When was angola found

Portugal granted Angola independence on November 11, , at a time when multiple Angolan nationalist forces were fighting among themselves to establish control over the newly liberated state. Although the United States acknowledged the independence of the former Portuguese colony, the U. The United States continued to withhold recognition of a Government of Angola because of continuing concerns about the presence of Cuban combat troops in Angola and their involvement in regional conflicts.

After years of civil war, Angola held its first multiparty elections in The elected government agreed to sign a peace agreement with UNITA , the party that had been in power prior to the election.

A European trade post in Angola. The slave trade was a source of enrichment for some of the local nobility, but it would eventually lead to the destabilisation and demise of some of the largest Kingdoms in pre-colonial Angola [cxvi]. For those kingdoms, like the Ovimbundu, who prospered from the slave trade the abolition of the trade in would create internal turmoil and make them vulnerable to conquest.

From to the Portuguese was in almost constant conflict with one of the many peoples who inhabited Angola at the time.

Some, like the Kingdom of Kongo or the Kingdom of Ndongo, resisted for centuries [cxvii]. The Ndongo was conquered and integrated into the colony in , and the Kingdom of Kongo would lose all remaining autonomy in the early s.

The Ovimbundu Kingdoms were all integrated into the Colony of Angola by The last people to be subjugated was Kwanyamo, a subset of the Ovambo peoples, in Southern Angola. In September the last king of the Kwanayamo, King Mandume, was defeated by the Portuguese [cxviii].

The defeat of the Kwanyamo marked the total domination by the Portuguese over Angola, and at this point the Colony reached the boundaries which had been stipulated in the Berlin Conference of — by the European colonial powers.

None of the people of Angola was present or had any say at the conference, and the boundaries which were set would cut through already existing social formations. The Kingdom of Kongo, which had been one of the largest kingdoms in Africa, was split between Belgium and Portugal. In the British Empire halted any attempts by the Portuguese to expand Angola any further east [cxix]. By the mids the Angolan colony had about the same borders as the modern nation state.

In the southern border shared with South West Africa which officially came under the control of South Africa in was negotiated with South Africa, settling the last of the border disputes with other European colonial powers [cxx].

It was the lure of commercial farming cocoa and sugar cane , diamonds, and rubber, which had made the Portuguese want to expand their colony from the coast to further inland. Once the actual mineral resources were firmly under Portuguese control the colonial administration now needed workers to extract those minerals. This labour would come at a huge cost to the local Angolan people. Life was hard for the majority of African people living in the colony. While the trans-Atlantic slave trade was made illegal in it was still legal to own slaves in Angola until [cxxi] [cxxii].

In many places various forms of slavery would continue long into the s. Various forms of slavery and forced labour was common into the mids. The colonial authorities would regularly round up Angolans and through violence and intimidation conscript them into work regiments for various colonial projects [cxxiv].

For the people recruited into forced labour life was hard and short. Plantations rarely paid any remunerations, and when they did it was inconsistent, minimal and sometimes only usable at the local plantation shop. Angry at a worker for his suicide the bosses of the plantation denied him a dignified funeral and instead burnt the body on the local highway [cxxvii]. The similarities between the slavery of the previous centuries and the labour system of the late s and early s were uncanny.

In a chocolate producer, William Cadbury, walked up a labour recruitment trail and found wooden shackles all over the sides of the road. People coerced into forced labour would have their shackles removed only the moment they signed their labour contracts and then they would be sent off to their designated place of work [cxxviii]. It was usual for colonial administrators to go to inland villages and recruit mostly young men to various work on plantations and colonial projects.

The young men would sign contracts which were meant to be for between two and five years, but in most places they were automatically renewed upon expiration. This meant that very few of the people recruited from the various inland villages would ever return home again [cxxix].

The British, who had for centuries had a special relationship with Portugal, made arrangements for Angolan and Mozambican people to be sent to work in their gold and diamond mines in the Transvaal or in the Cape Colony [cxxx].

This relationship between British and Portuguese colonies created the foundations for a migrant labour system which would encompass most of Southern Africa up until the after the s. Up until the s Angolan people was coerced into travelling to South Africa to work in the mines there [cxxxi]. For European settlers the Angolan colony was enticing place to move as it offered opportunities denied in Europe.

In there was an attempt at establishing a Jewish homeland in Angola, and while it failed, Angola would draw a reasonable amount of Jewish settlers as an effect of the persecution of Jews in Portugal since the s. By there were about In the s there was a great influx of Boer settlers from South Africa, but large scale settlement was held back by the lack of arable land in Angola [cxxxiii].

Local Angolans also fought fiercely against attempts at setting up farms. In , and attempts at setting up plantations close to the town of Porto Amboim was ended by local uprisings. The farms were burnt and the settlers were killed or driven out of the area. The Portuguese army would then come in and protect settlers as they rebuilt the plantations [cxxxiv]. The white population of Angola was not to work in the farm, but should become managers and shop keepers.

