A short history of modern Angola /

David Birmingham begins this short history of Angola in 1820 with the Portuguese attempt to create a third, African, empire after the virtual loss of Asia and America. In the 19th century, the most valuable resource extracted from Angola was agricultural labor. The colony was managed by a few marine...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Birmingham, David (Author)
Format: Book
Language:English
Published: New York : Oxford University Press, 2015.
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Summary:David Birmingham begins this short history of Angola in 1820 with the Portuguese attempt to create a third, African, empire after the virtual loss of Asia and America. In the 19th century, the most valuable resource extracted from Angola was agricultural labor. The colony was managed by a few marine officers, white political convicts and black Angolans who had adopted Portuguese language and culture. The hub was the harbor city of Luanda which grew to be a dynamic metropolis of several million people. The export of labor was gradually replaced when an agrarian revolution enabled white Portuguese immigrants to drive black Angolan laborers to produce sugar-cane, cotton, maize and above all coffee. During the 20th century, this wealth was supplemented by Congo copper, by gem-quality diamonds and by off-shore oil. The generation of warfare finally ended in 2002 when national reconstruction could begin on Portuguese colonial foundations.
Physical Description:xv, 159 pages : map ; 23 cm.
Bibliography:Includes bibliographical references (pages 137-140) and index.
ISBN:0190271302
9780190271305