Campaigns of Pacification and Occupation
The Portuguese Campaigns of Pacification and Occupation were a vast set of military operations, conducted in the last decades of the 19th century and in the first two decades of the 20th by the Portuguese Armed Forces in the overseas provinces of the Portuguese Empire.
They resulted in the securing of vast territories for Portugal and the creation of modern-day Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau and Timor-Leste.
These campaigns took place after the Independence of Brazil and during the Scramble for Africa. They saw action at Chaimite, in Mozambique, where Mouzinho de Albuquerque captured the Vatua king Gungunhana but also at Môngua, in Angola.
The pacification campaigns were numerous but usually small in scale and involved mostly native troops. Relatively large expeditions of well-equipped European troops were dispatched directly from Europe whenever Portuguese sovereignty over the claimed territories was seriously contested. They were otherwise marked by the mass participation of native troops on the side of Portugal, which led some authors to comment that the new territories "conquered themselves".
Background up to the Berlin Conference
After the Independence of Brazil and the end of the Portuguese Civil War, Portugal turned to its remaining overseas territories in Africa and Asia as a means to compensate for the loss of trade and tax revenue, international prestige and balooning debt. The devastation caused by the civil-war, the scarcity of means and the political instability in Portugal made investment overseas controversial. Nevertheless, a consensus gradually formed among the Portuguese political elite on the potential of the colonies and the necessity to occupy the interior of Angola and Mozambique. Controversy arose from the way they ought to be administered, with some advocating for direct rule, other for greater autonomy and indirect British-style rule. Safeguarding them from foreign encroachment, namely from Britain and Germany, would also prove a major challenge until the end of World War I.The Marquis of Sá da Bandeira was a major abolitionist and defender of a market economy as a means to promote the development of Portuguese territories overseas. Peanut plantation was introduced in Guinea-Bissau and a few new posts, forts and settlements were established, such as Mindelo in Cape Verde and Duque de Bragança in Angola. In Mozambique, the Zambezi Wars broke out in 1840 between Portuguese landowners, African kinglets and the Portuguese government, after a catastrophic period of drought and Nguni invasion. Portuguese frontiersmen at the same time gradually ventured deeper into the African interior, such as Rodrigo Graça, who established diplomatic and commercial ties with the Lunda Empire. The Kingdom of Kasanje became an important middle-man between Lunda and Luanda but Portuguese merchant caravans were a frequent target for raids, which caused conflict and a new fort to built at Malanje. Portugal occupied annexed Ambriz from the Kingdom of Kongo in 1855 as the territory was disputed by the British, who wished to control the mouth of the Congo River. After the Praieira Revolt had sparked in Brazil, a number of Luso-Brazillian refugees were settled in Moçâmedes and the governor of the district Sérgio Sousa negotiated treaties with the lords of Huíla and Gambos but the latter was succeeded on the throne by a hostile king, which brought instability to the region that would only be overcome in 1867.
Starting in the first decades of the 19th century, the Great Trek had an impact on Portuguese affairs as well. Boers sought land and access to the sea in order to become independent from Britain and self-sufficient, and they reached the area around Maputo Bay in 1838. The small Portuguese settlement of Lourenço Marques was outside of direct British control and it grew out of trade with the South African Republic, but the difficult route to the port could only be solved by building a railway.
Maputo Bay was considered the finest harbour in East Africa and a railway to it would make any port established there the main one in southern Africa and one of the most important in the entire Indian Ocean. The bay would be called "The Key to South Africa". Its strategic value was not lost on the British and in 1861 the commander of H.M.S. Narcissus had the British flag hoisted on the territory and proclaimed it British. This however opened a dispute with Portugal, who already claimed the territory and in 1869 the Portuguese government signed a treaty with the South African Republic, through which boundary lines were settled and in which Pretoria acknowledged Portuguese control of the bay along with the sorrounding territory as far as the Lebombo Mountains. The British High Commissioner suggested purchasing the bay from Portugal but the British Secretary of State for the Colonies Lord Kimberley decided to put the matter up for international arbitration, and on July 24th 1875 the President of France Marshal Patrice Macmahon ruled in favour of Portugal. He awarded all of the land around Maputo Bay down to lat. 26º 30' S and inland towards the Lebombo, even more than the Portuguese had asked for. After MacMahons arbitration, Britain and Portugal sought to jointly settle the future of south-east Africa but this project would be overtaken by events the following decade.
