Map - Benguela Province (Benguela)

Benguela Province (Benguela)
Benguela (Luombaka Volupale) is a province of Angola, situated in the west of the country. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean, and borders the provinces of Cuanza Sul, Namibe, Huila, and Huambo. The province has an area of 39826 km2 and its capital is Benguela. According to the 2014 census, there were 2,231,385 inhabitants in the province. The current governor of Benguela is Isaac dos Anjos.

In the 16th-century there existed a Kingdom of Benguela. Its ruler first contacted agents of the Portuguese government in 1586 after Dias de Novais had defeated the forces of the ruler of Ndongo. A Portuguese attempt to contact the rulers of Benguela failed in 1587.

As of 1600 the ruler of Benguela was Hombi a Njimbe (sometimes Anglicized as Hombiangymbe). The kingdom at that time stretched from the headwaters of the Cuvo River to the Longa River, covering the northwestern highlands of what is today Angola. This area at the time was primarily Umbundu speaking.

The Portuguese crown created the Kingdom of Benguela in 1615 to improve the conditions to develop the desired land route to Mozambique across Africa. The trading post founded here did not meet the expectations of the Portuguese in mineral resources and soil quality, so a village was only established for the slave trade, under the name of Mbaka. With the era of imperialist efforts of European countries to acquire colonies in Africa, at the end of the 19th century, Portugal increased its presence in the region in order to protect them from the advances of the German Empire and other states. Even before the Berlin Congo Conference in 1884–85, when European powers divided up the African colonial territories among themselves, Portugal had strengthened its colonial administration as early as 1869, and divided the three districts of Luanda, Benguela and Moçâmedes (now Namibe). From 1903, the Benguela Railway was built connecting the port of Lobito to Belgian Congo, which led to the growing importance of the port and industries emerged, particularly the processing of sisal fiber, which contributed to the development of district of Benguela. By 1912, the Benguela Railway had reached Huambo from Lobito, and the line was eventually completed in 1929. Mostly after 1938, Benguela city's rubber and ivory trade made it a "relevant commercial warehouse".

Since the 1960s, with increased competition in the sisal trade worldwide, rich fish stocks off the coast have been one of the principal economic drivers of the region. From the late 1960s the population structure has changed, partly due to the regional economic upheaval, the massive emigration of European settlers to the Angola when it became independent in 1975, and the influx of many IDPs during the Angolan Civil War (1975–2002); 1988 figures put the displaced population in the province at 21,478, living in nine camps.

 
Map - Benguela Province (Benguela)
Map
Country - Angola
Flag of Angola
Angola (Ngola, ), officially the Republic of Angola (República de Angola, Repubilika ya Ngola), is a country located on the west-central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) country in both total area and population (behind Brazil in both cases), and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is 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 most populous city is Luanda.

Angola has been inhabited since the Paleolithic Age. Its formation as a nation-state originates from Portuguese colonisation, which initially began with coastal settlements and trading posts founded in the 16th century. In the 19th century, European settlers gradually began to establish themselves in the interior. The Portuguese colony that became Angola did not have its present borders until the early 20th century, owing to resistance by native groups such as the Cuamato, the Kwanyama and the Mbunda.
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AOA Angolan kwanza Kz 2
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PT Portuguese language
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  •  Democratic Republic of the Congo 
  •  Namibia 
  •  Republic of the Congo 
  •  Zambia 
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