Precolonial history of Angola
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History of Angola | ||||||||||
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The precolonial history of Angola lasted until Portugal annexed the territory as a colony in 1655.
Old Stone Age
The earliest inhabitants of the Angola area are believed to have been
Based on archaeological and linguistic evidence, scholars believe that beginning in the last centuries BCE, people speaking languages of the Western Bantu family entered the country and introduced agriculture and iron working. Studies of DNA from Cabinda have found no traces of any population groups other than the Bantu in the modern day population. They expected to find evidence of combined ancestry. This makes it difficult to explain the existence of an earlier population, save that they were completely and rapidly replaced by the Bantu speakers without intermarriage (although intermarriage may have occurred in the central parts of Angola). Also, part of the Khoisan withdrew to what is now Southern Angola as well as Northern Botswana and Northern Namibia, where significant groups are still living.
15th century
The
The Portuguese entered into a cooperative relationship with the rulers of Kongo. Gonçalo de Sousa was dispatched on a formal embassy in 1491; and the first missionaries entered the country in his train.
16th century
King Afonso I, also known as Mvemba a Nzinga, son of King Nzinga Nkuwu, established Christianity as the national religion by 1520. In 1595, the Pope declared Kongo to be an episcopal see. The principal church, built in 1548 and dedicated to the Savior (São Salvador), was named as cathedral, whose jurisdiction included both Kongo and the Portuguese colony of Angola.
Dias de Novais arrived in Angola with an armed force and more Jesuit priests. Originally he planned to offer his small force as a mercenary reinforcement to Ndongo and to Kongo for their various wars. After indifferent success, a Portuguese who had long resided in Congo, Francisco Barbuda, persuaded the king of Ndongo that Portugal intended to take his country over. Acting on this intelligence, the king ordered the Portuguese to be killed and expelled. In 1579 therefore, Ndongo made a sudden and devastating war on the Portuguese (and their many servants and slaves, many of whom were from Kongo) and drove them from Ndongo back to a few holdings in the region around
From 1575 to 1589 when he died, Dias de Novais sought to recover and expand Portuguese possessions in the Kwanza Valley. He did so largely by making alliances with local rulers who were disaffected with Ndongo rule, notably the ruler (
The following period was a stalemate, capped by a peace agreement in 1599. Portuguese governors in the interim, finding themselves too weak to attack Ndongo, were content with engaging in political wrangling with the kingdom and with seeking opportunities to use its own political conflicts to their advantage.
17th century
Historical states of present-day Angola |
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Around 1600, Portuguese merchants working on the coast south of the Kwanza River encountered
In 1617, the Imbangala allied with the Portuguese in invading Ndongo. The Imbangala took control of the Kwango valley, forming a new kingdom. The Imbangala and expanded trade with regional neighbors, selling salt for goods, and with the Portuguese, selling slaves. Queen Nzinga of Ndongo traveled to Luanda in 1623 and successfully negotiated for peace. The Portuguese administrator in charge of Angola adopted Nzinga as his goddaughter, giving her the Christian name Dona Ana de Souza. Peace with Portugal however, did not affect poor relations between the Imbangala and Ndongo kingdoms. The Imbangala continued to attack and kidnap Ndongo civilians, selling them into slavery. Portugal intervened militarily, ostensibly on Nzinga's behalf, and she and many Kimbundu retreated east to Matamba. There she established a new Kimbundu kingdom and prepared for war with the Portuguese. The Portuguese declared Ari Kiluanji the new ngola (chief) as head of the Ndongo. Kiluanji lacked political and religious legitimacy in the eyes of many Kimbundu who revolted against the new establishment with encouragement from Nzinga.[3]
In the aftermath of the war, the king of Ndongo sent his sister
Mendes de Vasconcelos' successor,
Following the disaster of Correia de Sousa, the crown sent Fernão de Sousa to be governor of Angola in 1624. He had orders to make fewer unjust wars in the country, and he tried to bring some order to its fiscal system. But he insisted on keeping Portuguese positions at Ambaca and to return the captured kijiko in Ndongo, and was reluctant to recognize Njinga as ruler of Ndongo following the death of her brother by suicide in 1624. As a result of the failure of negotiations, de Sousa undertook a series of wars against Njinga. Two major wars in 1626 and 1628 drove Njinga from the Kingdonga Island to Matamba where she established her base in 1631. Fitful negotiations followed, and in 1639 Njinga concluded a peace with Portugal. At the same time Portugal established diplomatic relations with Kasanje, the Imbangala band that occupied the Kwango River valley south of Njinga's domains in Matamba.
Notes
References
- Fage, J.D.; Oliver, Roland Anthony (1986). The Cambridge History of Africa. pp. 353–355.[full citation needed]
- Rein, Lisa (3 September 2006). "Mystery of Va.'s First Slaves Is Unlocked 400 Years Later". Washington Post.
Attribution:
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Angola". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 38–40. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
Further reading
- Baynes, T. S., ed. (1878). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 45. .