Portuguese policy until the 1870s was largely based on the export of agricultural products, mainly wine, import substitution under moderate protection and foreign loans for the construction of infra-structure. A global recession traditionally seen as having begun in 1873 hit Portugal especially hard however, and public revenue fell, deficit grew alarmingly, gold reserves dwindled, and the state could no longer service its foreign debt. This and the rising tide of the "scramble for Africa" compelled Portugal to invest in territorial acquisition overseas. As the crisis deepened, Portugal reacted like other states of western Europe, first protecting the home market, then seeking to extend that market overseas.
The Lisbon Geographic Society was founded in 1875 and this institution brought together explorers, scientists and officials knowledgeable about the African interior, published ethnographical and geographical knowledge, advised the government with studies and was a major promoter of greater Portuguese involvement in Africa. The Society developed the Pink Map plan, which called for the occupation of the territory between Angola and Mozambique and lead to several scientific expeditions in the region, the first of which was led by Serpa Pinto, Hermenegildo Capelo and Roberto Ivens in 1877. In 1884, Henrique de Carvalho left Malanje, Angola, for Muantiânvua, while Capelo and Ivens set out that year on their much-celebrated journey from Angola to the East African Coast. The following year, Serpa Pinto and Augusto Cardoso set out on an expedition to explore northern Mozambique and Lake Malawi, then known as Lake Niassa. All this investment however put Portugal on a collision course with the United Kingdom, which claimed the same territory.
From the mid-19th century onwards, several European powers scrambled for Africa, which led to international disputes. At the Berlin Conference, spurred in particular by Portugals claims to the Congo Basin, Portugal saw its claims to the left bank of the Congo River and Cabinda recognised. However, any claims based on simple discovery or just diplomatic and commercial relations with the native authorities were rejected. Instead, the conference established the principle of "effective occupation" and afterwards the pace of European claims on African territory would increase.
Mozambique
Portugal held a number of settlements along the Mozambican coast and hinterland, such as Beira, Sofala, Quelimane, Inhambane, Ibo, Mozambique Island, Tete, Sena, Zumbo, and Lourenço Marques, while a number of Tsonga kingdoms around Lourenço Marques were under a protectorate of the Portuguese Crown. The northern part of the territory was however coveted by Germany and the southern part by the United Kingdom, whose government had wished to annex the Maputo Bay and prevent the South African Republic from obtaining access to the sea. Throughout the 19th century, Portugal carefully balanced diplomacy between the three nations to throw them off of Mozambique.To the north of Lourenço Marques laid the Gaza Empire, a Nguni state established by Shoshangane in the wake of the Mfecane. Its warriors fought in impi-like half-moon formations and they had subdued the native Chopi and Tonga through war or intermarriage. Although they were weaker than their forebears, they continued to evoke terror among their neighbours, including even the small Portuguese communities established along the coast. Its ruling clan, the Vátua, also sought to balance diplomacy between the Portuguese, British and Boers but Gungunhana favoured the British Empire. He had usurped the throne of Gaza from his half-brother and upon acceeding to the throne sought allies among the Swazi, the Matabele, but also the British and especially from Cecil Rhodes and his British South Africa Company against the Portuguese. In October 1890 he would score his greatest diplomatical victory in granting a mining and railroad concession to Cecil Rhodes in exchange for a yearly supply of 1000 rifles.
On 11 January 1890, the United Kingdom issued Portugal an Ultimatum, demanding that all Portuguese forces be withdrawn from the territory between Angola and Mozambique. Cecil Rhodes took the opportunity to claim as much territory as he could for the British South Africa Company during the diplomatic hiatus that followed, and on 15 November some of his troops occupied Massequesse, in an attempt to secure a corridor to the sea. On 28 May 1891 however, Portugal and Britain signed a new treaty, which among other things recognized the Gaza Empire as in the Portuguese sphere of influence. Nevertheless, the British Ultimatum caused national outrage and a wave of patriotic sentiment swept the military and civil servants as well as the general public. Portuguese authorities became suspicious of British activity and when a revolt broke out among the Tsonga kings in 1895, some suspected that it had been incited by Gungunhana at the behest of the British, whom he favoured in a breach of treaties.
