Battle of Katole

Last updated
Battle of Katole
Date4 September 1681
Location
Katole, Angola
Result Portuguese Tactical victory; Matamba Strategic victory
Belligerents
Kingdom of Matamba Flag Portugal (1667).svg Portuguese Empire
Commanders and leaders
King Francisco Guterres Ngola kannini † Captain Luís Lopes de Sequeira †
Strength
Unknown infantry 530 Portuguese infantry
37 cavalry
10,000 empacaceiros. [1]
Casualties and losses
Unknown but substantial Unknown but substantial

The Battle of Katole was a military engagement between forces of Portuguese Angola and the Kingdom of Matamba. The battle took place on 4 September 1681 at Katole in what is today Angola. It was one of the largest military engagements anywhere in the world during the 17th century.[ citation needed ]

Portuguese Angola 1575-1975 Portuguese possession in West Africa

Portuguese Angola refers to Angola during the historic period when it was a territory under Portuguese rule in southwestern Africa. In the same context, it was known until 1951 as Portuguese West Africa.

Kingdom of Matamba former country

The Kingdom of Matamba (1631–1744) was a pre-colonial African state located in what is now the Baixa de Cassange region of Malanje Province of modern-day Angola. It was a powerful kingdom that long resisted Portuguese colonisation attempts and was only integrated into Angola in the late nineteenth century.

Angola Country in Africa

Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a west-coast country of south-central Africa. It is the seventh-largest country in Africa, bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. Angola has an exclave province, the province of Cabinda that borders the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and largest city of Angola is Luanda.

Contents

Prelude to Battle

The kingdom of Matamba, also known as the kingdom of Matamba and Ndongo, lay in what is today eastern Angola. It was created by the warrior queen Nzinga via her 1631 conquest of the kingdom from its BaKongo vassal. Throughout the mid-17th century, Queen Nzinga fought a guerilla war against the Portuguese colony of Angola to regain her throne and protect her people, the Mbundu, from the slave trade. By 1657, the queen had regained her traditional capital and ended the wars with Angola in her favor. After her death in 1663, the kingdom she fought so hard to establish devolved into civil war. The war did not end until 1680 when Francisco Guterres Ngola kannini, Njinga's nephew, defeated one of his aunt's former commanders and became king.

Nzinga of Ndongo and Matamba 17th-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in Angola

Queen Ana Nzinga , also known as Njinga Mbande or Ana de Sousa Nzinga Mbande, was a 17th-century queen of the Ndongo and Matamba Kingdoms of the Mbundu people in Angola. Born into the ruling family of Ndongo and Matamba, Nzinga demonstrated an aptitude for defusing political crises in her capacity as ambassador to the Portuguese, and later assumed power over the kingdoms after the death of her brother.

Casus Belli

In 1681, King Francisco invaded the neighboring Imbangala kingdom of Kassanje to place his own candidate on the throne. While on campaign, he robbed the pombeiros , Afro-Portuguese slaving agents, and beheaded the kingdom's ruler. This angered the Portuguese, who had never been comfortable with an independent Matamba in the first place. The Portuguese immediately sent the victor of Mbwila, Luís Lopes de Sequeira, to crush the kingdom once and for all.

Imbangala Ethnic group

The Imbangala or Mbangala were 17th century groups of Angolan warriors and marauders who founded the Kasanje Kingdom.

Pombeiros were African and sometimes mulatto agents who purchased slaves in the African interior on behalf of the Portuguese crown or private Portuguese traders for the Atlantic slave trade. The term pombeiro comes from Pumbe, a market located by the Malebo Pool.

At the Battle of Mbwila on October 29, 1665, Portuguese forces defeated the forces of the Kingdom of Kongo and decapitated king António I of Kongo, also called Nvita a Nkanga.

