Kongo: Military History and Notable Events

1570s - (First) Jaga War (All Facts)

• War that took place on the interior of modern-day Angola caused by Portuguese slave trading

• Conflict in which

  • Kongo’s coastal states tore each other apart on the instigation of Portuguese Catholic missionaries

  • Portuguese adventurers were using slave warriors to carve out private kingdoms for themselves

  • There was famine

  • The Atlantic Slave Trade emerged and was implemented, penetrating deeper into the interior of the namesake colony and the rest of Central Africa

  • The Jaga had taken over much of the native people there

  • Nobody was in control and missionaries and traders raised mercenary armies there

1579 - 1683 - Angolan Wars (All Facts)

• Long series of conflicts in modern-day Angola involving Portugal, the Kingdom of Ndongo, the Kingdom of Kongo, the Kingdom of Matamba, the Kingdom of Kasanje, the Kingdom of Libolo and the Dutch West India Company (during the Dutch-Portuguese War)

• In 1623, Queen Nzinga of Ndongo led her army against the Portuguese

  • As King of Ndongo, she allied with the Jaga people

  • She was driven by the Kingdom of Ndongo and re-established herself in Matamba

  • As King of Matamba, she allied with the Dutch (who were fighting the Portuguese already in the Dutch-Portuguese War)

  • She divided and conquered between the Dutch and Portuguese, taking advantage of the Dutch-Portuguese War, having ruled over both Dutch and Portuguese there

• By 1650, Queen Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba made a peace treaty with Portugal

  • This occurred after 30 years of fighting between the Portuguese and the Mbundu

  • This occurred after tens of thousands of the inhabitants of the namesake died and hundreds of thousands were taken into slavery as whole kingdoms of the namesake were depopulated

• Series of conflcits during which,

  • In 1629, Queen Nzinga of Mbundu was victorious in her war against the Portuguese and made her sister queen of the Ndongo, who were previously allies of Portugal

    • However, during this time, the Portuguese planted the first American crops in Africa, maize and cassava, on the coast of the namesake colony

  • In 1644, Queen Nzinga and her Dutch slave traders allied to take the namesake latter city from the Portuguese during the Dutch-Portuguese War

  • From 1641 to 1648, the Dutch took control of Luanda during the Dutch-Portuguese War until it was recaptured by the Portuguese in 1648

  • In 1665, Portuguese colonists based in the namesake invaded the Kongo Kingdom, but were unable to subdue local resistance to them

• Series of conflicts which saw

  • The Battle of Pungo Andongo

1590s - (Second) Jaga War (All Facts)

• War that broke out in Zaire, caused by Portuguese slave trading on the Angola coast

• Conflict in which

  • Kongo’s coastal states tore each other apart on the instigation of Portuguese Catholic missionaries

  • Portuguese adventurers were using slave warriors to carve out private kingdoms for themselves

  • There was famine

  • The Atlantic Slave Trade emerged and was implemented, penetrating deeper into the interior of the namesake colony and the rest of Central Africa

  • The Jaga had taken over much of the native people there

  • Nobody was in control and missionaries and traders raised mercenary armies there

1598 - 1663 - Dutch-Portuguese War (All Facts)

• War during the Dutch Revolt / Eighty Years War which was fought by the Dutch against the Portuguese after they had become a part of Spain via the Iberian Union of King Philip II of Spain (King Philip of Portugal) starting with the reign of King Philip III of Spain (King Philip II of Portugal) in which the Netherlands, via its West and East India Companies, took many colonies from Portugal

  • War which was not formally declared per se, but in which the Dutch went after the Portuguese by extension of being unified by Spain in the Iberian Union

  • War in which the Netherlands had the advantage because Portugal was still working to regain its independence from Spain and break the Iberian Union in the Portuguese Restoration War which they were simultaneously fighting

• War in which the Dutch

  • picked off Portuguese coastal settlements from the Persian Gulf to Japan in their bid to gain control of the lucrative trade in cloves, nutmegs, cinnamon, and pepper

  • had the advantage of a stronger economic base at home (especially at Amsterdam) to pay for better ships and better trained manpower

  • relied on their commanders, which were trained professionals

• War in which the Portuguese

  • relied on their hidalgos, which were aristocratic and generally incompetent

• War in which the Dutch invaded Portuguese colonies, as an extension of their precedented invasions of Spanish colonies including and through establishing

  • (Portuguese / Dutch) Brazil

  • The Kingdom of the Kongo

  • (Portuguese / Dutch) Malacca

• War during which the Dutch

  • captured and took the fort of Axim (modern-day Ghana) on the Gold Coast from the Portuguese

  • and their slave traders allied with Queen Nzinga of Angola and took Luanda, the capital of (Portuguese) Angola from the Portuguese

    • However, the Portuguese recaptured Luanda seven years later and the rest of the Angolan coast two years after that, with Brazilian reinforcements

  • took Jaffnapatam, the last possession in (Dutch) Ceylon of the Portuguese

  • took Carolusberg from the Portuguese on the Gold Coast in West Africa

    • However, the Swedes took Carolusberg from the Dutch a few years later

• War which saw

  • The Siege of Recife

  • The Insurrection of Pernambuco

  • The Recapture of Recife