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The Kingdom of Kongo (Kongo: Kongo Dya Ntotila [6] [7] [8] or Wene wa Kongo; [9] Portuguese: Reino do Congo) was a kingdom in Central Africa. It was located in present-day northern Angola , the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo , [ 10 ] southern Gabon and the Republic of the Congo . [ 11 ]
The earliest history of Kakongo is unknown, and oral traditions collected in the region in the 19th and 20th centuries do not do much to elucidate. [2] In its present state, archaeology can only attest that the region was already in the Iron Age by the 5th century BC, and that complex societies were emerging in the general vicinity by the early centuries CE.
Kongo exported peanuts, ivory and other exotic products to European traders, both Portuguese from Luanda in the colony of Angola, and French, Dutch and English merchants who had been based at Boma, on the Congo River. Pedro managed to win the loyalty of the petty local rulers who controlled that route, and they accepted knighthoods in exchange.
Pedro II set up camp at Mbana Kasi and wrote numerous letters of protest to Rome and the king of Spain (then also the ruler of Portugal). As a result of these letters and protests by Portuguese merchants in Kongo and Angola, João Correia de Sousa was recalled in disgrace, and some 1,200 slaves were eventually returned from Brazil.
Portuguese governors continued to express concern that trade, especially the slave trade, that might pass through Luanda and pay taxes to Portugal were instead being diverted through the Lukala gap and Mbwila's territory, to Kongo and from there to Dutch, French and English merchants who operated on the coast north of Kongo.
Portugal is home to a number of major companies with international reputation such as Grupo Portucel Soporcel, a major world player in the international paper market, Sonae Indústria, the largest producer of wood-based panels in the world, Corticeira Amorim, the world leader in cork production, and Conservas Ramirez, the oldest canned fish ...
An early slave trade led to the Kingdom of Kongo, where merchants there saw opportunities to export slaves to Dutch and English merchants and avoid taxes and regulations that hindered the market in Portuguese-controlled Luanda. Communities of Vili were reported in São Salvador, Kongo's capital in 1656, where some converted to Christianity.
While the Kinlaza and others in Kongo lived in fear of a Soyo invasion, the governor of Luanda was afraid of the growing power of Soyo. [4] With access to Dutch merchants willing to sell them guns and cannons plus diplomatic access to the Pope, Soyo was on its way to becoming as powerful as Kongo had been before Mbwila.