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Mozambique

Historians say Bantu-speaking farmers and cattle herders from central Africa migrated to the Mozambique region at least as early as the 3rd century AD. They were important in trade with other African societies to their west, north and with seafarers from Arabia and Asia.

The Portuguese navigator, Vasco da Gama was the first European to arrive in 1498 while on his way to India. Other European traders followed. The Portuguese occupied the Mozambican port city of Sofala in 1505, but their attempts to penetrate the interior of the country was not successful. The first Jesuit mission to the region in 1561 failed when its leader, Gonçalo da Silveira, was killed by the Shona. A large Portuguese army that attempted, between 1569 and 1575, to conquer the Africans partly for Silveira's death was decimated by disease and African fighters. They were more successful in establishing a base in the north on Moçambique Island. The Dutch tried twice but failed, in 1607 and 1608, to take Moçambique Island from the Portuguese.

After a prolonged warfare using locally recruited troops, the Portuguese, by 1632, had managed to occupy a wide swat of land from the Mozambican coast to present day Zimbabwe. On this swat, they gave land grants (prazos) to European colonists. Portuguese attempts to settle in the highlands of western Mozambique and northern Zimbabwe was, however, thwarted by the Rozwi king, Changamire, who in 1693, successfully expelled them from the highlands. The Portuguese were able, however, to maintained their influence along the coast. In 1727 they founded a trading post at Inhambane. In 1781 they occupied Delagoa Bay, site of modern Maputo. From there they controlled the ivory and slave trade from about 1760 until well past the 1870s.

Beginning from the 1820s, Nguni armies from the south invaded Mozambique and, by 1837, Soshangane, an Nguni chieftain, had established the Gaza Empire, which stretched from the Limpopo River in the south to the Zambezi River in the north. North of the Gaza Empire, the slave trade had given rise to private armies under warlords who raided for slaves in the interior.

British interest in the region began to increase after 1856 when Scottish explorer David Livingstone reached the mouth of the Zambezi River. Portugal sought to strengthen its hold on the region by making war on the warlords. In 1842 Portugal outlawed the slave trade and finally, in 1878, abolished slavery.

British rivalry with the Portuguese in the area led to the drawing of the frontiers of modern Mozambique in May 1891. Having resolved its differencies with the British, Portugal turned its attention to the African kingdoms within the borders of the colony. The Gaza Empire was defeated in 1895. The Zambezi Valley warlords were subdued in 1902. Also in 1902 Portugal established Maputo as the capital of Mozambique.

Portugal greatly abused local labor through the private concessions that controlled the colony's production and supply of goods. In 1907 the colonial government established separate labor laws for natives and nonnatives. Working conditions were horrible for natives. The pay was small and sometimes none at all.

Portugal entered the First World War in 1916, two years after the war started. Later in the same years, the Germans invaded and occupied the northern part of the colony and they were not expelled until near the end of the war in 1918. In 1932 the government of Portugal began to rule Mozambique directly. The influence of the concessions over labor and the Mozambican society was ended. But direct rule did not improve conditions for locals by much. Farmers were forced to grow cash crops for export, which led to neglect for those crops needed for local subsistence. White settlement in the colony increased until by 1970 their number had reached 200,000.

Africans were denied political rights, education and employment opportunities in the Portuguese colony of Mozambique. Agitators were swiftly put in prison or exiled. In 1962 Eduardo Mondlane brought together a group of his fellow exiles in Tanzania to form 'Frente de Libertação de Moçambique' (Frelimo) or Front for the Liberation of Mozambique. Two years later, Frelimo launched a guerrilla war to oust the Portuguese from Mozambique. To undermine the guerrilla effort, the colonial government began urgently to develop the country economically by building roads, schools and hospitals. In 1969 work on the Cabora Bassa Dam began.

After the Carnation Revolution in Portugal in April 1974, the tide of war decidedly turned against the colonial government in Mozambique. Most of the nearly 300,000 Portuguese in Mozambique left the country within the year. As the colonial government crumbled, Frelimo took over control. On June 25, 1975 Mozambique became independent from Portugal and Frelimo was then abled to establish itself as the legitimate government of independent Mozambique.