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{{Short description|1588–1974 Portuguese colony in West Africa}}
{{Infobox Former Country
{{Infobox country
|native_name =Portuguese Guinea
| native_name = {{native name|pt|Província Portuguesa de Guiné}}
|conventional_long_name = Guiné Portuguesa
| conventional_long_name = Overseas Province of Guinea
|common_name = Guinea
|continent = Africa
| common_name = Guinea
|region = West Africa
| empire = Portugal
| status = Dependency of [[Portuguese Cape Verde]] (1588–1879)<br/>Colony of the [[Portuguese Empire]] (1879–1951)<br/> Overseas Province of Portugal (1951–1973)<br/>State of the [[Portuguese Empire]] (1973–1974)
|country = Guinea-Bissau
| era = [[Imperialism]]
|empire=Portugal
| year_start = 1588
|status=[[Colony]]; [[Overseas territory]]
|era = Imperialism
| year_end = 1974
| date_start =
|year_start = 1474
|year_end = 1974
| date_end = 10 September
| event_start = Founding of [[Cacheu]]
|date_start =
| event_end = Independence of [[Guinea-Bissau]]
|date_end = 10 September
| p1 = Kaabu
|event_start =
| p2 = British Guinea
|event_end = Fall of Portuguese Empire
|p1 = Kaabu
| flag_p2 = Flag of the United Kingdom.svg
|flag_p1 =
| s1 = Guinea-Bissau
|s1 = Guinea-Bissau
| flag_s1 = Flag_of_Guinea-Bissau.svg
|flag_s1 = Flag of Guinea-Bissau.svg
| image_flag = Flag of Portugal.svg
| flag_type = [[Flag of Guinea-Bissau|Flag<br>(1910–1974)]]
|image_flag = Flag of Portugal.svg
|flag = Flag of Portuguese Guinea
| image_coat = Coat of arms of Portuguese Guinea (1951-1974).svg
|image_coat = Lesser coat of arms of Portuguese Guinea.svg
| symbol = Emblem of Guinea-Bissau
|symbol = Emblem of Portuguese Guinea
| symbol_type = Coat of arms<br>(1951–1974)
|image_map = LocationGuineaBissau.svg
| image_map = LocationGuineaBissau.svg
|image_map_caption = Portuguese Guinea
| image_map_caption =
|capital = [[Bissau]] <small>([[Cacheu]] (1558-1697))</small>
| capital = [[Bolama (town)|Bolama]] (1852–1942)<br/>[[Bissau]] (1942–1974)
| national_anthem = "[[Hymno Patriótico]]" (1808–26)<br />''Patriotic Anthem''{{center|[[File:Hymno Patriotico.ogg]]}}<br>"[[Hino da Carta]]" (1826–1911)<br />''Hymn of the Charter''{{center|[[File:Hino da Carta.ogg]]}}<br>"[[A Portuguesa]]" (1911–74)<br />''The Portuguese''{{center|[[File:Hino Nacional da Republica Portuguesa.ogg]]}}
|latd=2|latm=11|lats=20|latNS=N|longd=102|longm=23|longs=4|longEW=E
| common_languages = {{ubl|[[Portuguese language|Portuguese]] (official)|[[Guinea-Bissau Creole]]|[[Balanta language|Balanta]]|[[Fula language|Fula]]|[[Mandjak language|Mandjak]]|[[Mandinka language|Mandinka]]|[[Papel language|Papel]]}}
|common_languages = [[Portuguese Language|Portuguese]]
|title_leader = Head of state
| title_leader = Monarch
|leader1 = [[Infante Pedro, Duke of Coimbra|Pedro, Duke of Coimbra]]
| leader1 = [[Philip II of Spain|Philip I of Portugal]]
|year_leader1 = [[List of Portuguese monarchs|Regent]]<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1446-48
| year_leader1 = 1588–1598
|leader2 = Américo Thomaz
| leader2 = [[Manuel II of Portugal]]
|year_leader2 = [[President of Portugal|President]]<br>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1958-61
| year_leader2 = 1908–1910
|title_representative = Governor
| title_deputy = Governor
| deputy1 = [[Baltasar Pereira de Castelo Branco]]
|representative1 = Agostinho Coelho
|year_representative1 = 1879-1881 (first)
| year_deputy1 = 1615–1619 (first)
|representative2 = Carlos Fabião
| deputy2 = [[Carlos Fabião]]
|year_representative2 = 1974-1974 (last)
| year_deputy2 = 1974 (last)
| title_representative = President
|title_deputy = Captain-major
| representative1 = [[Teófilo Braga]]
|deputy1 = Luis de Magalhães
| year_representative1 = 1910–1915
|year_deputy1 = 1640-1641 (first)
| representative2 = [[António de Spínola]]
|deputy2 = António José Cabral Vieira
| year_representative2 = 1974
|year_deputy2 = 1877-1879 (last)
|currency = [[Portuguese Guinean escudo]]
| currency = {{ubl|[[Portuguese real]] (1588–1909)|[[Portuguese Guinean real]] (1909–1914)|[[Portuguese Guinean escudo]] (1914–1975)}}
| today = [[Guinea-Bissau]]
| demonym =
| area_km2 =
| area_rank =
| GDP_PPP =
| GDP_PPP_year =
| HDI =
| HDI_year =
}}
}}


