Dutch Occupation Of Angola

Loango-Angola is the name for the possessions of the Dutch West India Company in contemporary Angola and the Republic of the Congo. Notably, the name refers to the colony that was captured from the Portuguese between 1641 and 1648. Due to the distance between Luanda and Elmina, the capital of the Dutch Gold Coast, a separate administration for "Africa South" was established at Luanda during the period of the Dutch occupation.

After Angola was recaptured by the Portuguese in 1648, Dutch trade with Loango-Angola did not stop, however. From about 1670 onward, the Dutch West India Company acquired slaves from the Loango region on a regular basis, and Dutch free traders continued this practice until after 1730.

History

Dutch traders began trading with Loango-Angola in the early 17th century, driven south by increasing competition on the Gold Coast. African traders were generally welcoming of the Dutch, who provided goods the Portuguese were not able to provide. Among other things, the Dutch traded redwood in Mayumba, and ivory and copper in Loango. Initially, the Dutch maintained the port city of Mpinda at the mouth of the Congo River as the southernmost border of their operations.

Early attempts (1624)

As part of the ''Groot Desseyn'' plan, the Dutch West India Company, which had been founded in 1621, tried to capture Luanda after they had captured Salvador da Bahia, the capital of Brazil. Under the leadership of Piet Hein, a Dutch fleet tried to capture Luanda in 1624, but failed, because Filips van Zuylen had tried to capture the city a few months earlier as well, leading the Portuguese to build reinforcements.

After Piet Hein captured the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628, the Dutch West India Company once again tried to set the ''Groot Desseyn'' plan in motion. With plenty of resources to pay for their military expenditure, the Dutch successfully captured Recife and Olinda, the core region of Brazilian sugar cane plantations, in early 1630.

Capture of Luanda (1641)

In 1641, a Dutch fleet under the command of Cornelis Jol, seized Luanda from the Portuguese. On August 25, 1641 the Dutch landed 2,145 troops near Luanda under the command of Cornelis Jol. Upon the Dutch arrival, 800 Portuguese, some soldiers and some civilians, fled and regrouped at Kilunda. On September 19, the Dutch drove them from that position and forced them to fall back to the Portuguese plantations along the Bengo River. The Dutch then fortified their positions along the river.

Dutch forces took control of Luanda and signed a treaty with Queen Nzinga of the Ndongo Kingdom. Nzinga unsuccessfully attacked the Portuguese at Fort Massangano. She recruited new fighters and prepared to engage the Portuguese in battle again, but Salvador Correia de Sá led Portuguese forces from Brazil in expelling the Dutch and reasserting control in Angola. Nzinga's forces retreated to Matamba again.

The Dutch ruled Angola from August 26, 1641 to August 21/24, 1648, occupying the coastal areas (under a WIC governor of Angola. This attack was the culmination of a plan first proposed by Kongo's King Pedro II in 1622. After the Dutch fleet under Admiral Cornelis Jol took Luanda, the Portuguese withdrew to the Bengo River, but following the renewal of the Kongo-Dutch alliance, Bengo was attacked and subsequently Portuguese forces withdrew to Massangano. The Dutch were not interested in conquering Angola, much to the chagrin of Kongo's king Garcia II and Njinga who had both pressed them to assist in driving the Portuguese from the colony. However, Dutch authorities came to realize that they could not monopolize the slave trade from Angola just by holding Luanda and a few nearby places, and moreover, the Portuguese sent several relief expeditions to Massangano from Brazil. Consequently, in 1647, they agreed to reinforce Njinga's army following her defeat by Portuguese forces in 1646. At the Battle of Kombi Dutch and Njinga's armies crushed a Portuguese army and in its aftermath laid siege to Ambaca, Massangano and Muxima.

See also

* Colonial history of Angola

Notes

References

*Robin Blackburn: “The” Making of New World Slavery: From the Baroque to the Modern 1492 - 1800, verso, 1998, p. 195
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*Lourenço, Paula.''Battles of Portuguese History - Defence of the Overseas. - Volume X.'' (2006)
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{{coord missing, Africa

Dutch colonisation in Africa
Dutch West India Company
Portuguese Angola
1640s in Angola
1640s in the Dutch Empire
1641 establishments in Africa
1648 disestablishments in Africa
1641 disestablishments in the Portuguese Empire
1641 establishments in the Dutch Empire
1648 disestablishments in the Dutch Empire
1648 establishments in the Portuguese Empire
1640s establishments in Angola
Angola–Netherlands relations
17th century in Angola