.[34]

From the mid-1950s until 1974,

ChevronTexaco, in 1955. Oil production surpassed the exportation of coffee
as Angola's largest export in 1973.

By the early 1970s, a variety of crops and livestock were produced in Portuguese Angola. In the north,

cattle herding was prevalent. In addition, there were large plantations run by Portuguese that produced palm oil, sugarcane, bananas, and sisal. These crops were grown by commercial farmers, primarily Portuguese, and by peasant farmers, who sold some of their surplus to local Portuguese traders in exchange for supplies. The commercial farmers were dominant in marketing these crops, however, and enjoyed substantial support from the overseas province's Portuguese government in the form of technical assistance, irrigation facilities, and financial credit. They produced the great majority of the crops that were marketed in Angola's urban centres or exported for several countries.[36]

Fishing in Portuguese Angola was a major and growing industry. In the early 1970s, there were about 700

Moçâmedes, Luanda and Benguela
were among the most important fishing harbours in the region.

Education

Non-urban black African access to educational opportunities was very limited for most of the

Roman Catholic and Protestant missions based across the vast countryside, which taught black Africans in Portuguese language and culture.[37] As a consequence, each of the missions established its own school system, although all were subject to ultimate control and support by the Portuguese.[37]

In mainland Portugal, the homeland of the colonial authorities who ruled in the territory from the 16th century until 1975, by the end of the 19th century the

illiteracy rates were at over 80 percent and higher education was reserved for a small percentage of the population. 68.1 percent of mainland Portugal's population was still classified as illiterate by the 1930 census. Mainland Portugal's literacy rate by the 1940s and early 1950s was low by North American and Western European standards at the time. Only in the 1960s did the country make public education available for all children between the ages of six and twelve, and the overseas territories profited from this new educational developments and change in policy at Lisbon
.

Starting in the early 1950s, the access to basic, secondary and technical education was expanded and its availability was being increasingly opened to both the African indigenes and the ethnic Portuguese of the territories. Education beyond the primary level became available to an increasing number of black Africans since the 1950s, and the proportion of the age group that went on to secondary school in the early 1970s was an all-time record high enrolment.[37] Primary school attendance was also growing substantially.[37] In general, the quality of teaching at the primary level was acceptable, even with instruction carried on largely by black Africans who sometimes had substandard qualifications.[37] Most secondary school teachers were ethnically Portuguese, especially in the urban centers.[37]

Two state-run university institutions were founded in Portuguese Africa in 1962 by the Portuguese Ministry of the Overseas Provinces headed by

Estudos Gerais Universitários de Moçambique in Portuguese Mozambique—awarding a wide range of degrees from engineering to medicine.[38] In the 1960s, the Portuguese mainland had four public universities, two of them in Lisbon (which compares with the 14 Portuguese public universities today). In 1968, the Estudos Gerais Universitários de Angola was renamed Universidade de Luanda (University of Luanda
).

Sports

Bullfighting in Luanda, 1899

From the 1920s onward, city and town expansion and modernization included the construction of several sports facilities for

Moçâmedes. The International Nova Lisboa 6 Hours sports car race became noted internationally.[40]

Football became very popular in Angola during the 20th century. Football was mostly spread to Angola by the Portuguese people who settled in the colonies. This was mostly due to the fact that immigration to the colonies was encouraged, both Angola and Mozambique saw an influx of Portuguese migrants. People started to follow teams that were from the Portuguese mainland. In the latter half of the 20th century, Portugal would recruit many players form Angola. Miguel Arcanjo was one such player who played in Portugal. The colonial players would help Portuguese teams win many championships.[41]