This meant that the poor and uneducated in Portugal could rise fast in status and economic prosperity by moving to the colony. After Angola began to create legislation which advocated strict segregation between the European and African people. To become a citizen a person had to prove to the colonial authorities that they were monogamous, spoke fluent Portuguese, ate with a knife and fork, and wore European clothes [cxxxvii].

In reality the Native Statute of was used as a gate keeping tool to regulate who could access economic and social opportunities. In the early s the idea, imported from Victorian Britain, that based on skin colour some people are inherently better than others became prominent in the colony.

This divided people into the racial categories of black or white. After this time a black and white racial divide would increasingly become the proxy for whom was allowed to gain citizenship and the privileges that went with it.

In Luanda there was a class of black Angolans who had gained a European education and had lived in the colony and mixed with European people for generations. They had experienced a limited amount of privilege compared to other black Angolans, but they were in the early s increasingly marginalised because of the introduction of an oppressive ideology based on race [cxxxviii].

Postcard of Luanda from the s. After World War II in there was a great demand for coffee in the world, and in the next 30 years Angola's coffee industry would expand producing Most of the coffee was produced on larger plantations owned by white settlers, but in northern Angola there were still coffee grown on small plots of land owned by African peasants. Yet the settlers would control storage, transport and the export part of the supply chain, including shops where people could buy household goods.

The black peasants would use their future crops to buy everyday needs, and when there was a credit crisis or failure in the crops the shop-keepers would take ownership of the land which had been used as collateral [cxl].

The plantations therefore slowly spread north and the peasants became labourers on land which they had previously owned. Plantations also meant an increased need for labour which the plantation owners mitigated by bringing in workers from south-central Angola, where the Ovimbundu people lived. The Bakongo northerners were upset with the newcomers as they had lost their land, and the southern Ovimbundu were angry about being forced into labour and moved away from their families.

Things were not good in the rest of Angola either. In an estimated On February 4, , a large group of Angolan people stormed several prisons in Luanda. It is debated between historians whether the rebellion was a spontaneous uprising or directed by the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola MPLA [cxliii]. The uprisings in Luanda and in the north became the starting point for the Angolan national revolution to free themselves from Portuguese rule [cxliv]. MPLA which was Marxist in ideology had been founded by an amalgamation of several smaller parties in The party was rooted in urban areas and particularly strong in Luanda.

They wanted a socialist revolution as well as independence from Portugal, and in Agostinho Neto was elected president of the party [cxlv]. The UPA wanted to restore the Kingdom of Kongo to what it was in its glory days, and the party leader was called Holden Roberto [cxlvi]. The uprising in the north was by far the most lethal as an estimated In Januray, , the Portuguese forces sent airplanes to bomb several villages involved in a strike in the cotton industry in northern Angola.

The bombings is estimated to have destroyed 17 villages and killed about The leader of the FNLA, Holden Roberto, established a government in exile in an attempt at making his party the legitimate representatives of the Angolan liberation struggle.

UNITA launched itself as a party for the African peasants of Angola, yet it remained a very small force over the course of the independence struggle and would draw its support mainly from Ovimbundu peoples. By the MPLA had established itself internationally as the primary force of the national revolution for independence [clii]. To limit further uprisings and rebellions Portugal began making investments in infrastructure, building schools, and assist struggling farmers.

They also sent an additional The Angolan struggle for liberation was met with severe retaliation from the Portuguese government. This would make it difficult for the liberation movements to recruit from the countryside. By there was about In addition to this there was infighting between the different liberation parties. All of the above factors meant that the liberation struggle had little success up until What the uprisings did do was to become a great expense on the Portuguese economy.

Between the uprisings in Mozambique, Angola, and Guinea-Bissau there were, in , This was a great cost to what was at the time one of the economically poorest nations in Europe. To try and make the colony of Angola more economically self-sufficient a beer industry was encouraged in , which created a thriving economy for the export of alcohol in Angola [clvi]. The colony was also opened up for investments, and at the end of the s American and European companies began great investments in the search and extraction of oil [clvii].

The royalties on oil extracted by Texan oil companies would to a large degree help fund the Portuguese armed presence in Angola. Both South Africa and the United States of America also supplied the Portuguese forces with war materials and arms [clviii]. In turn the United States of America would support various sides in the long running conflicts in Angola, but initially they supplied weapons to the Portuguese dictatorship [clix].

Even with an influx of money from the oil revenues it was impossible for the Portuguese to hold on to Angola in the long term. The financial and social strain on Portugal to keep up the fighting was too high. Marcello Caetano took power in Portugal , but would never have the solid hold over the country as Salazar did.

The movement was founded by members of the armed forces in Portugal and they believed that the colonial wars could never be won. They were abhorred by the colonial conflicts and government policies in general. On April 25, , the MFA overthrew the Portuguese government in a coup, and in July that same year they promised independence to the Portuguese colonies of Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Angola [clxii].

The liberation struggle had been won by not allowing Portugal to win and through the liberation movements actively protracting the struggle over almost 15 years.