'''Portuguese Guinea''' (also '''Guinea''' or the '''Overseas Province of Guinea''') was the name for what is today [[Guinea-Bissau]] from 1446 to September 10, 1974.
'''Portuguese Guinea''' ({{langx|pt|Guiné Portuguesa}}), called the '''Overseas Province of Guinea''' from 1951 until 1972 and then '''State of Guinea''' from 1972 until 1974, was a Portuguese overseas province in [[West Africa]] from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as [[Guinea-Bissau]].


==History==
==Slave trade==
[[Image:Portugueseguineacompanyflag.svg|thumb|140px|left|The flag of the [[Guinea Company]], a Portuguese company that traded in several commodities and slaves around the Guinea coast from the 15th century.]]
[[Image:Flag of the Casa da Guiné.svg|thumb|140px|left|Flag of the [[:en:Casa da Guiné|Casa da Guiné]], a Portuguese company that traded in several commodities, including slaves, around the Guinea coast beginning in the 15th century]]
[[Image:Forte de Cacheu 4.jpg|thumb|Cacheu Fort]]
Though the [[Kingdom of Portugal]] had claimed the area four years earlier, [[Portugal|Portuguese]] explorer [[Nuno Tristão]] sailed around the coast of [[West Africa]], reaching the Guinea area in about 1450, searching for the source of [[gold]], other valuable commodities, that had slowly been trickling up into [[Europe]] via land routes for the preceding half century. Sometime later, [[African slave trade|slaves]] were also added to the list. Portuguese Guinea had been part of the [[Sahel Empire]], and the local [[Landurna]] and [[Naula]] tribes traded in [[salt]] and grew [[rice]]. Like in many other regions across Africa, powerful indigenous kingdoms along the [[Bight of Benin]] relied heavily on a [[African slave trade|long established slave trade]]. The [[Ashanti]] exploited their military predominance to bring slaves to coastal forts established first by Portugal after 1480, and then soon afterwards by the Dutch, Danish, and English. The slaving network quickly expanded deep into the Sahel, where the [[Mossi]] diverted an ancient slaving trade away from the Mediterranean towards the [[Gold Coast]].<ref>Edward Brynn, [http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/item/2008/1012/comm/brynn_slavery.html Slavery in the Sahel], [[University of North Carolina]]</ref> With the help of local tribes in about 1600, the Portuguese, and numerous other European powers, including [[France]], [[United Kingdom|Britain]] and [[Sweden]], set up a thriving slave trade along the West African coast. However, the local black African rulers in Guinea, who prospered greatly from the [[African slave trade|slave trade]], had no interest in allowing the white Europeans any further inland than the fortified coastal settlements where the trading took place. The Portuguese presence in Guinea was therefore largely limited to the port of [[Bissau]] and [[Cacheu]]. For a brief period in the 1790s the British attempt to establish a rival foothold on an offshore island, at [[Bolama]]. But by the 19th century the Portuguese were sufficiently secure in Bissau to regard the neighbouring coastline as their own special territory, also in part of present southern [[Senegal]].