The Portuguese conquest of the Gaza Empire
The Tsonga kings rebelled in 1894 under the leadership of king Matibejana of Mafumo, a son of Gungunhana. Lourenço Marques was attacked, but the revolt was quelled at the Battle of Marracuene in February 1895, and the rebellious Tsonga kings fled with their warriors to Gaza, where they were granted asylum by Gungunhana. The Portuguese government decided to annex Gaza. The moment was apt, as the Vátuas were weakened by the revolt of their own subjects, epidemics and the emigration of their youth. Royal Commissioner António José Enes was dispatched to Mozambique and he drew up a campaign that was to be carried out by experienced officers such as Caldas Xavier, Paiva Couceiro, Ayres de Ornellas and Mouzinho de Albuquerque. Gaza would be the first campaign in an era marked by the participation of high-ranking officers of the Portuguese Armed Forces and for that reason became known as "the Age of Centurions", that would last until 1909.At the Battle of Magul on 8 September, Vátua warriors were unable to break through a square of Portuguese infantry, supported by Nordenfelt machine guns. The use of cavalry charges and mobile columns of troops also surprised the Africans and destroyed Gungunhana's aura of invincibility. In September 1895, as Portuguese troops manoeuvered closer to his kraal, Gungunhana dispatched emissaries to Pretoria, Natal and Cape Town in a desperate attempt to obtain some kind of protection or alliance, but they came back empty-handed. After the Battle of Coolela on 7 November 1895, Mouzinho de Albuquerque advanced inland with a small body of men and on 28 December captured Gungunhana at Chaimite. Till the end of his reign, Gungunhana "apparently believed that he could prevent the Portuguese conquest by bluffs, threats or by actually making an alliance with 'other whites'". The end of the Vátua empire was not unpopular among the subjects of Gungunhana, to whom they already owed tribute. Several military posts were then established in the interior and the region was incorporated into Mozambique as a district.
The defeat of Gungunhana came as a shock to foreign observers, such as the Americans and the British, whose consul Sir Hugh MacDonnell at first refused to believe that Gungunhana had been beaten. Although logistics were lacking, the morale of Portuguese troops was high, they were equipped with the Kropatschek magazine rifle that was one of the best for use in Africa, Portugal had allies who would provide them with war-material and more importantly Enes had unanimous backing from home in his venture. The 2,910 men involved in the Gaza expedition represented 14% of Portugal's peacetime military strength. It was the most famous of the pacification campaigns and the largest sent overseas by Portugal since the independence of Brazil.
The king of Maputo had agreed to participate in the Gaza campaign with his warriors in exchange for a large supply of modern rifles but after receiving the weapons he deserted. Once Gaza was annexed and most of the Portuguese troops had returned home, the king turned hostile and threatened the Catholic missionaries in his kingdom, so Governor-General Joaquim da Graça had Mouzinho de Albuquerque annex the territory in the Maputo campaign.
The years following the Gaza campaign were marked by drought and disease in the region. Maguiguana still led a revolt against Portuguese authority in an attempt to restore Vatua power but he was defeated at the Battle of Macontene in July 1897.
The pacification of Zambezia
Once Gaza was occupied, Portugal focused on pacifying the Zambezi valley, where the Zambezi Wars had been going on for some decades already between African kinglets, warlords or bandits, Afro-Portuguese landowners and the Portuguese government. Unlike Gaza however, the region was fragmented into a multitude of small states and the geography favored guerrilla, hence its pacification required numerous small campaigns and was much more difficult. Resistance in the Zambezi valley at first was taken up by rogue Afro-Portuguese prazeiros, seventeenth-century creations of the Portuguese Crown whose ruling families had "gone native".The Portuguese government employed few regular army soldiers in the Zambezi valley and relied mainly on sipaios to pacify the region. The sipaios were an African militia created in 1892 to integrate former slaves or chikunda, and to establish control over the interior, as Lisbon was by that point focused elsewhere. They knew the terrain and were immune to malaria, which ravaged European troops. Gunboats sailing up the river would also play an important part. Deep-rooted animosity between the various peoples of Zambezia prevented a united front, while some actively supported the Portuguese in exchange for protection against enemy raids and banditry. Portugal further benefitted from the allegiance of powerful prazeiros, chief among them Manuel António de Sousa, who also held the rank of captain-major in the Portuguese colonial army.
