Portuguese colonies in Africa: summary
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Throughout the centuries, many European countries have had colonies in africa, some more successful like France, and others less successful like Spain. The first European country to settle in Africa was Portugal, which had colonies on this continent for many centuries. To know the importance that Portugal came to have, today in this lesson from a PROFESSOR we are going to talk about a summary of the Portuguese colonies in Africa.
Index
- The principles of colonization in Africa
- Distribution of Africa by Europe
- The end of the Portuguese colonies in Africa
The principles of colonization in Africa.
Before your arrival in Africa, Portugal already possessed some territories What coloniesThe most important being those located in India. Soon after, Portugal arrived in Africa, being the first European country to do so, and began to take regions under its rule.
The first conquests took place during the second part of the 15th century,
and they made Portugal go through a period of great economic splendor, importing a large amount of resources from these regions. The territories that Portugal conquered in the 15th century were the following:- Arguin
- Cape Verde
- Fernando Poo and Annobón
- Mine
- Sao Tome and Principe
Shortly after the conquest of these regions, Portugal began the possession of the two most important areas of its African colonization, which were Mozambique and Angola.
Mozambique had been a province of the Islamics shortly before the arrival of the Portuguese. It was a great region for trade, because it had a great port and had great resources of gold and silver. Mozambique was taken in 1505, being also called Portuguese East Africa, being the set of a series of regions that today make up Mozambique. Its great resources together with the large number of slaves, made it an important part of the economy of the Portuguese Empire.
On the other hand it was Angola, also called Portuguese West Africa, a province on which Portugal based its slave economy. But Angola's economy was not based only on slaves, being a source of great resources such as oil and precious materials such as gold.
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Distribution of Africa by Europe.
In later centuries, Portugal maintained its control over several of the African territories, showing special interest in regions with more resources, such as Angola and Mozambique. These areas were taken as provinces of the Portuguese Empire, but the arrival of more Europeans to the continent changed this situation.
At the end of the 19th century the division of Africa was carried out, a period of invasion in which the great European powers divided the territories of the African continent. The idea of Portugal was to expand its colonies in Africa, but the great power of France and Great Britain made them change their minds quickly, seeking the maintenance of the colonies they already owned and that were more economically tools.
The cast took place in the Berlin Conference and Portugal came as one of the European powers. The Portuguese country was considered too weak to maintain a large colonial territory, so at the meeting a series of peace agreements was sought between the European states, to avoid war between them for the colonies African. Portugal was awarded a few territories, in order to increase its influence in the regions that it already dominated. Therefore, after the Conference, Portugal had the colonies where it had the most influence, being the following:
- Cape Verde
- Portuguese Guinea
- Sao Tome and Principe
- Angola
- Mozambique
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The end of the Portuguese colonies in Africa.
To conclude this summary of the Portuguese colonies in Africa we must talk about the long period that caused Portugal to lose its possessions on the African continent.
Behind the Second World War, many European powers decided to leave their colonies in Africa due in large part to the economic problems that the war had caused them, thus beginning the African decolonization. But the leader of Portugal, the dictator Salazar, refused to enter this decolonization process voluntarily, using the military force to avoid riots, and being the last European power to use force to maintain the African colonies.
All this caused a great war in Portuguese Africa, the so-called Portuguese colonial war that lasted 13 years, from 1961 to 1974. The war can be considered one or several, since in each of the colonies a war of independence is considered separate from the rest of the colonies.
The war was clearly under the Portuguese domain, with forces much greater than those of the colonies, but over the years the European country suffered. The state economy was entering a crisis and Salazar had to leave power in 1968 due to health problems. And finally his regime fell due to the Carnation Revolution in 1974.
After the revolution, Portugal sought a democratic government and one of its first measures was to give the independence to the African colonies. Thus ending the African colonial period of Portugal, and the birth of new countries that exist to this day.
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