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| Title: | An African Eldorado? The Portuguese Quest for Wealth and Power in Mozambique and the Rios de Cuama, c. 1661-1683 |
| Author: | Ames, Glenn J. |
| Year: | 1998 |
| Periodical: | International Journal of African Historical Studies |
| Volume: | 31 |
| Issue: | 1 |
| Pages: | 91-110 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Mozambique Portugal |
| Subjects: | colonial conquest history 1600-1699 History and Exploration colonialism |
| External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/220886 |
| Abstract: | For the Portuguese Crown, the strategic Zambezi River basin (or Rios de Cuama region, as it was known) long served as the focus of wishful speculation regarding an African 'Eldorado' overflowing with rich mineral deposits. By the mid-seventeenth century, these supposed riches were viewed as a mechanism that might help reestablish the 'golden' years of the Estado da India, the term for Lisbon's eastern overseas empire from Mozambique to Macau, administered from Goa. Serious efforts to exploit the potential of the Rios de Cuama region would have to await the accession to power of Prince Regent Pedro of Braganza and his claque in late 1667-early 1668. This article outlines Pedro's policies concerning Mozambique and the Rios. It pays special attention to the role of the Tribunal da Junta do Comércio de Moçambique e Rios, which was established in 1673, and the 1677 expedition to the region. The scattered nature of the extant sources makes it difficult to render a definitive judgment on success or failure of these initiatives, but several facts are clear. First, the influx of settlers aboard the 1677 fleet as well as ships arriving from the kingdom in 1678 and 1679 more than doubled the Portuguese population of the Rios. Second, a relatively stable trading network was indeed established in the Rios during the 1670s. Notes, ref. |