Famous people

See also

Notes

  1. ISBN 9780810865600
    .
  2. ^ as Captain-Governor
  3. ^ a b Chisholm 1911.
  4. ^ Joseph C. Miller, Way of Death: Merchant Capitalism and the Angolan Slave Trade, 1730–1830, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1988
  5. ^ Medieval Africa, 1250–1800 (pp174) By Roland Anthony Oliver, Anthony Atmore
  6. ^ René Pélissier, Les guerres grises. Résistance et revoltes en Angola (1845–1941), Montamets/Orgeval: self-published, 1977
  7. ^ More Power to the People, 2006.
  8. ^ Rafael Coca de Campos Kakombola. O genocídio dos Mucubais na Angola colonial, 1930-1943, Ponta Grossa, 2021.
  9. ^ Tvedten, Inge (1997). Angola: Struggle for Peace and Reconstruction. p. 31.
  10. ISBN 9780813339474
    .
  11. ISBN 9780802140685
    .
  12. ^ (in Portuguese) António Pires Nunes, Angola Vitória Militar no Leste
  13. ISBN 9728563787
    , 9789728563783, Publisher: Prefácio, 2002
  14. ^ Jorge Bacelar Gouveia (September–December 2017). "The Constitutionalism of Angola and its 2010 Constitution". Revista de Estudos Constitucionais, Hermenêutica e Teoria do Direito (RECHTD) 9(3). pp. 221–239. Retrieved 28 October 2020. (in Portuguese)
  15. ^ John A. Marcum, The Angolan Revolution, vol. II, Exile Politics and Guerrilla Warfare (1962–1976), Cambridge/Mass. & London, MIT Press, 1978
  16. ^ a b Angola, History, The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press
  17. ^ (in Portuguese) Cronologia: Movimento dos capitães, Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril, University of Coimbra
  18. ^ (in Portuguese) Arquivo Electrónico: Otelo Saraiva de Carvalho, Centro de Documentação 25 de Abril, University of Coimbra
  19. RTP 2
    television, youtube.com.
  20. Time Magazine
    (Monday, 7 July 1975) NB: The figures in this source are too high, as the total number of whites in the colonies did not reach 700,000.
  21. youtube.com
  22. youtube.com
  23. ^ Angola no outro lado do tempo 🇦🇴, Angola – O Outro Lado do Tempo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33x7u7Ijm7Y&list=PLZWwV_k3xAIaium0MhHB-6bhu9BX2OP8S&t=1s
  24. ^ BenguelaAnosOuro.wmv, a film of Benguela, Overseas Province of Angola, before 1975.
  25. ^ NovaLisboaAnosOuro.wmv, a film of Nova Lisboa, Overseas Province of Angola, before 1975.
  26. ^ LobitoAnosOuro.wmv, a film of the Lobito in Portuguese Angola, before independence from Portugal.
  27. ^ SáDaBandeiraAnosOuro.wmv, a film of Sá da Bandeira, Overseas Province of Angola, before 1975.
  28. ^ MalanjeAnosOuro.wmv, a film of Malanje, Overseas Province of Angola (before 1975).
  29. ^
    youtube.com
  30. ^ Angola-Carmona (Viagem ao Passado)-Kandando Angola, a film of Carmona, Portuguese Angola (before 1975).
  31. ^ CabindaAnosOuro.wmv, a film of Cabinda, Portuguese Angola (before 1975).
  32. ^ a b c d e History of Angola Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine, Republic of Angola Embassy in the United Kingdom
  33. ^
    ISBN 978-0821445211
    .
  34. ^ Jeremy Ball (2006). ""I escaped in a coffin": Remembering Angolan Forced Labor from the 1940s". Cadernos de Estudos Africanos (9/10): 61–75.
    doi:10.4000/cea.1214
    . Retrieved 15 May 2016.
  35. ^ (in Portuguese) Angola – Moçâmedes, minha terra, eu te vi crescer... (Raul Ferreira Trindade), history of Moçâmedes/Namibe
  36. ^ Louise Redvers, POVERTY-ANGOLA: NGOs Sceptical of Govt’s Rural Development Plans Archived 12 May 2010 at the Wayback Machine, [Inter Press Service News Agency] (6 June 2009)
  37. ^ a b c d e f g h Warner, Rachel. "Conditions before Independence". A Country Study: Angola (Thomas Collelo, editor). Library of Congress Federal Research Division (February 1989). This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.[1]
  38. ^ (in Portuguese) 52. UNIVERSIDADE DE LUANDA
  39. ^ "Filiais do Sporting". Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 20 February 2024.
  40. ^ 6h Huambo 1973, Nova Lisboa Internacional Sports Race
  41. ISBN 978-0-89680-499-9
    .

References

Bibliography

  • Gerardo Augusto Pery, ed. (1875). "Angola". Geographia e estatistica geral de Portugal e colonias (in Portuguese). Lisbon: Imprensa Nacional.
  • Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878). "Angola" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 45.
  • Esteves Pereira; Guilherme Rodrigues, eds. (1904). "Angola". Portugal: Diccionario Historico... (in Portuguese). Vol. 1. Lisbon: Joao Romano Torres.
    OCLC 865826167 – via HathiTrust
    .

12°30′S 18°30′E / 12.500°S 18.500°E / -12.500; 18.500

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