The Angolan Wars () were a long series of conflicts in modern-day Angola involving Portugal, the Kingdom of Ndongo, the Kingdom of Kongo, the Kingdom of Matamba, the Kingdom of Kasanje, the Kingdom of Libolo and the Dutch West India Company primarily, that lasted from 1579 to 1683.
Paulo Dias de Novais founded Luanda in 1576 and hostilities broke out three years later when the king of Ndongo had the Portuguese merchant community in his capital massacred. Conflict then gradually drew in every neighbouring power along with the Dutch West India Company. Though few in number, the Portuguese fielded heavier equipment but more importantly were able to mobilize large numbers of African auxiliaries, on whom the success of operations in the harsh African hinterland depended.Allison Butler Herrick: "The success of the Portuguese venture in Angola rested on military conquest, which in turn rested upon the guerra preta, or African auxiliary, especially useful in bush warfare." in Area Handbook for Portuguese Angola, U.S. Government Printing Office, 1967, pp. 30-31. Queen Nzinga distinguished herself by forging "the largest coalition of angolan states in the 17th century" against the Portuguese, who ultimately emerged as the main power in the region in spite of severe adversity.
Hostilities primarily involved Portugal and Ndongo between 1579 and 1622. After negotiating a peace treaty on behalf of Ndongo, Queen Nzinga seized power and civil-war erupted between her and the rival claimant Hari a Kiluanje, who sought the support of Portugal. Nzinga in turn associated herself with the controversial Imbangala. The Dutch West India Company captured Benguela and Luanda in 1641, and entered into an alliance with Queen Nzinga and the Kongo, among others, against the Portuguese. After a period of isolation in the interior during which the Portuguese fought against Nzinga, the Dutch and Kongo surrounded and cut-off from the sea, Salvador Correia de Sá restored Angola to Portuguese rule in 1648. Queen Nzinga then signed a peace in 1656 and shifted to a policy of subordination to Portugal and support for Catholicism.Joseph C. Miller, "Nzinga of Matamba in a New Perspective" in The Journal of African History, v. 16, No. 2 (1975), pp. 201-216, p. 212. The final 27-year period was marked by the defeat of Kongo at the Battle of Ambuíla, the annexation of Ndongo by Portugal and the definite vassalization of Matamba, which in effect brought the Angolan Wars to a close.
These conflicts radically altered the balance of power in the region and marked it deeply. They were recorded primarily by António de Oliveira Cardornega in General History of the Angolan Wars, an epic narrative in three volumes that followed the style of Portuguese chronicles of Asian and American conquest."This was an epic narrative of the wars of conquest undertaken by the Portuguese against King N'Gola. Cadornega followed the model of Portuguese chronicles of Asian and Brazilian conquest." in Antonella Romano, Borbála Zsuzsanna Török, L. Kontler, Silvia Sebastiani: Negotiating Knowledge in Early Modern Empires: A Decentered View, 2014, Palgrave Macmillan.
Context The Portuguese reached Angola in 1482 during the reign of King John II. Portuguese explorer Diogo Cão contacted the Kingdom of Kongo and established friendly relations between the two realms. In 1491, the king of Kongo converted to Catholicism, and his kingdom henceforth became frequented by Portuguese ambassadors, missionaries and merchants, some of whom settled in the country. Relations remained stable and in 1568 Portugal dispatched an expeditionary corps to help king Álvaro I suppress an uprising or invasion of the "Jagas" in Kongo, which greatly strengthened relations between the two kingdoms and earned the Portuguese high regard by the kings of Kongo.Ralph Delgado, História de Angola v. I, Banco de Angola, 1973-1978, pp. 260-261. Kongo henceforth paid Portugal a fifth of all nzimbu fished at the Island of Luanda as tribute.Delgado, I, 1973-1978, p. 262.
To the south of Kongo, the Kingdom of Ndongo had sought to establish direct contact with Portugal as early as 1518."Ndongo." in Appiah, Kwame Anthony & Gates Jr, Henry Louis: Encyclopedia of Africa, Oxford University Press, 2010, pp. 223-224. Ndongo seems to have been created from Kongo, and the rulers of Kongo claimed overlordship over the kingdom, but had little real control. Portugal dispatched a first diplomatical mission to Ndongo in 1520 and although it was unsuccessful, Ndongo sent another to Portugal in 1549, which resulted in Paulo Dias de Novais being dispatched to Ndongo at the head of a second mission. Upon his return, he obtained a grant to establish a colony in Angola. Ndongo sent another embassy to Lisbon in 1575, headed by Dom Pedro da Silva Manuel, an ethnic Kongolese raised in Portugal.Sweet, James H., in Mancall, Peter C: The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624, The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 2007, p. 208. He bore gifts of copper, silver, slaves and portions of Kikongo wood. Silva Manuel was well received, admitted to the Order of Santiago as a knight and given grants for his support.
In 1576 Paulo Dias de Novais founded the city of Luanda.Delgado, I, 1946, p. 287. Novais hoped to obtain access to the legendary silver mines that were purported to exist at Cambambe in the kingdom of Ndongo and he had orders from King Sebastian to follow a policy of peaceful bilateral relations.Delgado, I 1973, p. 288. He therefore signed an alliance with the ngola ("king") of Ndongo, Nzinga Ngola Kilombo Kia Kasenda."In 1575 Paulo Dias de Novais returned to Ndongo with a royal grant from Portugal to create a colony on the coast, south of the Kwanza. He offered his services to Ndongo and fought for Ndongo in several campaigns against rebels." in John K. Thornton: "Ndongo, Kingdom of" in Encyclopedia of African History, v. 1, 2005, Routledge, p. 1079. Pinto, 205, p. 260. Novais offered his services to Ndongo and fought several times for the ngola against rebels. In exchange for this military aid, Kia Kasenda would sell rebels, prisoners of war and his subjects sentenced to death for theft or adultery as slaves to the Portuguese, thus earning him great profits. Pinto 2015, p. 263.