In the far western hinterland of Mozambique around Zumbo, the Afro-Portuguese warlords Kanyemba and Matakenya had established a number of stockades from which they raided and extracted tribute from the sorrounding tribes with their bands of chikunda followers, however both the warriors as well as the peasantry were subject to brutal treatment, afforded little compensation and ruled largely by fear, which led to resentment, defection and revolt. When Matakenya began attacking allies tribes of Portugal, the government intervened against him. Squeezed between the Portuguese and the British, Matakenya drew together a smal number of Nsenga, Chewa and Tawara chieftaincies and other small minor warlords into a coalition, but with his death in 1893 the alliance fell apart.
The hinterland of Massingire had fallen under the control of the rebel leader Marenga since 1887. He had allied with the Makololo and together they raided isolated Portuguese plantations, outposts and warehouses in the regions of Cheringoma and Gorongosa. In 1891 they received support from Maganja da Costa, an independent republic notable for the sophisticated organization of its troops. Portuguese authorities worried that Marengas activities might cause a widespread revolt in the north bank of the Zambezi. When Manuel António de Sousa perished in combat the following year, a great number of sipaios in his service defected, led by Sousas captains, chief among them Cambuemba. They established themselves as independent warlords across Gorongosa and the Zambezi valley and they commanded numerous stockades from which they raided the sorrounding territory and extracted tribute from the peasantry, but they proved unable to find common ground among themselves or with neighbouring kings. Mozambique experienced a level of banditry it had not seen since the great drought in the 1820s, and anarchy prevailed for the next five years. It became increasingly clear that stabilizing the region would require assertion by the central authority, and João de Azevedo Coutinho was commissioned to carry out that task. He was one of the most effective officials to serve in Mozambique and by June 1897 he had cleared the valley of bandit stockades loyal to Cambuemba with an army recruited north of the Zambezi.
In 1898, Coutinho led a campaign against Maganja da Costa with over 6000 men, the vast majority of them sipaios and auxiliaries. The republic capitulated and it was annexed on 17 June 1898. It was the last of the former Crown prazos to be pacified. Massingire was fully pacified on the occasion.
Elsewhere, in 1899 navy officer António Júlio de Brito led a small expedition that succeeded in annexing the kingdom of Angónia, which was experiencing a succession crisis at the time. Brito was elected king by its inhabitants on the occasion, and between March and May 1902 he led over 290 sipaios and 3000 nguni warriors on a campaign against the kingdom of Macanga, which was annexed.
The Kingdom of Barue was at the center of anti-Portuguese activity in Mozambique and its king actively supplied African rebels with weapons and troops, while the alliances he cultivated threatened Portuguese sovereignty over the Zambezi valley. It was located on the border with Rhodesia and therefore of strategic importance. Coutinho organized a campaign involving 1000 soldiers, of which 500 were drawn from the metropolitan army, and 15,000 sipaios. The conquest of Barue in 1902 was Portugals most well organized campaign in Mozambique and the biggest in Zambezia. Modern weaponry such as Maxim guns allowed the Portuguese to secure the territory in three months. The Portuguese navy was particularly important for the transportation of men, animals, machinery and provisioning to advanced posts inland, whilst protecting the rear lines.
Two hundred kilometers west of Tete, José Rosário de Andrade, better known as Kanyemba had built a stockade from which he had raided the sorrounding countryside since the 1870s, with a force estimated at 1000 rogue chikunda. After Andrade died in the late 19th century, the Portuguese defeated his forces and pacified the region in 1903.
The occupation of northern Mozambique
The occupation of northern Mozambique was also slow and difficult. Portugal faced a coalition of peoples that included the Swahili states on the coast, allied to Macua kings, to resist Portuguese expansionism and preserve the slave trade. The Yao were also well-armed, notoriously involved in the slave trade and prepared to wage a guerrilla war. Nevertheless, the Portuguese would find ready allies in other Macua kings that hoped to bring an end to the slaving that depopulated the region.In 1895, Portugal held the settlements of the Island of Mozambique, Mossuril, Cabaceira, Natule, Parapato, Sangage, Mogincual and Infusse along the northern coast. The conquest of Gaza had brought ambitious officials and more European regulars to the territory, which despite their small number was a notable development. Even so, the occupation of the region would rely heavily on African sipaios and auxiliaries. Deficient logistics in this theater caused great losses on European troops due to gastrointestinal diseases and poor sanitary conditions, which modern medicine proved insufficient to prevent.
