Angola
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a name formerly given to the west African coast from Cape Lopez to Benguela, but now applied to the Portuguese west African possessions, extending from the Kongo river southward to the Cunene, which, at its mouth, notes the boundary between the Portuguese and former German territories. This region is divided into 9 districts. Capital, St. Paul de Loanda. Portuguese influence extends some 1,500 miles inland. The area is estimated at almost 500,000 square miles. Estimates of the population vary from 2,200,000 to 4,200,000. There are over 800 miles of railroads. The coast strip is level, hot and unhealthy, but beyond is hilly country. The main rivers are the Kwango running N. to the Kongo, and the Coanza and Cunene, running W. to the Atlantic. The country is well watered, and has a luxuriant vegetation of the tropical African type. Yams, tobacco, indigo, rice, cotton, and sugar are freely produced. Wax, Buffalo hides, es, ivory, copal gum, and palm oil are exported. Iron is found in the mountains; and copper, lead, sulphur, and petroleum are obtained. Horses and camels cannot live here; the ox is ridden, but the burden-bearers are usually men. Angola was long notorious for its great slave trade. The natives are Kongo negroes, and belong to the great Bantu stock. The Portuguese under Diego Cam discovered this coast, in 1486, and soon began to settle in it; but St. Paul de 13-Vol. I-Cyc Loanda was not built till 1578. In the course of the war of 1914-1918, the British in their west African campaign forced the Germans to seek refuge in Angola, where they were interned.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's wrote this in 1921 Angola was a Portuguese possession of nine districts governed from "St. Paul de Loanda"; today it is an independent republic of roughly 35 million people with its capital at Luanda. Portuguese rule ended on 11 November 1975 after a guerrilla war begun in 1961, and independence was followed by a civil war between the MPLA government and UNITA — with Cuban and South African forces involved — that ran until 2002. The exports listed (wax, ivory, copal gum, palm oil) have been eclipsed by crude oil, much of it offshore from the Cabinda enclave, which for years made Angola one of Africa's two largest oil producers. The "former German territories" across the Cunene became South West Africa and then, in 1990, independent Namibia.
Written for this edition, 2026.