The Portuguese Crown commissioned its navigators to explore the Atlantic coast of West Africa in the 1430s, to find sources of gold. At that time the gold trade was controlled by [[Morocco]]. Muslim caravans across the Sahara also carried salt, [[kola nut|kola]], textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.<ref>[[Bill Epstein|A.L. Epstein]], ''Urban Communities in Africa – Closed Systems and Open Minds'', 1964.</ref> The navigators first passed the obstruction of [[Cape Bojador]] in 1437 and were able to explore the West African coast as far as [[Sierra Leone]] by 1460 and colonize the [[Portuguese Cape Verde|Cape Verde islands]] beginning in 1456.<ref name="C.R. Boxer, 1977 pp. 26">C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415–1825, pp. 26–7, 30 London, Hutchinson & Co. {{ISBN|0-09131-071-7}}</ref>
According to the estimates of [[Hugh Thomas]], a total of 11,128,000 African slaves were delivered live to the [[New World]], including 500,000 to British North America; therefore, only 4.5% of the total African slaves delivered to the New World were delivered to British North America. Also from Hugh Thomas, the major sources of the 13 million slaves departing from Africa were [[Congo Basin|Congo]]/[[Angola]] (3 million), [[Gold Coast]] (1.5 million), [[Slave Coast]] (2 million), [[Kingdom of Benin]] to [[Calabar]] (2 million), and [[Mozambique]]/[[Madagascar]] on the east coast of Africa (1 million).<ref>[http://www.slaverysite.com/Body/maps.htm THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE AND SLAVERY IN AMERICA], NEIL A. FRANKEL</ref> A large part of all slaves imported from [[Africa]] were bound for the [[Colonial Brazil|Brazilian colonies]]. [[Cacheu]], in Guinea-Bissau, was one of the largest slave markets in Africa for a time. After the [[abolition of slavery]] in the 1830s, the slave trade went into serious decline, though a small illegal slaving operation continued. [[Bissau]], founded in 1765, became the Portuguese Guinea colony's capital. Though the coast had been under firm Portuguese control for the past four centuries, it was not until the [[Scramble for Africa]] that any interest was taken in the inland part of the colony. A large tract of land that was formerly Portuguese was lost to [[French West Africa]], including the prosperous [[Casamance River]] area, which had been a large commercial centre for the colony. Britain tried to take control of [[Bolama]], which lead to an international dispute that came close to war between Britain and Portugal until [[USA|U.S.]] president [[Ulysses S. Grant]] intervened and prevented a conflict by ruling that Bolama belonged to Portugal.


The gold ultimately came from the upper reaches of the [[Niger River|Niger]] and [[Volta River]]s and the Portuguese crown wanted to divert the gold trade to the coast. To control the gold trade, the Portuguese king ordered a castle built, called São Jorge da Mina (now [[Elmina Castle]]), on the [[Portuguese Gold Coast]] in 1482 along with other trading posts. The Portuguese government founded the [[Company of Guinea]] to trade and set the prices of goods,<ref name="C.R. Boxer, 1977 pp. 26"/> including gold and ivory, [[Melegueta pepper]] and slaves. The [[Atlantic slave trade]] transported an estimated eleven million people from Africa between 1440 and 1870, including two million from [[Senegambia]] and [[Upper Guinea]].<ref>H Thomas, (1997). ''The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440–1870'', pp. 804–5, New York (NY), Simon and Schuster, {{ISBN|0-684-81063-8}}</ref>
As with the other Portuguese territories in mainland Africa ([[Portuguese Angola]] and [[Portuguese Mozambique]]), Portugal exercised control over the coastal areas of Portuguese Guinea when first laying claim to the whole region as a colony. For the next three decades there are costly and continuous campaigns to suppress the local African rulers. By 1915 this process was complete, enabling Portuguese colonial rule to progress in a relatively unruffled state - until the emergence of nationalist movements all over Africa in the 1950s.


This area was the source of an estimated 150,000 African slaves transported by the Portuguese before 1500, mainly from Upper Guinea. Some were used to grow cotton and [[Indigofera tinctoria|indigo]] in the previously uninhabited Cape Verde islands.<ref>{{Cite web|title=History of Guinea-Bissau|publisher=HistoryWorld|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ad46|last=Bamber Gascoigne|year=2001}}</ref> Portuguese traders and exiled criminals penetrated the rivers and creeks of Upper Guinea,
Portuguese Guinea was administered as part of the [[Cape Verde]] Islands colony until 1879, when it was separated from the islands to become its own colony. At the turn of the 20th century, Portugal began a campaign against the [[animism|animist]] tribes of the interior, with the help of the coastal [[Islam]]ic population. This began a long struggle for control of both the interior and remote archipelagos: it would not be until 1936 that areas like the [[Bijagos Islands]] would be under complete government control. In 1951, when the Portuguese government overhauled the entire colonial system, all Portugal's colonies, including Portuguese Guinea, were renamed Overseas Provinces (''Províncias Ultramarinas'').
forming a [[mulatto]] population speaking a Portuguese-based [[Portuguese-based creole languages|Creole language]] as a [[lingua franca]]. However, after 1500 most Portuguese interest, both for gold and slaves, centered further south in the Gold Coast.<ref>C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, pp. 30–1</ref>
[[File:Paigcsoldiers.jpeg|thumb|left|[[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde|PAIGC]] soldiers in Guinea-Bissau]]
The fight for independence began in 1956, when [[Amílcar Cabral]] founded the ''[[Partido Africano da Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde]]'' ({{lang-pt|African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde}}), the PAIGC.


