Mozambique: Portuguese hegemony in coastal East Africa (1498-1699)

Updated Jan 2008

In 1498 Vasco da Gama penetrated the Indian Ocean with a small fleet of four ships and after a brief stay over at what was to become Maputo he journeyed on to the Island of Mozambique where he made his first contact with Swahili culture (Ferreira 2007, 151; Crawfurd 2002). Setting a pattern that was to characterize Portuguese behaviour in the Indian Ocean, he repaid the kindness and hospitality of his Muslim hosts by plundering the settlement and bombarding it from the sea before he set off armed with information to complete his voyage to the Indies, with which they had supplied him (Crawfurd 2002; For more information see Tanzania: Portuguese dominance (1500-1698CE)).

Between his return in 1500 and 1510 the Portuguese managed to seize control of the East African littoral from the Swahili and establish hegemony over the trade routes that crossed the Indian Ocean through ruthless military operations carried out with crusader zeal against their Muslim opponents (Gilbert 2002; Crawfurd 2002). They captured Goa and Diu in the north-east of India and Hormuz in the Persian Gulf and Sofala, Kilwa and Mombasa on the African East coast; the later was strongly fortified (Gilbert 2002). They began fortifying Sofala in 1505 and the Island of Mozambique in 1507, setting up a trading station at Cabo Delgado (Columbia Encyclopedia 2007; ISS Undated). Goa was made centre for the Indian Ocean vice-royalty and Mombasa that for north-eastern operations while the base of operations in the southern Indian Ocean was moved from Sofala to the Island of Mozambique because the latter provided superior anchorage; Sofala remained an important trading centre for some time but declined steadily as the Island of Mozambique flourished (Ferreira 2007; ISS Undated).

In about 1500, at the time that the Portuguese were first penetrating the Indian Ocean, Great Zimbabwe in the interior was abandoned and two successor polities emerged, one centred on the Zambezi valley among the Karanga called Munhumutapa and another in the south termed the Torwa dynasty centred at Khami. As the Portuguese established hegemony on the coast and explored the interior so Munhumutapa expanded eastwards towards the ocean so that trade links were established focused on Sofala and trade primarily in gold and ivory resumed. Torwa too established trading links with the Portuguese (see Zimbabwes Kingdoms (1000 - 1838 CE)). Attempts by Swahili traders at the court of Munhumutapa to redirect trade northwards away from Sofala provoked the Portuguese to assert direct control over the trade, which they did by subduing the inhabitants of the interior and reducing them to servitude on farms and mines (Columbia Encyclopedia 2007; Stanford Undated).

Portuguese control was further advanced when the migration of Nguni speakers southwards weakened the Munhumutapa polity and the Portuguese, taking advantage of this, subjugated it in 1629 and installed a puppet ruler (see Zimbabwes Kingdoms (1000 - 1838 CE)). To bolster Portuguese presence the Crown encouraged adventurers to settle in lower Zambezi valley from 1629; these were entitled to seize whatever land they could and reduce the inhabitants to labour servitude as long as they paid taxes to the Crown (Crawfurd 2002; IIASA 2001; Columbia Encyclopedia 2007). This "prazo-system" resulted in the development of virtually autonomous warlords who used their private slave armies to consolidate fifedoms virtually untrammeled by the authority of the Crown and through intermarriage with and assimilation to their subjects they were rapidly Africanized (Crawfurd 2002; IIASA 2001; Columbia Encyclopedia 2007).

Posts were established in Zambezi valley at Sena and Tete in 1531 and a coastal rival to Angoche at Quelimane in 1544 (Columbia Encyclopedia 2007; Jones 1998). Furthermore the defences of the Island of Mozambique were strengthened by the initiation of work on the Fort of St Sebastian in 1558, which was largely complete by 1583 (Ferreira 2007, 155). Missionary activity was initiated at the court of Munhumutapa, but initial promise came to nothing when the Jesuit priest, Gonçalo da Silveira, was executed at the behest of resident Swahili traders in 1561 (Columbia Encyclopedia 2007). An expedition into the Zambezi valley between 1568 and 1572 was ravaged by disease at Sena and 800 of 1000 men perished while an expedition of 400 men into the interior from Sofala in 1574 saw most of the members killed by the natives (Jones 1998; Columbia Encyclopedia 2007).

At this stage, however, the Maravi kingdom in the north controlled the routes into the interior from the north and the Sultanate Angoche managed to maintain a high degree of independence (Stanford Undated; Wikipedia 2006). The reality was that Portuguese had no control of the north of Mozambique and their presence in the south was tenuous (IIASA 2001). Macamo (2002) observes:

While it is true that ever since the first Portuguese sailor set foot on the territory that was later to be known as Mozambique various Portuguese rulers claimed possession of the territory by right of discovery, in practice relations between the Portuguese and the native population were actually limited to trade exchanges, shifting alliances and petty wars. There is evidence that more often than not local Portuguese garrisons had to pay tribute to local chieftains and warlords...

