Governorate Loango-Angola Loango-Angola | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1641–1648 | |||||||||
 Flag  Coat of arms | |||||||||
.jpg) The city of Luanda byJohannes Vingboons (1665) | |||||||||
| Status | Dutch colony | ||||||||
| Capital | Fort Aardenburgh | ||||||||
| Common languages | Dutch (official) Kongo,Chokwe,Umbundu,Kimbundu,Ngangela,Kwanyama | ||||||||
| Religion | Dutch Reformed Traditional African religions | ||||||||
| Director | |||||||||
• 1641–1643 | Pieter Moorthamer and Cornelis Nieulant | ||||||||
• 1643–1645 | Hans Mols | ||||||||
• 1644-1647 | Heynderick van Redinckhoven | ||||||||
• 1645–1648 | Cornelis Hendrikszoon Ouwman | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 26 August 1641 | |||||||||
| 21 August 1648 | |||||||||
| Currency | Dutch guilder | ||||||||
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| Today part of | Angola Republic of the Congo | ||||||||
Loango-Angola is the name for the possessions of theDutch West India Company in contemporaryAngola and theRepublic of the Congo. Notably, the name refers to the colony that was captured from thePortuguese between 1641 and 1648. Due to the distance between Luanda andElmina, the capital of theDutch Gold Coast, a separate administration for the southern districts of Africa was established at Luanda during the period of the Dutch occupation.[1]
AfterAngola was recaptured by the Portuguese in 1648, Dutch trade with Loango-Angola did not stop, however. From about 1670 onward, the Dutch West India Company acquired slaves from theLoango region on a regular basis, and Dutch free traders continued this practice until after 1730.[2]
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| History ofAngola | ||||||||||||||||
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| Post-war Angola | ||||||||||||||||
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| Years in Angola | ||||||||||||||||
Dutch traders began trading with Loango-Angola in the early 17th century, driven south by increasing competition on theGold Coast. African traders were generally welcoming of the Dutch, who provided goods the Portuguese were not able to provide.[3] Among other things, the Dutch tradedredwood inMayumba, andivory andcopper inLoango.[4] Initially, the Dutch maintained the port city ofMpinda at the mouth of theCongo River as the southernmost border of their operations.[5]
As part of theGroot Desseyn plan, the Dutch West India Company, which had been founded in 1621, tried to capture Luanda after they hadcaptured Salvador da Bahia, the capital of Brazil. Under the leadership ofPiet Hein, a Dutch fleet tried to capture Luanda in 1624, but failed, becauseFilips van Zuylen had tried to capture the city a few months earlier as well, leading the Portuguese to build reinforcements.
After Piet Heincaptured the Spanish treasure fleet in 1628, the Dutch West India Company once again tried to set theGroot Desseyn plan in motion. With plenty of resources to pay for their military expenditure, the Dutch successfullycaptured Recife andOlinda, the core region of Brazilian sugar cane plantations, in early 1630.
In 1641, a Dutch fleet under the command ofCornelis Jol, seized Luanda from the Portuguese.[6] On 25 August 1641, the Dutch landed 2,145 troops near Luanda under the command ofCornelis Jol. Upon the Dutch arrival, 800 Portuguese, some soldiers and some civilians, fled and regrouped at Kilunda. On 19 September, the Dutch drove them from that position and forced them to fall back to the Portuguese plantations along theBengo River. The Dutch then fortified their positions along the river.
Dutch forces took control ofLuanda and signed a treaty with QueenNzinga of theNdongo Kingdom. Nzinga unsuccessfully attacked the Portuguese atFort Massangano. She recruited new fighters and prepared to engage the Portuguese in battle again, butSalvador Correia de Sá led Portuguese forces fromBrazil in expelling the Dutch and reasserting control in Angola. Nzinga's forces retreated toMatamba again.[7]
_-_Don_Miguel_de_Castro%2c_Emissary_of_Kongo_-_KMS7_-_Statens_Museum_for_Kunst.jpg)
The Dutch ruled Angola from 26 August 1641 to 21/24 August 1648, occupying the coastal areas (under aGWC governor of Angola. This attack was the culmination of a plan first proposed by Kongo's KingPedro II in 1622. After the Dutch fleet under Admiral Cornelis Joltook Luanda, the Portuguese withdrew to the Bengo River, but following the renewal of the Kongo-Dutch alliance, Bengo was attacked and subsequently Portuguese forces withdrew to Massangano.
