Portuguese Mozambique

Mozambique, 1498–1975. Draft, not yet reviewed

Portuguese trading settlements, and later territories, were formed along the coast and into the Zambezi basin from 1498 when Vasco da Gama first reached the Mozambican coast. The Portuguese increased efforts to occupy the interior of the colony after the Scramble for Africa, and secured political control over most of its territory in 1918, facing the resistance of some Africans in the process. The Mozambique Company relinquished its territories back to Portuguese control in 1942, unifying Mozambique under control of the Portuguese government. African opposition to colonisation led to a ten-year independence war that culminated in the Carnation Revolution in Lisbon in April 1974 and the independence from Portugal in June 1975.

Seat of power: Maputo

No rulers documented for this era yet.

Culture

• The Portuguese established a port and naval base in 1507 and built the Chapel of Nossa Senhora de Baluarte in 1522, now considered the oldest European building in the Southern Hemisphere.
• The island withstood Dutch attacks in 1607 and 1608, in a successful defense led by captain-general Dom Estêvão de Ataíde. It saw the trading of slaves, spices, and gold.
• Colonial legislation submitted Africans to forced labour, to pass laws and to segregation in schools.
• The name of the country was derived from the name of the island.

Picture

The Island of Mozambique lies off northern Mozambique, and prior to 1898 it was the capital of colonial Portuguese East Africa.

Image: Stig Nygaard from Copenhagen, Denmark, CC BY 2.0, file

Sources

• Portuguese Mozambique (Wikipedia)
• Portuguese Mozambique (Wikidata)
• About the picture (Wikipedia)

Text adapted from the Wikipedia articles listed as sources, CC BY-SA 4.0.