The Portuguese Occupation Of Angola: A Historical Overview

Portugal's occupation of Angola began in the 1500s and lasted until the mid-1900s. Portuguese explorer Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda in 1575, marking the beginning of Portuguese colonial rule in the region.

The Portuguese were interested in trade, particularly the slave trade, and maintained a peaceful and profitable relationship with the rulers and nobles of the Kongo Kingdom. However, as the Portuguese expanded their influence, they came into conflict with the Kongo Kingdom and other regional powers, including the Kingdom of Ndongo and the Kingdom of Matamba.

The Angolan Wars saw shifting tribal allegiances and violent conflict, with the Portuguese ultimately gaining control of the region with the help of Brazil, which was eager to maintain the flow of slaves. The Portuguese colonial rule in Angola lasted for almost 400 years and was marked by violent conflict, slave trading, and the suppression of local populations.

The process of decolonization in Angola began in the mid-20th century and was one of the bloodiest and most chaotic in Africa, with civil war continuing long after independence was gained in 1975.

Portugal's interest in Angola was the slave trade

The Portuguese maintained a peaceful and mutually profitable relationship with the rulers and nobles of the Kongo Kingdom. Kings such as João I and Afonso I studied Christianity and learned Portuguese, in turn, Christianising their nation and sharing the benefits from the slave trade. The Portuguese bought African slaves with cotton cloth, silk, mirrors, knives, and glass beads, but they also launched their own slave-capturing expeditions in Africa's interior.

In the 16th century, the Portuguese founded the fortified settlement of Luanda and established minor trade posts and forts on the Cuanza River and on the Atlantic coast southwards. The main component of their trading activities consisted of heavy involvement in the Atlantic slave trade. Angola became a slave frontier where wars and kidnapping secured the slaves who were taken to the coast.

In the 17th century, Portuguese explorers founded the settlement of Benguela, even further south. 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. The Portuguese established townships, trading posts, logging camps, and small processing factories.

In the 18th century, Portugal gradually managed to colonise the interior highlands. The export of slaves was banned in Angola in 1836, but the trade did not end until the Brazilian market was closed in the early 1850s. From 1764 onwards, there was a gradual change from a slave-based society to one based on production for domestic consumption and export.

Portugal's relationship with the Kingdom of Kongo

In 1491, less than ten years after the first contact with the Portuguese, King Nzinga a Nkuwu converted to Catholicism, taking the name of the Portuguese king, João I. His son, King Afonso I, helped spread the Christian religion within his kingdom, sending students to Europe to study. Afonso I also tried to establish direct relations with the Vatican, sending his son Henrique to become a bishop in 1513. Henrique returned to the Kongo kingdom in 1518, and his bishop's status allowed him to appoint the Kongolese priests himself, further spreading Christianity within the kingdom.

The Kingdom of Kongo was a large kingdom in western central Africa, with its capital at Mbanza Kongo, which was later renamed São Salvador by the Portuguese. The kingdom was founded around 1390 through the political marriage of Nima a Nzima of the Mpemba Kasi and Luqueni Luansanze of the Mbata. Their son, Lukeni lua Nimi, became the first Kongo king and declared Mbanza Kongo the capital.

The Kingdom of Kongo was a sophisticated, advanced African kingdom with a complex social and political organisation. For example, the king ruled alongside a council of 12 wise advisers who had the power to depose him in cases of misconduct or inability to lead. The kingdom was also a centre of trade routes for ivory, copper, raffia cloth, and pottery.

The relationship between Portugal and the Kingdom of Kongo was largely based on trade, particularly the slave trade. The Portuguese established trading posts on the lower Congo and a more important settlement at Soyo, in the territory of the Kongo Kingdom. The Portuguese also established the settlement of Luanda on the coast south of the Kongo Kingdom in 1575. However, the relationship between the two kingdoms was not always amicable, and there were several conflicts between them, including the Battle of Mbwila in 1665, in which Portugal defeated the Kongo Kingdom. Despite these conflicts, the kingdoms continued to trade, and the slave trade in particular, was a significant aspect of their relationship.

The Angolan War of Independence

The conflict began as an uprising by Angolans against the Portuguese imposition of forced cultivation of cotton as a commodity crop. As the resistance spread, multiple factions developed, struggling for control of Portugal's overseas province of Angola. There were three nationalist movements and also a separatist movement. The three nationalist movements were the MPLA (People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola), UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), and the FNLA (National Front for the Liberation of Angola).

The war ended when a peaceful coup in Lisbon in April 1974 overthrew Portugal's Estado Novo dictatorship. The new regime immediately stopped all military action in the African colonies, declaring its intention to grant them independence without delay. The war formally came to an end in January 1975 when the Portuguese government, the MPLA, UNITA, and the FNLA signed the Alvor Agreement.

The Eastern Revolt

In May 1966, Chipenda, then a member of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), established the Eastern Front, which significantly expanded the MPLA's reach in Angola. However, when the Eastern Front collapsed, Chipenda and MPLA leader Agostinho Neto each blamed the other's factions.

In 1972, the Soviet Union allied with Chipenda's faction, giving him aid. The Eastern Revolt also received aid from the governments of Zambia and South Africa. Chipenda left the MPLA in 1973, founding the Eastern Revolt with 1,500 former MPLA followers. He opposed the MPLA's mestizo-leadership and was wary of the Soviet Union, despite its support.

In 1973, the Soviet Union invited Neto to Moscow and told him that Chipenda planned to assassinate him. Although Chipenda joined the National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) in September 1974, the Eastern Revolt's existence continued, and RDL forces fought against the MPLA in February 1975.

The Carnation Revolution

On the 25th of April, 1974, Portugal experienced a coup like no other. In an era characterised by the clash of ideologies and power players, the nearly bloodless revolution became known as the Carnation Revolution. What began as a military revolution led by the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA) quickly became a mass movement of civil unrest.

The revolution got its name from the fact that almost no shots were fired, and from a restaurant worker, Celeste Caeiro, who offered carnations to soldiers when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship. Other demonstrators followed suit, placing carnations in the muzzles of guns and on soldiers' uniforms.

The revolution was planned and carried out by young military officers who had served in the colonies and were frustrated with the Estado Novo's policies. They secretly organised the Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA) and coordinated their actions through coded radio signals. The revolution was a risky endeavour, as the conspirators knew that if it failed, they would likely be charged with high treason and sentenced to death.

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