At the beginning of the 17th century, the Portuguese exported slaves from Upper Guinea from [[Santiago, Cape Verde|Santiago]] in Cape Verde, and those from the [[Gulf of Guinea]] from [[São Tomé Island]]. In the 1630s and 1640s, the Dutch drove the Portuguese from most of the Gold Coast. The Portuguese did retain a foothold at São João de Ajuda in [[Benin]], now called [[Ouidah]], since before the 1750s they preferred to acquire slaves from the Gulf of Guinea rather than Upper Guinea. In the 17th century, the French established bases at [[Saint-Louis, Senegal]], the English at [[James Island (The Gambia)|Kunta Kinteh Island]] on the [[Gambia River]] and Dutch at [[Gorée]].<ref>C.R. Boxer, (1977). ''The Portuguese seaborne empire'', pp. 97, 112, 170–2</ref>
In 1961, when a purely political campaign for independence had made predictably little progress, the PAIGC adopted [[guerrilla]] tactics. Although heavily outnumbered by Portuguese troops (approximately 30,000 Portuguese to some 10,000 guerrillas), the PAIGC had the great advantage of safe havens over the border in [[Senegal]] and [[Guinea]], both recently independent of French rule. Several communist countries supported the guerrillas with weapons and military trainning.


The very weak Portuguese position in Upper Guinea was strengthened by the first [[Marquess of Pombal]] who promoted the supply of slaves from this area to the provinces of [[State of Grão-Pará and Maranhão|Grão-Pará]] and [[Maranhão]] in northern [[Colonial Brazil|Brazil]]. Between 1757 and 1777, over 25,000 slaves were transported from the “Rivers of Guinea”, which approximated Portuguese Guinea and parts of [[Senegal]], even though this area had been largely neglected by the Portuguese for the previous 200 years. [[Bissau]], founded in 1765, became the centre of Portuguese control.<ref>C.R. Boxer, (1977). ''The Portuguese seaborne empire'', pp. 192</ref>
In 1972 Cabral sets up a government in exile in [[Conakry]], the capital of neighbouring [[Guinea]]. It was there, in 1973, that he was assassinated outside his house - just a year before a [[Carnation Revolution|left-wing military coup in Portugal]] dramatically altered the political situation.


British interest in the area led to a brief attempt in the 1790s to establish a base on the [[Bolama Island|island of Bolama]], which showed no evidence of continuous Portuguese presence. The British settlers pulled back in 1793 and the Portuguese officially occupied the island in 1837. Even after the Portuguese claim in 1837, Afro-Portuguese lived and worked there alongside Afro-British from Sierra Leone, since Britain did not relinquish its claim to Bolama until 1870.<ref>P. E. H. Hair, (1997). '"Elephants for Want of Towns": The Interethnic and International History of Bulama Island, 1456–1870', ''History in Africa'', Vol. 24, pp. 183, 186</ref>
By 1973 the PAIGC controlled most of the interior of the country, while the coastal and estuary towns, including the main populational and economic centres remained under Portuguese control. The town of [[Madina do Boe]] in the southeasternmost area of the territory, close to the border with neighbouring [[Guinea]], was the location where [[PAIGC]] guerrillas declared the [[independence]] of Guinea-Bissau on September 24, 1973. The conflict in Portuguese Guinea involving the [[PAIGC]] guerrillas and the [[Portuguese Army]] was the most intense and damaging of all [[Portuguese Colonial War]]. Thus, during the 1960s and early 1970s, Portuguese development plans promoting strong economic growth and effective socioeconomic policies, like those applied by the Portuguese in the other two theaters of war ([[Portuguese Angola]] and [[Portuguese Mozambique]]), were not possible.


The abolition of the slave trade by Britain in 1807 gave the slave traders of Guinea a virtual [[monopoly]] over the West Africa slave trade with Brazil. Although the Brazilian and Portuguese governments agreed in the 1830s to stop this traffic, it probably continued at 18th-century levels until after 1850, when the British pressured Brazil to enforce its existing ban on the import of slaves. The last significant consignment of West African slaves reached Brazil in 1852.<ref>W. G. Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975'', Manchester University Press, pp. 30–1</ref>
The war in the colonies was increasingly unpopular in Portugal itself as the people got weary of war and balked at its ever-rising expense. The war began to turn against the Portuguese, and following the [[Carnation Revolution|coup d'état in Portugal in 1974]], the new [[Movimento das Forças Armadas|left-wing revolutionary government of Portugal]] began to negotiate with the PAIGC. As his brother Amílcar had been assassinated in 1973, [[Luís Cabral]] became the first president of independent Guinea-Bissau after independence was granted on September 10, 1974.

