Dimensions of colonial government in Moçâmedes and its connections with Brazil: work, business and conflicts, 1840-1860

Abstract

This article maps connections between men, knowledge and business linking Portugal, Angola and Brazil in the years 1840 to 1860. I investigated the circulation of commodities production knowledge, in order to scrutinize the practices of colonial administration, especially on the forms of recruited labor (specialized and manual) at that time for cruisers and anti-trafficking treaties. I aim to highlight the tensions, clashes and persistent modes of resistance be it by refusal to work, via escapes, institutional struggle or even war. The article is divides in four parts. Firstly I examine the circulation of ideas about military colonization during this period; then, I tried to acknowledge connections between Moçâmedes and Brazil; in a third part, I deal with the fundamental presence of freed and slave workers. Finally, I focus on continuous wars fought in the region, especially in the last years of the 1850s. Throughout the article, there are some trajectories that reveal Atlantic routes in business and colonial administration: individuals trained in the political battles of the 1820s- 1830 who took on new (old) roles in the new (old) times of colonization.

Keywords

• military colonization
• forced labour
• moçâmedes
• resistances