In 1643, the Count of Sonho sent a mission to the Dutch Republic, headed by his cousin Dom Miguel de Castro.[8] The mission traveled via Dutch Brazil, where they were received byJohn Maurice of Nassau, and arrived in Flushing on 19 June 1643. De Castro sailed by yacht toThe Hague on 2 July 1643, where he had an audience with stadtholderFrederick Henry, Prince of Orange.[9]
The Dutch were not interested in conquering Angola, much to the chagrin of Kongo's KingGarcia II and Njinga who had both pressed them to assist in driving the Portuguese from the colony. However, Dutch authorities came to realize that they could not monopolize the slave trade from Angola just by holding Luanda and a few nearby places, and moreover, the Portuguese sent several relief expeditions to Massangano from Brazil. Consequently, in 1647, they agreed to reinforce Njinga's army following her defeat by Portuguese forces in 1646. At theBattle of Kombi Dutch and Njinga's armies crushed a Portuguese army and in its aftermath laid siege to Ambaca, Massangano and Muxima.[citation needed]
In 1648, Luanda wasrecaptured by the Portuguese.
| Capture of Luanda | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofDutch–Portuguese War | |||||||
 Capture of Luanda byCornelis Jol of theDutch West India Company in 1641 | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Dutch West India Company |  Portuguese Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Cornelis Jol | Pedro César de Meneses | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 2,145 soldiers 20 ships[10] | Unknown | ||||||
According to the instructions of John Maurice, Pieter Moorthamer and Cornelis Nieulant, who sailed with Jol's fleet, were to assume command of the civil administration once Luanda had fallen into Dutch hands.[11] Moorthamer and Nieulant, both lawyers with a degree fromLeiden University, had been members of the colonial council inDutch Brazil, the former sent out by the Zealand chamber and the latter by the Amsterdam chamber of the Dutch West India Company.[12] They assumed civil command on 29 August 1641.[11]
John Maurice had pled with the Dutch West India Company to put Luanda under his administration, but the Lords XIX eventually decided to make Loango-Angola, includingSão Tomé, a separate commandment.[13] They decided that a triumvirate of three directors consisting of Moorthamer, Nieulant, and Hans Mols would rule the colony, the latter of whom was to be dispatched from the Dutch Republic.[14] Mols had been commandant ofCape Verde and Gorée between 1632 and 1635 and chief factor inElmina, and enjoyed a great reputation as a merchant.[15]
When Mols arrived in Luanda on 12 April 1643, Pieter Moorthamer had just left for Brazil.[8] Nieulant died shortly after, on 19 June 1643.[16] This left Mols, who had little experience in Luanda, in command by himself. Mols had difficulty gaining control, with troops even disobeying his orders. The Dutch West India Company valued Mols' skills as a merchant, however, and was wary to let him go. Halfway 1644, Heynderick van Redinckhoven, who was appointed to fill up one of the directorship vacancies, arrived in Luanda to join Mols as head of the colony. Mols eventually left for Brazil on 26 January 1645, leaving only Van Redinckhoven in charge.[17] By that time, Van Redinckhoven had already asked the company directors to be retired to the Dutch Republic.[18] The Lords XIX denied this request, but appointed former envoy Cornelis Hendrikszoon Ouwman as co-director on 6 July 1645, to relieve Van Redinckhoven of some of his tasks.[19] Van Redinckhoven left Luanda in April 1647, leaving only Ouwman in charge.[20]