==Later colonial period==

Britain's interest in the Upper Guinea region declined with the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and became focused on Sierra Leone after the Boloma Island settlement was abandoned. At the start of the 19th century, the Portuguese felt reasonably secure in Bissau and regarded the neighboring coastline as their own.<ref name="History of Portuguese Guinea">B Gascoigne, (From 2001, ongoing). [http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/plaintexthistories.asp?historyid=ad46 “History of Portuguese Guinea”], HistoryWorld</ref> Their control was tenuous: for much of the 19th century the Portuguese presence in Guinea was mainly limited to the rivers of Guinea, the settlements of Bissau, [[Cacheu]] and [[Ziguinchor]] (the last now in Senegal). Elsewhere it was preserved, with little official assistance, by local [[Creole people]] and [[Portuguese Cape Verde|Cape Verde]] islanders, who owned small [[plantations]] (Pontus).<ref>J. L Bowman (1987) “Legitimate Commerce” and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea 1840s–1880s, ''The Journal of African History'' Vol. 28 No. 1, pp 89, 96.</ref><ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', p 22</ref>

The existence of plantations run by the French and Senegalese brought a risk of French claims south of the [[Casamance River]]. After the [[Berlin Conference]] of 1885 introduced the principle of [[Uti possidetis|effective occupation]], negotiations with France led to the loss of the valuable [[Casamance]] region to [[French West Africa]]. In exchange, the French agreed to Portuguese Guinea's boundaries.<ref>J. L Bowman (1987) “Legitimate Commerce” and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea 1840s–1880s, ''The Journal of African History'' Vol. 28 No1 pp 89, 96.</ref><ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', {{nowrap|p 22}}</ref>

Portugal occupied half a dozen coastal or river bases, controlling some maritime trade, but not much of the population. However, in 1892, Portugal made Guinea a separate military district, to promote its occupation.<ref>J Barreto, (1938). ''História da Guiné 1418–1918'', Lisbon, Published by the author, p 316</ref> Had the doctrine of effective occupation been as prominent in 1870 as after 1884, Portugal might also have lost Bolama to Britain. However, Britain and Portugal agreed in 1868 to international arbitration. President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] of the United States of America acted as arbiter, and in 1870 awarded the island to Portugal.<ref>P. E. H. Hair, (1997). "Elephants for Want of Towns", p. 186.</ref>

Portugal's precarious financial position and military weakness threatened its ability to retain its colonies. In 1891, [[António José Enes]], Minister of Marine and Colonies, rationalized taxes{{clarify|date=November 2021}} and granted [[Concession (territory)|concession]]s in Guinea, mainly to foreign companies, to increase its exports.<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', pp. 82–3, 85</ref> The increased revenue was intended to fund a gradual expansion of control that would give Portugal tax revenue from trade and the indigenous people.<ref>J L Bowman, (1987). "Legitimate Commerce and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea", pp. 98–99</ref> The modest increase in government income between 1895 and 1910 did not cover the cost of the troops used to impose the taxes, however. Enes' policies largely failed; resistance continued in the interior, on the islands, and at the coast. However, once military occupation had begun, Portugal persisted, hoping for future benefits.<ref>R Pélissier, (1989). ''História da Guiné: portugueses e africanos na senegambia 1841–1936'' Volume II, Lisbon, Imprensa Universitária pp 25–6, 62–4.</ref><ref>R E Galli & J Jones (1987). ''Guinea-Bissau: Politics, economics, and society'', London, Pinter pp. 28–9.</ref>

After the Portuguese monarchy fell in 1910, the new republic set up a ministry for colonial administration. Guinea's income increased as peanut prices rose, tax collection improved and its budget showed a surplus.<ref>R Pélissier, (1989). ''História da Guiné'', pp. 140–1</ref> Between 1913 and 1915, [[João Teixeira Pinto]] used [[Askari]] troops to impose Portuguese rule and crush resistance to the [[hut tax]] by destroying villages and seizing cattle, causing many to flee to Senegal or into the forests. The cost of maintaining his forces and the resulting [[budget deficits]] led to his recall in 1915.<ref>J Barreto, (1938). ''História da Guiné'', pp. 374–6, 379–82.</ref><ref>J Teixeira Pinto ''A occupação militar da Guiné'' Lisbon 1936, Agência Geral das Colónias pp 85–6, 120</ref>