The battle

On September 4, 1681, Sequeira arrived at Katole, which was but three days' march from the royal kabasa or palace. [1] He came with over ten thousand infantry and even a small complement of horses (almost unheard of in Central African warfare). He was met by King Francisco's forces sometime before dawn that day. In the course of the fighting, both Sequeira and Francisco were killed. [1] Matamba's forces retreated, and the Portuguese were able to claim at least a tactical victory by holding their position.

Aftermath

Despite taking the field, which had never been an objective in the first place, the Portuguese losses were such that the invasion of Matamba's capital was called off. After encamping at Katole for nearly thirty days, the Portuguese and their African allies retired to Mbaka under the command of João António de Brito. [1]

See also

Angola is a country in southwestern Africa. The country's name derives from the Kimbundu word for king. It was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. From the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola's independence was achieved on November 11, 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola later entered a period of civil war that lasted up until 2002.

African military systems to 1800

African military systems to 1800 refers to the evolution of military systems on the African continent prior to 1800, with emphasis on the role of indigenous states and peoples, whose leaders and fighting forces were born on the continent, with their main military bases, fortifications, and supply sources based on or deriving from the continent, and whose operations were conducted within the continental mass or close to its borders or coasts. Development of the military arts in this framework generally moved from the simple to the more sophisticated as economies and cultures became more elaborate. Areas such as Carthage, Egypt and Nubia are reflected in the antiquarian period. The pre-colonial period also saw a number of military systems- from cavalry empires on the grasslands, to kingdoms in more tropical and forested areas. The emergence of the gunpowder era, alongside developments in indigenous organization and culture, was to spark far-reaching consequences cutting across all regions, with ripple effects in culture, politics and economies.

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Kingdom of Ndongo

The Kingdom of Ndongo, formerly known as Dongo or Angola, was an early-modern African state located in what is now Angola.

Kingdom of Kongo former African kingdom located in west central Africa

The Kingdom of Kongo was a kingdom located in west central Africa in present-day northern Angola, the western portion of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo as well as the southernmost part of Gabon. At its greatest extent it reached from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Kwango River in the east, and from the Congo River in the north to the Kwanza River in the south. The kingdom consisted of several core provinces ruled by the Manikongo, the Portuguese version of the Kongo title Mwene Kongo, meaning "lord or ruler of the Kongo kingdom", but its sphere of influence extended to neighbouring kingdoms, such as Ngoyo, Kakongo, Loango, Ndongo and Matamba, the last two located in what is Angola today.

Verónica Guterres Kangala Kingwanda was the ruler of the joint kingdom of Ndongo and Matamba, 1681–1721.

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The Northern Mbundu or Ambundu are a Bantu people living in Angola's North-West, North of the river Kwanza. The Ambundu speak Kimbundu, and mostly also the official language of the country, Portuguese. They are the second biggest ethnic group in the country, with 2.4 million people in the latest count The Ambundu nowadays live in the region stretching to the East from Angola's capital city of Luanda. They are predominant in the Bengo and Malanje provinces and in neighbouring parts of the Cuanza Norte and Cuanza Sul provinces. The head of the main Mbundu kingdom was called a Ngola, which is the origin of the name of the country Angola.

Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da Montecuccolo (1621–1678) was an Italian Capuchin missionary noted for his travels in 17th century Portuguese Angola and his lengthy account of local history and culture as well as a history of the Capuchin mission there.

Mvemba a Nzinga or Nzinga Mbemba, also known as King Afonso I, was a ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo in the first half of the 16th century. He reigned over the Kongo Empire from 1509 to late 1542 or 1543.

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João I of Kongo, alias Nzinga a Nkuwu or Nkuwu Nzinga, was ruler of the Kingdom of Kongo between 1470 and 1509. He was baptized as João on 3 May 1491 by Portuguese missionaries. Due to his interest in Portugal and its culture, he initiated a major cultural initiative in 1485 upon the arrival of Diogo Cão. It was under these conditions that the first Atlantic Creole emerged, forming in both Central Africa and in Portugal.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Battell, page 177

Sources

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