As governor-general of Mozambique, Mouzinho de Albuquerque led a campaign against the Namarrais in 1897, however this tribe proved skillful at mounting ambushes and operations were quickly suspended. Portugals main enemy south of the Lúrio River however was the Sultanate of Angoche, an important slaving centre that resisted the ban on the trafficking of people. Farelay, a powerful member of the royal family, forged numerous alliances with local Macua kings to attack Portuguese territory and preserve the slave trade, from which he derived major profits. In 1904, Mossuril was attacked, and the following year Portuguese columns began to systematically march into the African hinterland. Angoche was conquered in 1910 by the forces of Pedro Massano de Amorim, and Farelay was arrested, along with Sultan Ibrahimo and king Guernea-Muno. Once Angoche was annexed, at least 87 Macua lords recognised Portuguese sovereignty. From then on, Portuguese troops began to receive help from Macua lords who resisted the Swahili slavers established along the coast. The Namarrais were pacified by the Portuguese in 1913 through a series of alliances forged with local neighbouring tribes, and this year the region between the Zambezi and the Lúrio was fully occupied.
The region between the Lúrio and the Ruvuma River had been leased to the Niassa Company in 1890. However, Yao king Mataca Bonomali blocked access from the sea to Lake Malawi and attacked Nyasaland, which led to complaints in Lisbon. The Portuguese feared British military intervention in the region and so a major campaign was launched against the Yao between 10 June and 21 November 1899, involving 312 regulars and 2,800 sipaios. The sipaios and local auxiliaries fought effectively against the Yao, but Mataca Bonomali avoided capture and adopted guerrilla warfare. In 1900, the Portuguese occupied Metarica and founded Fort Dom Luís Filipe. In 1901, Mataca Bonomali attacked the lands of the lords who had accepted Portuguese authority, and in November 1903, the Yao attacked Fort Dom Luís Filipe. Between 1908 and 1910, the hinterland of Ibo and Quissanga da Praia was occupied. In 1910, the Yao of Macaloe were pacified. In 1912, the Niassa Company defeated Mataca Bonomali and began to exercise administrative and fiscal control in Niassa. However, the Makonde remained independent.
The outbreak of World War I pitted the Portuguese against the Germans on opposite sides of the Rovuma and led to the dispatch of new contingents of soldiers to the territory. Portugal occupied the Kionga Triangle on 10 April 1916 and the Mueda Plateau between April and July 1917, with a force of 2,000 Makua auxiliaries. Also in 1917, the Barue uprising took place and while it lasted, the Germans invaded Mozambique with 300 soldiers and 1,700 askari, which prompted some Yao and Makua lords to revolt as well, but once the Germans withdrew, the Portuguese pacified the territory.
Portugal is estimated to have invested more than 7,000 European soldiers, 9,000 African soldiers, 74,000 sipaios and 100,000 allied native warriors in the occupation of Mozambique from 1854 until World War I, the troops of African origin accounting for 95% or more of the total, which lead some authors to comment that "Mozambique conquered itself".
Angola
Angola had always been the focus of greater attention and investment by the Portuguese government than any other territory in Africa. At the time of Brazil's independence, Portuguese authority in Angola did not extend beyond Ambriz to the north, Cabo Negro to the south, and Pungo Andongo in the east, while in the interior it manifested chiefly through trade and diplomatic relations with local African kings. Portuguese forces in Angola were divided between a first line of professional European or African soldiers, a second line of European, free African or mestiços militiamen, and auxiliary warriors provided by allied or vassal kings.Beyond the fact that no chartered companies operated in Angola, the occupation of its territory did not differ greatly from Mozambique. Angola was occupied gradually and involved more than 180 small campaigns. Some were large-scale, such as the Cuamatos Campaign in 1907, led by Alves Roçadas and the Dembos Campaign in 1907-1909, undertaken by João de Almeida.
Boer settlers would play an important role in the Portuguese occupation of southern Angola, for both good and bad reasons. They first settled in the Moçamedes plateau in 1882 or slightly before. They were an enterprising community that built flourishing transport businesses in the southern highlands with their great ox wagons. They also often cooperated with the Portuguese Armed Forces as mercenaries. On the other hand, they proved to be a distabilizing force that hostilized both Portuguese and Africans just as often, forcing the Portuguese state to mobilize troops to the area, namely the Moçâmedes Dragoon Company.