[[File:DC - Foto Serra No 129 - Avenida Carvalho Viegas - Bissau.jpg|thumb|Portuguese Guinea in the 1960s]]
Although the [[First World War]] increased world demand for tropical products and stimulated Guinea's economy, a post-war slump, and frequent political crises created a deep [[recession]]. By the [[28 May 1926 coup d'état|1926 military uprising]] in Portugal, most of Guinea was occupied, administered, and taxed, but its revenue was not enough to pay for its administration, much less to expand it.<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', pp 114–7</ref> When the ''[[Estado Novo (Portugal)|Estado Novo]]'' imposed police on the [[Bissagos Islands]] in 1935–36, it completed its control of Guinea.<ref>R Pélissier, (1989). ''História da Guiné'', pp 229–30, 251–61</ref>

Between the 1930s and 1960s, the colony was a neglected backwater, whose only economic significance was to supply Portugal with about one-third of its vegetable oil, from [[peanut]]s. It was unclear if its population of about 500,000 in 1950 was large enough to grow enough peanuts to pay for its imports and administration, and still grow food for its population.<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', pp 151–2</ref><ref>J Mettas (1984) ''La Guineé portugaise au XXe siècle'', Paris, [[Académie des sciences d'outre-mer]]. p 19</ref> In 1951, because of anti-colonialist criticism in the [[United Nations]], the Portuguese government renamed all of Portugal's colonies, including Portuguese Guinea, as overseas provinces (''Províncias Ultramarines'').<ref>G. J. Bender (1978), ''Angola Under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality'', Berkeley, University of California Press p.xx. {{ISBN|0-520-03221-7}}</ref>

Development was largely neglected before the start of the country's independence war. One paternalistic governor, [[Sarmento Rodrigues]], promised to develop agriculture, infrastructure, and health, but did little to fight the upsurge in [[African trypanosomiasis|sleeping sickness]] in the 1940s and 1950s. Guinea saw little public investment in the first Portuguese Overseas Development Plan (1953–58), and a second plan (1959–64) concentrated on its towns. Adequate rural health clinics were not provided until General [[António de Spínola|Spínola]]'s program of 1968–73. Public education provided was limited: in 1959 Guinea had some 200 primary schools with 13,500 pupils and 36 post-primary schools, mainly for the children of Portuguese citizens and urban [[assimilado]]s, with 1,300 pupils.<ref>L Bigman, (1993). ''History and Hunger in West Africa: Food Production and Entitlement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde'', Westport (Conn), Greenwood Press pp 30–2. p 20.</ref><ref>R J Hammond, (1962). ''Portugal's African Problem: Some Economic Facets'', New York 1962, Carnegie Endowment for Peace Occasional Paper No 2 pp 29–33</ref> These schools were never particularly accessible to native inhabitants, and only around nineteen percent of school-age children attended primary school.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mendy|first=Peter Karibe|date=2003|title=Portugal's Civilizing Mission in Colonial Guinea-Bissau: Rhetoric and Reality|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3559318|journal=The International Journal of African Historical Studies|volume=36|issue=1|pages=35–58|doi=10.2307/3559318|jstor=3559318|issn=0361-7882}}</ref> Literacy rates suffered, with an estimated 99 percent of the population illiterate in 1950, making Guinea the most illiterate Portuguese territory in Africa.<ref>{{Cite book|author=Ferreira, Eduardo de Sousa|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/780700141|title=Portuguese colonialism in Africa : the end of an era : the effects of Portuguese colonialism on education, science, culture and information|date=1974|publisher=The Unesco Press|isbn=92-3-101163-4|oclc=780700141}}</ref>

[[File:Bolama ruins.jpg|thumb|Ruins from the colonial era on the Bolama island (in recovery)]]

==Independence movement==
{{See also|Guinea-Bissau War of Independence}}
[[File:Portugal Colonial War 1970.jpg|thumb|Portuguese-held (green), disputed (yellow) and rebel-held areas (red) in Guinea, 1970]]
The fight for independence began in 1956, when [[Amílcar Cabral]] founded the ''[[African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde]]'' (PAIGC). At first, PAIGC organised a series of strikes by urban workers, especially those working in the port and river transport. But on 3 August 1959, fifty striking dockworkers were killed, and after this, the PAIGC changed strategy, avoiding public demonstrations and concentrating instead on organising the rural peasants. In 1961, after a purely political campaign for independence had made little progress, the PAIGC adopted [[guerrilla]] tactics.<ref name="H Chilcote, 1977 pp. 33">R H Chilcote, (1977). Guinea-Bissau's Struggle: Past and Present, Africa Today, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 33–4.</ref>

While heavily outnumbered by Portuguese troops (approximately 30,000 Portuguese to some 10,000 guerrillas), the PAIGC had safe havens over the border in [[Senegal]] and [[Guinea]], both recently independent of French rule. The conflict in Portuguese Guinea between the [[PAIGC]] guerrillas and the [[Portuguese Army]] was the most intense and damaging of the [[Portuguese Colonial War]], and several communist countries supported the guerrillas with weapons and military training.<ref name="H Chilcote, 1977 pp. 33"/>

