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History of Mozambique. Mwenemutapas

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Marave Empire. State of Zimbabwe. History of Mozambique

The first inhabitants of Mozambique (East Africa) were the Khoisan (hunter-gatherers)

  1. Centuries I - IV: Bantu Migration (farmers, iron metallurgy)
  2. Century IX - XIII: arrival of people from the Persian Gulf (Sofala land)

Islamic Coast States

From the tenth century, Arab merchants who demanded the re-conquest of Sofala spread Islam among the coastal towns, but only after the installation in Zanzibar of a sect dependent on the Sultanate of Oman in the seventeenth century, began to organise small Islamic States.

Marave Empire (1200 - 1400)

  1. Marave from the Congo arrive (Karoga chief)
  2. Small kingdoms formed on the northern bank of the Zambezi River
  3. Phiri

The first State of Zimbabwe (1250 and 1450)

  1. Monument of Great Zimbabwe (abandoned in 1450, invasion of the ChiShona peoples)
  2. Empire Mwenemutapas
  3. Ruins of Madzimbabwe

Mwenemutapas Empire

  1. 1440-1450: creation of the Mwenemutapas Empire (Mozambican province of Manica)
  2. Mwenemutapas Dynasty
  3. ChiShona language
  4. 16th century: extension by the Zambezi River, Indian Ocean and Limpopo River
  5. Islamisation

Arrival of Portuguese to Mozambique

  1. 1497: Vasco de Gama arrives to Mozambique
  2. Decline of the Mwenemutapas Empire
  3. 1530: foundation of the Portuguese colony of Seine
  4. 1544: foundation of Quelimane
  5. End of the 17th century: last Mwenemutapas dynasty
  6. Dynasty of the Changamira Dombos
  7. Slave Trade

Ajaua States (18th Century)

  1. Creation of the Ajaua States (Mataca, Mutarica, Mukanjila and Jalassi) by the Ajaua (Bantu farmers and hunters, Muslims)
  2. Slave Trade

Gaza Empire

  1. 1821: foundation of the Gaza State by Sochangane (Manicusse)
  2. Conflicts with the Zulu (Shaka Zulu)
  3. Capital: Manjacaze (current Mozambican province of Gaza)
  4. Control of the coastal zone between the Zambezi and Maputo rivers.
  5. Gungunhana was the last Emperor of Gaza

Colonisation

In 1878, Portugal decided to grant large parcels of land in Mozambique to private companies that began to exploit the colony. The main ones were Compañía do Niassa and Compañía de Moçambique.

Until the end of the 19th century, the official Portuguese presence in Mozambique was limited to a few coastal capitals.

With the Abolition of Slavery in 1875 and its decline ten years later, the colonial government was forced to transform Mozambique from a colony for the extraction of natural resources into a territory that would produce goods for consumption, and to export to the “metropolis”.

In 1959-1960, three formal resistance movements to Portuguese domination of Mozambique were formed:

  1. UDENAMO - Democratic National Union of Mozambique
  2. MANU - African National Union of Mozambique
  3. MANUI - African National Union for the Independence of Mozambique

The liberation war, a guerrilla war, spread to the provinces of Niassa and Tete and lasted about 10 years.

Mozambique became independent from Portugal on June 25, 1975. The first government, led by Samora Machel, was formed by FRELIMO, the political organisation that had negotiated independence with Portugal.

1977-1992: civil war

The ruling party, the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) and the Mozambican armed forces violently opposed the National Resistance of Mozambique (RENAMO), which received funds from Rhodesia and, later, from South Africa. 1 million people died in fighting and hunger strikes, five million civilians were displaced and many suffered amputations by landmines

Mozambique experienced a resurgence of the armed conflict in 2013 in the central and northern regions of the country.

Study Business Provinces of Mozambique, East Africa (source: UNESCO)

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