The occupation of the interior
In the north of Angola, Portugal was awarded Cabinda along with the left bank of the Congo River at the Berlin Conference and afterwards Ambrizete was occupied in 1886.In the south, Huíla was the epicentre of Portuguese authority, and Portuguese priorities were to counteract German influence emanating from German South West Africa. Boer refugees from the First Anglo-Boer War helped push the frontier southwards with their great Ox-wagons but this also brought about conflict with the Ovambo. An expedition led by Artur de Paiva set out from Huíla to found the forts Princesa Amélia and Dona Maria close to two strategic fording points on the Cubango River, and put an end to Ovambo raids, especially by the Cuanhamas. In 1887, the Moçâmedes Dragoon Company faced the third Humbe revolt during a cattle vaccination campaign on the lands of king Nambonga, and one of its four platoons was massacred in Jamba Camufate during a retreat in the middle of the rainy season. The distinguished Count of Almoster was among the dead, hence news of the incident caused outrage once they reached Portugal and the region was pacified by Artur de Paiva between January and August of the following year. Fort Dona Maria was attacked by Quanhamas in 1889, but Artur de Paiva pacified them after a 24-day campaign with a small detachment of troops, that included Boer mercenaries.
A third front was opened in the centre in 1890, directed at the Central Plateau. Early in that year, the king of Viye issued an ultimatum of his own at Portugal and humilliated the renowned explorer Silva Porto, who committed suicide on the occasion, both of which caused a clamor in Portugal and resulted in the conquest of Viye by Artur de Paiva between October and December. Fort Silva Porto was established at Cuíto and the kingdom annexed, the same happening to the Kingdom of Bailundo the following year. Still in 1891, the border with the Congo Free State in the Lunda region to the northeast was settled diplomatically and once this was done, Portuguese authority in the north was gradually extended inland through the establishment of military, administrative or tax posts emanating from Malange.
The kingdom of Humbe had been hostile since 1887, but it was pacified in 1898 following a seven-month campaign also led by Artur de Paiva, who suffered considerable casualties as it was carried out during the rainy season.
Portuguese presence in the centre remained sparse and it was recurringly challenged by revolts, the most important of which was the Bailundo revolt in 1902. Portuguese reinforcements were rushed to the region with heavy armaments, the leader of the insurrection Mutu-a-Quebera was killed in combat and the Central Plateau was definitively pacified later that year in October.
The first major Portuguese campaign south of the Cunene River was launched in 1904 led by Alves Roçadas, whose task was to annex the hostile kingdoms of Cuamato Pequeno, Cuamato Grande and Cuanhama. It involved about 2000 men, of which roughly half were drawn from the home army but it ended in defeat at the Battle of the Cunene. The ‘Disaster of Pembe’ as it became known galvanised the Ovambo, particularly the Cuamatos, who began to attack tribes under Portuguese protection and even threatened Portuguese estates north of the Cunene. It also galvanised Portuguese public opinion however, and this forced the Portuguese government to intervene in with a new expedition in the region. While preparations were underway, the small kingdom of Mulondo was occupied in 1905, and Fort Mulondo was founded there, followed shortly afterwards by Fort Roçadas further south.
Portuguese occupation of the interior of Angola was irregular until Paiva Couceiro took office as interim governor-general. He laid out a plan to systematically chart, occupy and garrison the entire territory along six axis, using the railroads of Luanda, Benguela and Môçamedes, up navigable rivers and through roads to be opened. Means were scarce however, and Portuguese troops in Angola by then numbered only 5065 men, of which only 1700 were whites. Nevertheless, the Dembos were pacified along with Libolo, while hundreds of kilometers or railroad tracks or roads were opened across the interior. On August 26 1907 Alves Roçadas launched a major against the two Cuamato kingdoms, which were annexed at the end of two months of fierce combat. Five forts were built in the region, one on the banks of the Cunene and four in the Cuamatos region. Nevertheless, the Cuanhamas and Cuamatos joined forces with the Germans and continued to organise guerrilla warfare against the Portuguese and their allies. The Solongo continued to resist in the northeast however. Couceiro quit in 1909 and although he did not fulfill the entirety of his plan, his short two-year term was considered of the most noteworthy in the history of Portuguese Angola. He was compared to Hubert Lyautey, Joseph Gallieni or Frederick Lugard. His plan would be followed in the coming decades.
In 1909, João de Almeida annexed the Kingdom of Cuanhama with a contingent of 2,150 men and founded the forts Dom Manuel and Henrique Couceiro
The Portuguese reached Cassai in 1912, thus completing the occupation of the northeast. The following year, a revolt led by Álvaro Tulante Buta broke out in the Kingdom of Kongo against the traditional government, and this incident resulted in the partition of Kongo between Portugal and Belgium.