Relations between Ndongo and Portugal were so amicable that Kia Kasenda requested an ambassador for his capital of Kabasa and Novais dispatched Pero da Fonseca with a guard of 20 men for the task.Pinto, 2015, p. 267.
The Ndongo Wars, 1579-1622
Notwithstanding the friendly relations with the king of Ndongo, Novais was considered an unwelcome intruder by the numerous freelance Portuguese traders already in the region, and some sought to disrupt relations between the two.Anthony Disney: "Portuguese Expansion, 1400-1800: Encounters, Negotiations and Interactions" in Diogo Ramada Curto, Francisco Bethencourt: Portuguese Oceanic Expansion, Cambridge University Press, 2007, p. 299.
The experienced and influential trader Francisco Barbudo d'Aguiar quarreled with Pero da Fonseca at Kabasa and so he claimed to king Kia Kasenda in a private audience that Novais was preparing to conquer his kingdom for its mines, that Fonseca was a spy and his entourage a fifth column. Kia Kasenda had the Portuguese community assemble before him the following day, to hear the allegations of Barbudo, which they denied in astonishment but the king disregarded their arguments. After consulting with his advisors therefore, the ngola was persuaded to have all the Portuguese at Kabasa massacred."In 1579, Portuguese renegades along with local factions convinced the Ndongo king to massacre the Portuguese representatives living in his capital and destroy their colony. Subsequently, a 12,000-strong Ndongo army attacked the Portuguese fort at Nzele, 50 kilometers inland from Luanda, which was successfully defended by a garrison of 60 Europeans and 200 Africans." in Timothy J. Stapleton: A Military History of Africa, ABC-CLIO, p. 165. Barbudo however was also executed, because the king believed that "it was not right that one should live who had caused the death of his countrymen". The same fate befell the Portuguese merchants scattered throughout the country and their property was seized. Kia Kasenda also massacred almost a thousand kongolese who were then at Kabasa, which further damaged relations between Kongo and Ndongo.Sweet, James H., in Mancall, Peter C.: The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624, The Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture and University of North Carolina Press, 2007, p. 209.
The betrayal of the king of Ndongo as it became known marked the beginning of hostilies between Ndongo and Portugal. The outbreak of the war also stranded ambassador Dom Pedro da Silva Manuel in Lisbon, and for the following eighty years Ndongo ceased trying to have diplomatic relations with Europe directly.
The First Ndongo War, 1579-1604 After the massacre at Kabasa, Kia Kasenda began assembling an army to destroy Luanda. Novais was camped with 60 Portuguese soldiers and 200 Africans near the Kwanza river at that time and he received an envoy from the ngola with a message not to proceed any further into Ndongo. Out of suspicion, the Portuguese commander relocated his troops to Anzele, in Ilamba, between the rivers Cuanza and Bengo, ten or twelve leagues from Luanda, where he erected a timber fort, equipped with two cannon. Only twenty days later did he receive news of the massacre and the approaching Ndongo army. Far from being intimidated, Novais inspired his men with the hope of avenging the massacre. At the siege of Anzele, the Portuguese were attacked by 12,000 warriors but the artillery fire threw the Ambundu into disarray and a Portuguese sortie forced them to withdraw.José Augusto Duarte Leitão: "A Missão do Padre Baltasar Barreira" in Lusitania Sacra 2a Série - Tomo 5 (1993), p. 53. Kia Kasenda then requested peace, but Novais denounced him and rejected terms, upon which the king of Ndongo executed his advisors. Meanwhile, on 23 February 1580 a fleet arrived from Portugal with reinforcements and among their number were two Jesuit fathers, one of which, Father Baltasar Barreira, promptly travelled to Kongo to request military aid. With his forces now numbering 1200 men among Europeans and Africans, Novais sailed up the Cuanza on two galliots, one small caravel and two batels, and for two months he fought against hostile lords along its banks and reduced several to vassalage, under the tropical rain. Ndongo was divided in hundreds of small regions ruled by local tribal lords, called sobas.John K. Thornton: "Ndongo, Kingdom of" in Encyclopedia of African History, v. 1, 2005, Routledge, p. 1079. Novais established a new fortified camp at Mocumbe on 16 November, and for the following eight months he remained there with his forces scouting the surrounding territory, skirmishing with hostile sobas, and baptizing others who sided with Portugal. Still in 1581, soba Songa of Quissama converted to Catholicism along with 400 others after being defeated, and he adopted the name Dom Paulo de Novais, in deference to Paulo Dias de Novais.
As a result of Father Barreiras efforts, on early 1581, Kongo marched to the aid of Novais with a 60,000 man army that included 120 Portuguese but the battle they fought with the forces of Ndongo by the river Bengo proved indecisive.Newitt, 2010, pp. 137-140. By July, Novais was already running low on provisions and many of his comrades had been decimated by tropical disease, but Father Barreira exhorted the Portuguese at Luanda to organize a relief expedition that reached Mocumbe on the 24th.