Dutch occupation of Angola

History of Angola
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Precolonial history (Prehistory–1575)
Colonization (1575–1641)
Dutch occupation (1641–1648)
Colonial history (1648–1951)
Portuguese overseas province (1951–1961)
War of Independence (1961–1974)
Civil War (1975–2002)
Post-war Angola (2002–present)
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In 1641, the Dutch seized Angola from the Portuguese. Dutch forces took control of Luanda and signed a treaty with Queen Nzinga of the Ndongo Kingdom. Nzinga unsuccessfully attacked the Portuguese at Massangano. She recruited new fighters and prepared to engage the Portuguese in battle again, but Salvador Correia de Sá led Portuguese forces from Brazil in expelling the Dutch and reasserting control in Angola. Nzinga's forces retreated to Matamba again.^[1]

The Dutch ruled Angola from August 26, 1641 to August 21/24, 1648, occupying the coastal areas (under a governor of Dutch West India Company) of Angola. This attack was the culmination of a plan first proposed by Kongo's King Pedro II in 1622. After the Dutch fleet under Admiral Cornelis Jol took 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. The Dutch were not interested in conquering Angola, much to the chagrin of Kongo's king Garcia 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, the agreed to reinforce Njinga's army following her defeat by Portuguese forces in 1646. At the Battle of Kombi Dutch and Njinga's armies crushed a Portuguese army and in its aftermath laid siege to Ambaca, Massangano and Muxima.^{[citation needed]}

References

1. ^ Fage, J.D.; Roland Anthony Oliver (1986). The Cambridge History of Africa. p. 354.