Withdrawal from the south
Portuguese Angola bordered German South West Africa to the south. After the outbreak of World War I, the Cuangar fort was attacked on 31 October 1914 by German forces. The same then happened at the fort of Naulila on 18 December, where 69 Portuguese were killed and 36 taken prisoner in the Naulila Incident.After the attack on Naulila, Alves Roçadas ordered a withdrawal from southern Angola and the establishment of a new line of defence in Gambos in anticipation for a major German offensive. Such an offensive never materialized but the attack on Naulila resulted in the complete and final cutting of communications and supplies to German South West Africa from Angola, isolating the territory that the Royal Navy had already blockaded by sea.
The withdrawal of Portuguese troops allowed the Ovambo to revolt and also turn their weapons towards eachother in violent tribal conflict once more. The populations of Huíla revolted, causing a long crisis that would only be resolved with the arrival of a large expeditionary force commanded by General Pereira d'Eça, "the Steel General", who landed in Angola in March 1915.
Reoccupation of the south
On 7 July 1915, Portuguese forces reoccupied Humbe, encountering no resistance but struggling with a severe shortage of water. In Humbe, the land had been burned and all able-bodied men had sought refuge in Cuamatos and Cuanhama, leaving behind women and children.On 9 July, German forces commanded by General Victor Franke surrendered to General Louis Botha, commander-in-chief of the South African Union forces. General Pereira d'Eça's mission was thus reduced to the pacification of the Ovambo who had rebelled against Portuguese authority.
On 15 August, a column of General Pereira d'Eça's forces reoccupied the Cuamato fort. Between 18 and 20 August, the Battle of Môngua took place, in which the main column of the expeditionary forces, consisting of 3,000 men commanded personally by General Pereira d'Eça dispersed the Ovambo warriors led by king Mandume himself. The Ovambo numbered 15,000 Cuanhamas, 10,000 Cuamatos and 20,000 warriors from Damaraland, although estimates vary. One Portuguese officer and fifteen soldiers died in combat, while six officers and twenty-four soldiers were wounded. On Mandume's side, an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 were killed.
On 4 September, Pereira d'Eça occupied Ondjiva, capital of the Cuanhama kingdom, without resistance. With Humbe, Cuamatos, Evale and Cuanhama reoccupied, the rebellion was quelled and a period of peace ensued which would last for more than 40 years after Mandume's death in 1917.
Timor-Leste
The pacification campaigns were not limited to Africa but also extended to Timor. At the end of the 19th century, the island of Timor was divided into numerous independent kingdoms, each subdivided into clans, that often fought each other or among each other to capture slaves, cattle, and prizes such as enemy heads, the cutting of which was a ritual of warrior consecration, and which could be offered to the ruler in exchange for gifts. People considered to have become possessed by an evil spirit would be impaled or buried alived along with their family and their property confiscated by relatives, until the Portuguese forbade this practice and also that of human sacrifice. Timorese kings and vassals were all connected by marriages or blood oaths, alliances between kingdoms were unstable and opportunistic, rebellions by warrior clans frequent and when kings provided the Portuguese with contingents of warriors they were known to provide some to their enemies as well.Portuguese rule in Timor was limited to Dili and a few military posts established in allied kingdoms along the coast, seven in the north and three in the south, while the interior belonged to native Timorese kings. As in other overseas provinces, Portuguese forces in Timor were divided in a first line of a few European soldiers, officers, column commanders, sergeants and artillerymen and a second line of Portuguese or Timorese moradores militiamen on foot or horseback, trained by European sergeants and commanded by Timorese officers. In times of war, native Timorese kings loyal to Portugal would lead their warriors on campaign. The occupation of the territory was carried out between 1894 and 1908 through more than twenty campaigns carried out with few soldiers, mostly during the tenure of José Celestino da Silva, who resorted to alliances with native Timorese kings supportive of Portuguese sovereignty against hostile ones.
The first campaign targeted the kingdoms of Lamaquitos, Suai, Raimean and Cailaco, and owed its success to the support provided by the warriors of kings allied to Portugal. The second one was launched on 24 May 1895 against the kingdoms of Cailaco, Obulo, Marobo, Atabai, Balibó and Fatumean, which were found to have revolted with the encouragement of Chinese merchants resentful of tighter controls on smuggling and weapons trafficking by Portuguese authorities. The third war broke out in August 1895 against the kingdom of Manufahi, and it involved more than 12,000 Timorese auxiliaries. It ended on 28 October after several Portuguese soldiers were killed in an ambush.
