Why was Angola colonized
The history of Angola is a very interesting issue, and it all started in 1575 when Paulo Dias de Novais made his entry in the region with close to hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers. In fact, 1575 is the year when Angola was formed as colony of the Portoguese. It so happened that Paulo Dias de Novais managed to convince the crown in Portugal to grant him the resources for colonizaing tha African country that is now known as Angola. With his expedition financed by the crown, Paulo Dias de Novais made his way to the southern sections of the Kwanza River. And from here on, the process of colonization of Angola found ample steam.
The River Kwanza was the epicentre of the war activity in the African region, with the kingdoms of Kongo and Ndongo as the two prominent ones. Paulo Dias de Novais’ initial strategy was to befriend the rulers of these two kingdoms by offering them the services of the armed force he had brought along to Angola. However, Francisco Barbuda, a Portuguese resident from Kongo, managed to persuade the king of Ndongo into believing that the Portuguese rulers intended to overtake the African region. This resulted in the Ndongo kingdom opening an all out attack on the Portuguese people in their territories, forcing them to retract to the area in and around Luanda. The Kongo kingdom tried to help the Portuguese in their defence act, but their army was defeated when they ran out of supplies and were captured while trying to make their way past the Bengo River. Nonetheless, Dias de Novais successfully defended Luanda, and the Nzele Fort on the Kwanza River. This happened in the year 1579, indicating that the process of the colonization of Angola was blood stained for the earlier parts.
The subsequent years were marked with attempts from Dias de Novais aimed at strengthening the stronghold of Portuguese in the Angola region. Though he did not consider a war on Ndongo as the latter had an extremely strong army, he continued making alliances with local rulers with polemical interests from Ndongo. His efforts were instrumental in the grant of the status of a city to Luanda in 1605, and to Benguela in 1617. Eventually, Angola attained freedom in 1975.