In 1972 Cabral set up a government in exile in [[Conakry]], the capital of neighbouring [[Guinea]]. He was assassinated there outside his house, on 20 January 1973.<ref>G. Houser and L. W. Henderson, (1973) In Memory of Amilcar Cabral: Two Statements, Africa Today Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 3.</ref>

By 1973 the PAIGC controlled most of the interior of the country, while the coastal and estuary towns, including the main population and economic centres remained under Portuguese control. The PAIGC guerrillas declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on September 24, 1973, in the town of [[Madina do Boe]] in the southeasternmost area of the territory, near the border with neighbouring [[Guinea]].<ref name="History of Portuguese Guinea"/>

After the [[Carnation Revolution]] military coup in [[Lisbon]] on 25 April 1974, the new revolutionary leaders of Portugal and the PAIGC signed an accord in [[Algiers]], in which Portugal agreed after a series of diplomatic meetings to remove all troops by the end of October and to officially recognize the government of the [[Republic of Guinea-Bissau]] controlled by the PAIGC, on 26 August 1974.<ref name="Lloyd-Jones, Stewart p. 22">Lloyd-Jones, Stewart, and Costa Pinto, António (2003), ''The last empire: thirty years of Portuguese decolonization'', Portland, Oregon: Intellect Books, {{ISBN|1-84150-109-3}}, p. 22</ref> Demobilized by the departing Portuguese military authorities after the 1974 [[Carnation Revolution]] in Lisbon and the independence of Portuguese Guinea, a total of 7,447 Guinea-Bissauan African soldiers who had served in Portuguese native commando forces and militia were summarily executed by the PAIGC.<ref name="Lloyd-Jones, Stewart p. 22"/><ref>PAIGC, Jornal Nô Pintcha, 29 November 1980: In a statement in the party newspaper '' Nô Pintcha'' (''In the Vanguard''), a spokesman for the PAIGC revealed that many of the ex-Portuguese indigenous African soldiers that were executed after cessation of hostilities were buried in unmarked collective graves in the woods of [[Cumerá]], [[Portogole]], and [[Mansabá]].</ref><ref name="Munslow, Barry 1981 pp. 109-113">Munslow, Barry, ''The 1980 Coup in Guinea-Bissau'', Review of African Political Economy, No. 21 (May–Sep., 1981), pp. 109–113</ref> [[Marcelino da Mata]], a Portuguese Army officer born in Portuguese Guinea,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/marcelino-da-mata-as-memorias-foram-enterradas-vivas-e-nunca-foi-feito-o-funeral--13356094.html|title=Marcelino da Mata. "As memórias foram enterradas vivas e nunca foi feito o funeral"|website=www.dn.pt}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.dn.pt/sociedade/marcelo-e-varias-patentes-militares-no-funeral-de-marcelino-da-mata-13354193.html|title=Marcelo e várias patentes militares no funeral de Marcelino da Mata|website=www.dn.pt}}</ref> known for bravery and heroism in the [[Portuguese Colonial War]], who had participated in 2412 commando operations and became the most decorated Portuguese military officer in the history of the [[Portuguese Army]],<ref>{{cite web
| url=http://ultramar.terraweb.biz/Imagens/guine_TEN%20COR%20Marcelino%20da%20Mata_biografia.htm
| title=Dos Combatentes do Ultramar
| access-date=2009-11-06
| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090406090812/http://ultramar.terraweb.biz/Imagens/guine_TEN%20COR%20Marcelino%20da%20Mata_biografia.htm
| archive-date=2009-04-06
}}</ref> managed to escape this fate only because he was in [[mainland Portugal]] for medical care.


