Angola: Portuguese penetration of the interior (1836-1926) (continued)

In the run-up to the Berlin conference the Portuguese occupied Cabinda to the north of the Congo River and annexed the territory of the Kongo Kingdom in 1883. These moves on the Congo River basin conflicted with similar French and Belgian ambitions and so led indirectly to the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. The Berlin Conference established the ground rules by which the boundaries of Angola were to be delimited. It also split the territory of the Kongo Kingdom between Belgium and Portugal (Meijer & Birmingham 2004, Library of Congress 1989l). Nevertheless, it was only after World War I that Portugal was actually able to take effective control of the territory (Accord 2004, Library of Congress 1989l).

To facilitate colonization of the fertile Benguela Plateau a railway line was begun from Luanda Malanje in 1885. A more ambitious line was begun in 1902 to link Benguela with the mines of Katanga and to further open the interior to white settlement. The line finally reached the Congo in 1928. As a consequence a string of new towns were founded and railway itself became a major employer of labour (History World undated).

During the course of the late half of the 19th century the tempo of white settlement gradually increased and by 1900 there were 10 000 whites in Angola, a third of whom were women. Mestiços, who had outnumbered whites by three to one, were now outnumbered by the same ratio (Library of Congress 1989m); whereas before they had occupied the lower rungs of commercial ventures and the colonial administration, they were increasingly displaced by immigrants from Portugal (Library of Congress 1989p).

The Ovimbundu were, however, finally subjugated after years of struggle, and their monarchs became Portuguese appointees (Library of Congress 1989g). In 1900 the Lunda kingdom was overthrown by the Chokwe invaders from central Africa who had settled in Angola in the mid-1800s (Library of Congress 1989f). The Kwanyama, who had set up a trading state in the south at the turn of the previous century, were conquered in the early twentieth century and their kingdom was partitioned between the Portuguese and the Germans (Library of Congress 1989g, 1989n).

The discovery of diamonds in 1912 eventually led to the founding of the Diamond Company of Angola. It became a major employer of African labour, and, in terms of the provision of services to its workers, virtually a mini state within the state (Library of Congress 1989p, Accord 2004).

All these economic developments notwithstanding, Portugal was simply too poor to raise the capital to adequately develop the territory and the finances of the colony were in serious disarray when the Portuguese government was overthrown in a military coup d'etat in 1926 (Library of Congress 1989p).

References

ACCORD 2004 "Chronology" Accord 15, [www] http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/angola/chronology.php [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

HISTORY WORLD UNDATED, "History of Angola", [www] http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad33 [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989f, "Lunda and Chokwe Kingdoms" IN Country Study: Angola [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ao0018) [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989g, "Ovimbundu and Kwanhama Kingdoms" IN Country Study: Angola [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ao0019) [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989l, "Expansion and the Berlin Conference" IN Country Study: Angola [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ao0025) [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989m, "The Demographic Situation" IN Country Study: Angola [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ao0026) [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 1989p, "Administration and Development" IN Country Study: Angola [www] http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?frd/cstdy:@field(DOCID+ao0028) [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).

MEIJER, G & BIRMINGHAM, D 2004, "Angola from past to present" Accord 15 [www] http://www.c-r.org/our-work/accord/angola/past-present.php [opens new window] (accessed 10 Mar 2010).