1752-1880 History of Southern Africa 1918-1939






The Colony of Portuguese East Africa, 1880-1918



During the Scramble for Africa in the 1880es, Portugal had to cede much of the territory it claimed in East Africa to Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company respectively British East Africa Company. But Portugal's claim over Moçambique, at least for the time being, was internationally recognized by the BERLIN CONFERENCE of 1885.
Moçambique's infrastructure was developed, much with British assistance, for British Central Africa/Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia both depended on railroads and roads connecting these areas with the ports of BEIRA and Mocambique.
The colony of Moçambique was not yet centralized, communication between the various Portuguese outposts difficult. The individual provinces (INHAMBANE 1895-1914, LOURENÇO MARQUES 1895-1920, QUELIMANE 1914-1922, TETE (1913-1914), ZAMBEZIA (1894-1917) issued their own stamps, as did the MOÇAMBIQUE COMPANY (1892-1942) and the NYASSA COMPANY (1897-1929).
In 1907, the capital was moved from Moçambique to Louren&ccdedil;o Marques (modern Maputo) on the Delagoa Bay. In 1912 slave trade, for long Moçambique's most important trade, was outlawed.
During the prewar years, Germany was interested in extending it's colonial possessions. In 1898 Britain and Germany signed a first agreement concerning Portugal's colonies in Africa. The idea was to partition it into British and German spheres of influence. In 1911 negotiations on the partition were renewed, and concluded in 1913. As the British side insisted on the agreement to be published, and the Germans refused to do so, the agreement was never implemented. The Licango River would have formed the border between both spheres of interest.
In 1914 World War I broke out. Portugal remained neutral. When German East Africa became untenable in 1916, German commander Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck switched to a guerilla strategy. Disregarding Portuguese neutrality, his Askari troops at times took up positions in Northern Moçambique. Portugal found itself at war with Germany. In the peace treaty of Versailles, the small border town of KIONGA, formerly German East Africa, was awarded to the Portuguese and incorporated into Moçambique.






EXTERNAL
FILES 		History of Mocambique, from Infoplease and from Frelimo
Chronology of Mocambique History, from Frelimo
Article Mocambique, from Catholic Encyclopedia
DOCUMENTS Banknotes from Colonial Mocambique, from Ron Wise's World Paper Money
My Mission to London 1912-1914, by Prince Lichnowsky, from BYU, on Mocambique chapter 'Colonial Treaty', scroll down
On Delagoa Bay, in "The Great Round World and What is Going on in it", Vol.1 No.37, July 1897 , posted by Gutenberg Library Online
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 pp.1125 on events of 1912) [G]
Article : Portugal : Dependencies : Moçambique, in : Statesman's Year Book 1895 pp.841-843, 1898 pp.839-842, 1901 pp.938-942, 1905 pp.1019-1023, 1910 pp.1120-1121 [G]
Article : Delagoa Bay, in : International Year Book 1898 p.259 [G]
Article : East Africa, Portuguese, in : International Year Book 1898 p.277 [G]
Article : Cape Colony and South Africa - Lourenço Marques, in : Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events 1894 p.107 [G]
Article : East Africa - Portuguese East Africa, in : Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia and Register of Important Events 1894 p.248 [G]



This page is part of World History at KMLA
First posted in 2001, last revised on September 6th 2007

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