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Lourenço Marques[lo(w)ˈɾẽsuˈmaɾkɨʃ] was a 16th-centuryPortuguese trader and coloniser.
Lourenço Marques explored the area that is nowMaputo Bay in 1544 and settled permanently in present-dayMozambique, where he spent most of his life with his indigenous wife and their children.
By order ofKing John III, Maputo Bay was namedBaía de Lourenço Marques in his honour, but this name was never in common use among the foreign community.
Maputo, the capital city ofPortuguese Mozambique since 1898, was founded asLourenço Marques before this Overseas Province ofPortugal, the so-calledPortuguese East Africa where was the seat of thegovernor-general, became independent from the colonial power in 1975: the city got its present name on 3 February 1976, giving its name to one of the six districts into which the province was divided.[1][2]
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