In July 1896, Batugadé was occupied and then a campaign was carried out against Dato-Talo, involving 208 soldiers, four cannon, artillerymen, officers, 560 militiamen and 7,558 Timorese auxiliaries. The heaviest fighting of the pacification campaigns in Timor took place that year between early September and 5 October, on the Deribate escarpment in the sacred forest of Talo, involving around 3,000 Timorese moradores. They were led by the Portuguese alferes Francisco Duarte, a war-hero of the campaigns in Timor and known among the Timorese as Arbiru. The border with Dutch territory was declared occupied on 23 October. Duarte served more than one governor in five major campaigns. Legends circulated in Kemak lore that he could only be killed by a golden bullet, but he died in combat on 17 July 1899 and was laid to rest in Santa Cruz cemetery, where his mausoleum remains. A stone would be erected in his honor at the site of his death in Bobonaro in 1959.
The definitive pacification of Timor took place during the term of governor Filomeno da Câmara de Melo Cabral, the first governor of Timor after the establishment of the republic, during whose time the Dutch attempted to occupy Lakumara and the Manufahi revolt broke out.
Guinea-Bissau
Guinea had historically been part of the province of Cape Verde, but after the Bolol disaster, Portugal detached Guinea from Cape Verde on 18 March 1879. Bolama was chosen as the capital but Portugal also held the settlements of Ziguinchor, Cacheu, Farim, Bissau, and Geba in the region. Once the new province was created, all 250 soldiers of the 1st Cape Verdean Caçadores Battalion were transferred to Guinea.From then on, the Portuguese abandoned their policy of trade and neutrality and became more deeply involved in the region, by that time devastated by inter-ethnic and religious conflict. Campaigns in Guinea aimed at pacifying the numerous ethnic groups that attacked Portuguese towns, establishing protectorates over native rulers and collecting taxes. Multiple operations followed against the Biafada in Djabadá, the Papel in Bissau and Biombo, the Balanta in Nhacra, and the Manjacos in Caió. In May 1881, Governor Agostinho Coelho signed a protectorate treaty with the Nalus kings around the Tombali River and thus annexed the southern coast of Guinea.
The boundaries of Guinea-Bissau were settled by the Franco-Portuguese Convention of 1886.
The years between 1879 and 1891 were marked by amphibious and riverside campaigns. The Portuguese carried out 22 campaigns in coastal areas, each involving an average of 100 soldiers, usually supported by gunboats and thousands of auxiliaries, against the Bijago, Biafada, Papel, Balanta and Fula, who attacked Portuguese towns and resisted the payment of taxes.
From 1892 onwards, the Portuguese began to penetrate inland. All Fula kinglets recognized Portuguese aovereignty this year. This allowed the Portuguese to recruit a great number of Muslim auxiliaries, pacify the north and east of the territory, and settle the borders with French West Africa, but river navigation remained not safe. About half of Guinea remained unpacified however, and the Papel blocked the roads to Bissau. Guinean auxiliaries numbered about 1530 to 4000 men at this time, and more than 17,000 to 21,000 are estimated to have fought for Portugal by 1908.
João Teixeira Pinto was to play a decisive role the pacification of Guinea. He was an expert in the use of African auxiliaries with long years of experience in the harsh theater of southern Angola. The animist Mandinka, Manjak, Balanta, Papel and Grumete peoples were pacified between 1912 and 1915, mostly owing to the support of Cuor chief Abdul Injal and the mass recruitment of Muslim auxiliaries, led by Teixeira Pinto. This was followed by the establishment of military, administrative and tax-collecting posts across the interior, along with the construction of a network of roads. Abdul Injal had been a fervorous supporter of Portugal during these campaigns but he rebelled in 1919 and was captured. Between 1925 and 1936, the last independent animists in the northwest and in the Bijago Islands were pacified, and the last campaign of pacification took place in Canhabaque, whose inhabitants engaged in piratical acts.
Guinea proved to be the most challenging theatre of war for Portugal, and the Portuguese government invested more than 8,000 soldiers in its occupation. This was half the number used in Mozambique, a territory twenty times larger. The native kings of Guinea in turn supported Portugal with more than 40,000 auxiliary warriors, most of them Muslim Fulas, Mandingas and Biafadas.