Portugal would in turn give up power over Angola on the 11 November, Angolans who had lived in exile for decades, many part of one of the three liberation movements, returned to Angola and particularly to the capital in Luanda [clxiv]. All the three parties mobilised their irregular militias, and fighting ensued in the streets of Luanda. The MPLA had historically the strongest support in the city, and could also call on a large force of militias from the countryside. Together with about While the fighting was still going strong in the south and north, the last Portuguese governor left Angola, and on 11 November, , Agostinho Neto proclaimed the establishment of the Peoples Republic of Angola [clxxi].

UNITA ensconced themselves in the southern and eastern highlands, while the MPLA occupied the western and northern parts of the country and in the urban areas as well. This territorialisation would cause people in various areas to strictly identify with one or the other party and help fuel the conflict [clxxiii]. Agostinho Neto declares independence 11 November, The United States of America was forced to cut much of their support and make it secretive as their people was not interested in any new foreign adventures after the fiasco of the Vietnam War [clxxiv].

The South Africans received massive international condemnation as they were already greatly unpopular because of the apartheid regime, and their intervention was seen as them spreading the apartheid system [clxxvi]. At the same time the MPLA was trying to set up a post-colonial government and was weakened by the multitude of factions in the party. The power dynamics and segmented hierarchies in colonial Angola had been very complex. MPLA consisted in of Mestizos people of mixed backgrounds and Assimilados Afrian people which had attained a Portuguese education and habits , white left-wing radicals, urban radicals, the party leadership who had gone into exile, peasants who had been guerrillas in the countryside, or fighters who had held their stance close to the city of Luanda [clxxix].

In addition to the many factions within the MPLA the flight of all of the white public-service personal who had been the core of the governmental bureaucracy created great problems in early days of the new independent government [clxxx].

The Portuguese also left very few functioning institutions a lot of the newly independent African countries inherited a legal framework, civil service, and an internationally recognised currency which would be useful to the new political project which the MPLA was engaged in. The factionalism and ideological divisions within the MPLA would exacerbate these issues which in turn made governing the nation even more difficult. Portugal's terminal problems in Angola are not directly caused by any of these guerrilla groups.

It is a rebellion of workers, undergoing forced labour in coffee and cotton plantations in the north, which first plunges the country into chaos in The government in Lisbon responds vigorously. Large numbers of troops are sent to the colony. The emigration of Portuguese peasants to Angola, to be settled on African farms, is greatly accelerated.

Reforms are introduced improvements in the provision of education and health, and the ending of forced labour in a belated attempt to appease the African population. The unrest gives the guerrilla groups their opportunity. Throughout the s and into the s they are actively engaged in a campaign of violence against the colonial power.

But they are equally active in fighting among themselves. Civil war accompanies the anti-colonial war. As a result Angola is ill-equipped to respond positively in the aftermath of a coup in Portugal. This event, largely prompted by the dire situation in Portugal's three rebellious African colonies, brings to a sudden end the country's long-established right-wing dicatatorship.

The change of regime in Lisbon has immediate consequences in Africa. The new government in Lisbon is disinclined to prop up Portugal's collapsing and by now very expensive empire. All the Portuguese colonies in Africa are rapidly granted their independence. Portuguese Guinea is the first, in September Portuguese East Africa follows in June , taking the new name Mozambique. The republic of Cape Verde is established in July. And Angola, in the middle of civil war, becomes independent in November During , before the official Portuguese withdrawal, the civil war in Angola intensifies.

However, the colonial power, becoming ever richer and more powerful, would not tolerate the development of these states and subjugated them one by one, so that by the beginning of this century the Portuguese had complete control over the area. From onwards, there was a gradual change from a slave-based society to one based on production for domestic consumption. By Luanda was a great city, full of trading companies, exporting together with Benguela palm and peanut oil, wax, copal, timber, ivory, cotton, coffee, and cocoa, among other products.

Maize, tobacco, dried meat and cassava flour also began to be produced locally. The Angolan bourgeoisie was born. The Berlin Conference compelled Portugal to move towards the immediate occupation of all its colonial territories.

The territory of Cabinda, to the north of the river Zaire, was also ceded to Portugal on the legal basis of the Treat y of Simulambuko Protectorate, concluded between the Portuguese Crown and the princes of Cabinda in After a difficult and complicated process of implementation, the end of the nineteenth century saw the establishment of a colonial administration based directly on the territory and the people to be ruled.

With regard to the economy, colonial strategy was based on agriculture and the export of raw materials. Trade in rubber and ivory, together with the taxes imposed on the population, brought vast income to Lisbon. Portuguese policy in Angola was modified by certain reforms introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The fall of the Portuguese monarchy and a favourable international climate led to reforms in administration, agriculture, and education. The situation appeared calm and stable. But in the second half of the twentieth century, this calm was disrupted by the appearance of the first nationalist movements. More overtly political organisations first appeared in the s, and began to make organised demands for their rights, initiating diplomatic campaigns throughout the world in their fight for independence.