1815-1880 History of Central Africa 1918-1939






History of Angola, 1880-1918



In the 1880es the SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA began, and the Congo river estuary was in the center of interest. France and Belgium were interested in gaining control over the estuary, formally belonging to the Kingdom of Kongo which had long disintegrated and which Portugal, for centuries, had regarded it's exclusive sphere of interest.
In 1883, Portugal formally annexed the territory of the defunct Kingdom of Kongo and claimed CABINDA, a port to the north of the estuary.
At the BERLIN CONFERENCE of 1884/85, Portugal conceded the Congo estuary to the Congo Free State, head of which was King Leopold of Belgium. In return, the other colonial powers recognized Portugal's claim over Angola, including the recently annexed territories of Kongo and Cabinda. In the following years, the European colonial powers competed for control over territories in the interior. The borders between the individual colonies were drawn up in bilateral treaties; in treaties with the Congo Free State, the British South Africa Company (for Northern Rhodesia) and Germany (SW Africa), Angola's borders were extended far into the interior. However, it took until 1917 to effectively establish Portuguese control.

Late in the 19th century, the RUBBER BOOM brought prosperity to Angola's plantation owners; the boom ended in the years preceding World War I.
In the years preceding World War I, Germany was intending to expand it's colonial dominions. In a secret agreement signed with Britain, Germany had suggested to partition Portugal's colonial Empire in Africa. The plan was never carried out.

When World War I broke out in 1914, Portugal remained neutral. Only when German troops from German East Africa invaded Moçambique in 1917, did Portugal become involved. The war was of little impact on Angola.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Library of Congress, Country Studies : Angola
History : from the origins to independence, from Netangola
Angola and Congo, from Catholic Encyclopedia; Portuguese West Africa, from Catholic Encyclopedia
Links to Angolan history, from Looksmart
DOCUMENTS Map of 1881 from Richard Andree's Allgemeiner Handatlas, 1881, shows Portuguese Angola as a colony well-established, reaching far into Africa's interior
Map of 1890, from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Am. ed. 1890, posted by Perry Castaneda Library, UTexas, features the interior (Ulunda) as still independent
Africa map of 1892 from Gardiner's Atlas of English History, 1892
1884 Report of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on German trade on Africa's west coast and on market conditions there; paragraph on Angola, from Deutsche Reichstagsakten, posted by Bayrische Staatsbibliothek; scan, in German, Fraktur font shows full Portuguese claim, yet 'strange' borders
REFERENCE Shubi L. Ishemo, Forced Labour and Migration in Portuguese African Colonies, pp.162-165 in : Robin Cohen, The Cambridge Survey of World Migration, Cambridge : UP 1995, KMLA Lib.Sign. 304.809 C678c
Article : Portuguese Dependencies, in : Britannica Book of the Year 1913 p.1125 [G]
Article : Portugal : Dependencies : Angola, in : Statesman's Year Book 1895 pp.841-843, 1898 pp.839-842, 1901 pp.938-942, 1905 pp.1019-1023, 1910 pp.1119-1120 [G]
Article : Angola or Portuguese West Africa, in : The International Year Book 1899 p.32 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on August 22nd 2007

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