In the August 1604 four ships of the Dutch United East India Company blockaded the Island of Mozambique and, while this and other attempts in 1707 and 1608 to take the centre failed, it marked a turning point for the Portuguese in the Indian Ocean; for threatening though the Dutch may have been they were quickly followed by the still more formidable French and English (Ferreira 2007, 162, 171, 174, 179; IIASA 2001). The Portuguese, despite their ruthlessness, had failed to transform the Indian Ocean trade system fundamentally, and merely overlaid their control over the patterns that had existed before so that at most their interventions only disadvantaged certain areas (such as Kilwa) and advanced others (such as Sofala; Gilbert 2002). The arrival of the other western powers in the Indian Ocean put an end to this hegemony over the trade in the Indian Ocean though their control over the East African littoral was to endure until the end of the 17th Century.

By 1650 the Yao, traditionally ironsmiths, had established themselves as traders and their language became the commercial language of northern Mozambique and from 1700, as the Moravi Confederacy declined in power, they and their trading partners in the interior, the Lomwe, were able to cement control over the ivory trade with Angoche (CMRM Undated, 2-3). Contact with the Swahili of the coast led the Yao to emulate their culture, adopting their dress and architecture and the vast majority converted to Islam; mosques were built and and madrassas established, while aristocrats sent their sons to the coast to further their studies (CMRM Undated, 2-3).

The Thirty year war broke out in 1648, which drained Portuguese resources and focused attention away from the eastern Indian Ocean; taking advantage of this the Sultanate of Oman was able to expel the Portuguese from Muscat in 1650, laying the basis for the eventual expulsion of the Portuguese from most of the Swahili world at the end of the century (Jones 1998; History World undated).

In a short time the Portuguese power suffered serious reversals. In the 1670's the Rozwi emerged in Zimbawe, overthrew the Torwa dynasty in 1683 and then expelled the Portuguese from the north in 1693, uniting the territory once more under indigenous rule. They continued the stone-building culture that it had inherited and resumed trade through the Portuguese with slaves being a major component of the trade (see Zimbabwes Kingdoms (1000 - 1838 CE)).

In 1699 the Omani ruler, Saif bin Sultan, captured Fort Jesus in Mombasa. He and rapidly gained control of the coast to Kilwa in the south. Zanzibar was taken in 1699, which he made the centre of Omani rule (see Omani Conquest (1698-1884)). The fortunes of Kilwa revived and a good deal of trade in ivory and slaves from the northern interior shifted towards it and outside Portuguese control (Gilbert 2002; Crawfurd 2002).

References

CHAMARE MUSEUM & RESEARCH CENTRE (CMRM) Undated "Introduction to the Chewa Spiritual World" IN KuNgoni, [www] http://www.kungoni.org/images/pdf_files/Chewa.pdf (0ffline 11 Mar 2010).

COLUMBIA ENCYCLOPEDIA 2007, "Mozambique: History", Sixth Edition, [www] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-Mozambiq.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

CRAWFURD, J 2002 "Mozambique Timeline", [www] http://crawfurd.dk/africa/mozambique_timeline.htm [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

FERREIRA, OJO 2007 "Byna was Ilha de Moçambique Hollands - en die Kaap die Goeie Hoop nie", Historia 52(2), November, pp 150-185, [www] http://www.up.ac.za/dspace/bitstream/2263/4020/1/Ferreira_Byna(2007).pdf [PDF document, opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

GILBERT, E 2002 "Coastal East Africa and the Western Indian Ocean: Long-Distance Trade, Empire, Migration, and Regional Unity, 1750-1970" IN The History Teacher, 36(1) [www] http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/ht/36.1/gilbert.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

HISTORY WORLD UNDATED "History of Oman" [www] http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad54 [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR APPLIED SYSTEMS ANALYSIS (IIASA) 2001 "Country Briefs: Mozambique - Chronology of History" IN Botswana's future, Mozambique's Future, Namibia's Future: Modeling Population and Sustainable development Challenges in the Era of HIV/AIDS [www] http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/POP/pde/briefs/mz-history.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

JONES, J 1998 "Timeline of Portuguese Activity in East Africa, 1498-1700", [www] http://courses.wcupa.edu/jones/his311/timeline/t-port.htm [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

STANFORD, E UNDATED "Culture of MOZAMBIQUE", [www] http://www.everyculture.com/Ma-Ni/Mozambique.html [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).

WIKIPEDIA 2006 "Angoche Sultanate", [www] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angoche_Sultanate [opens new window] (accessed 11 Mar 2010).