History of Central Africa






History of the Kingdom of Kongo, 15th-17th Century



When Portuguese discoverer DIOGO CAO arrived at the Congo estuary in 1482/83, the NDONGO Monarchy was a vassal of the Kingdom of Kongo, The Portuguese established contact with the Ndongo as well, but initially their interest focussed primarily on the Kongo.
The inhabitants of the Ndongo monarchy were called the MBUNDU, their language KIMBUNDU. The tirle of their ruler was NGOLA A KILUANJE, from which the name Angola is derived; on old maps, the Ndongo state is referred to as the Royaume d'Angola (Kingdom of Angola).
By 1556 the King of Kongo was angered by increased attention the Ndongo received from the Portuguese and sent an army, which was defeated by the Ndongo, who declared their independence. Soon a Portuguese force arrived (whom the Ndongo had earlier requested); soon hostilities broke out. The Portuguese established coastal forts (LUANDA 1575, by PAULO DIAS); the Mbundu migrated inland and continued to resist, Portuguese progress being slow. In 1671, the Ndongo Kingdom succumbed to Portuguese rule.

Effectively subdued by the Portuguese in 1671, the Kingdom continued to appear on maps into the 19th century. The name of the Portuguese colony, soon extending far beyound the Ndongo Kingdom, was named after the Ndongo king (ngola) ANGOLA.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		Library of Congress, Country Studies : Angola
Virtual Tour through Angola's History : Precolonial Period, Early Colonial Period, from Angola.org
History : from the origins to independence, from Netangola
The Peoples of the Kongo, from Royal Museum for Central Africa
People in Angola, by ZZAM
History of Luanda, from Angola.org
DOCUMENTS Map of 1635 by Willem Jansz. Blaeu, Aethiopia inferioris, from Yale Univ. Library, shows ANGOLA under Congo Regnum (Kingdom of Congo)
Map of 1707 by Homann from James Ford Bell Library has ANGOLA REGNUM
Map of 1795, from Blondeau from Yale Univ. Library, features ANGOLA
Map of 1808 by R. Brookes, General Gazetteer, 1808 from Perry Castaneda Library, UTexas, has ANGOLA
Map of 1821 by William C. Woodbridge, Africa from Yale Univ. Library, shows ANGOLA
Map of 1824 by Anthony Finley, from Yale Univ. Library, shows ANGOLA
Map of 1829 by Eustache Herisson, Carte Generale de l'Afrique, 1829, from Perry Castaneda Library, UTexas; very detailed, ROYAUME D'ANGOLA
Image of the Royaume d'Angola, from Les Globes de Coronelli, presented to Louis XIV.
REFERENCE



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on November 6th 2004

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