==Economy==
==Economy==
{{main|Economic history of Portugal}}
{{main|Economic history of Portugal}}
===Early colonialism===
From the viewpoint of European history the Guinea Coast is associated mainly with [[slavery]]. Indeed one of the alternative names for the region is the [[Slave Coast]]. When the Portuguese first sailed down the [[Atlantic]] coast of [[Africa]] in the 1430s, they were interested in [[gold]]. Ever since [[Mansa Musa]], king of the [[Mali Empire]], made his pilgrimage to [[Mecca]] in 1325, with 500 slaves and 100 camels (each carrying gold) the region had become synonymous with such wealth. The trade from [[sub-Saharan Africa]] was controlled by the [[Islamic Empire]] which stretched along Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the [[Sahara]], which had existed for centuries, involved [[salt]], [[kola]], [[textiles]], [[fish]], [[grain]], and [[slaves]].<ref>A.L. Epstein, Urban Communities in Africa - Closed Systems and Open Minds, 1964</ref> As the Portuguese extended their influence around the coast, [[Mauritania]], [[Senegambia]] (by 1445) and [[Guinea]], they created [[trading post]]s. Rather than becoming direct competitors to the Muslim merchants, the expanding market opportunities in [[Europe]] and the [[Mediterranean]] resulted in increased trade across the [[Sahara]].<ref>B.W. Hodder, Some Comments on the Origins of Traditional Markets in Africa South of the Sahara - Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1965 - JSTOR</ref> In addition, the Portuguese merchants gained access to the interior via the [[Senegal river|Senegal]] and [[Gambia river|Gambia]] rivers which bisected long-standing trans-Saharan routes. The Portuguese brought in [[copper]] ware, [[cloth]], [[tools]], [[wine]] and [[horses]]. Trade goods soon also included [[Armaments|arms]] and [[ammunition]]. In exchange, the Portuguese received gold (transported from mines of the [[Akan]] deposits), [[Black pepper|pepper]] (a trade which lasted until [[Vasco da Gama]] reached [[India]] in 1498) and [[ivory]].


===Early colonial economy===
[[File:Bissau geba.png|thumb|left|[[Bissau]] seen from the [[Geba river]]]]There was a very small market for African slaves as domestic workers in Europe, and as workers on the sugar plantations of the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another, along the Atlantic coast of Africa. Muslim merchants had a high demand for slaves, which were used as porters on the [[trans-Saharan route]]s, and for sale in the [[Islamic Empire]]. The Portuguese found Muslim merchants entrenched along the African coast as far as the [[Bight of Benin]].<ref>H. Miner, The City in Modern Africa - 1967</ref> Before the arrival of the Europeans, the [[African slave trade]], centuries old in Africa, is not yet the major feature of the coastal economy of Guinea. The expansion of trade occurs after the Portuguese reach this region in 1446, bringing great wealth to several local slave trading tribes. The Portuguese used slave labour to colonize and develop the previously uninhabited [[Cape Verde]] islands where they founded settlements and grew [[cotton]] and [[indigo]]. They then traded these goods, in the estuary of the [[Geba river]], for black slaves captured by other black peoples in local African wars and raids. The slaves are sold in Europe and, from the 16th century, in [[the Americas]]. The [[Company of Guinea]] was a Portuguese governative institution whose task was to deal with the [[spices]] and to fix the prices of the goods. It was called ''Casa da Guiné'', ''Casa da Guiné e Mina'' from 1482 to 1483 and ''Casa da Índia e da Guiné'' in 1499. The local African rulers in Guinea, who prosper greatly from the slave trade, have no interest in allowing the Europeans any further inland than the fortified coastal settlements where the trading takes place. The Portuguese presence in Guinea is therefore largely limited to the port of [[Bissau]].
In the 1430s trade from West Africa was controlled by Muslim states on Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the [[Sahara]], which had existed for centuries, transported salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.<ref>[[Bill Epstein|A.L. Epstein]], ''Urban Communities in Africa – Closed Systems and Open Minds'', 1964</ref>


As the Portuguese extended their influence along the coasts of [[Mauritania]], [[Senegambia]] by 1445 and [[Guinea]], they created [[trading post]]s. Rather than directly competing with the Muslim traders, they increased trade across the Sahara.<ref>B.W. Hodder, Some Comments on the Origins of Traditional Markets in Africa South of the Sahara – ''Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers'', 1965 – JSTOR</ref>
===Colonial era===
[[File:Flag of Portuguese Guinea (1932 proposal).svg|thumb|Proposed flag for Portuguese Guinea (1932)]]
For a brief period in the 1790s the [[United Kingdom|British]] attempt to establish a rival foothold on an offshore island, at [[Bolama]], but by the 19th century the Portuguese are sufficiently secure in Bissau to regard the neighbouring coastline as their own special territory. It is therefore natural for Portugal to lay claim to this region, soon to be known as Portuguese Guinea, when the European [[scramble for Africa]] begins in the 1880s. Britain's interest in the region has declined since the ending of the British slave trade in 1807. After the abolition of slavery in the Portuguese overseas territories in the 1830s, the slave trade definitely went into serious decline. So Portugal's main rivals are the French, their energetic colonial neighbours along the coast on both sides - in Senegal and in the region which now becomes French Guinea. The Portuguese presence in Guinea is not disputed by the French. The only point at issue is the precise line of the borders. This is established by agreement between the two colonial powers in two series of negotiations, in 1886 and 1902-5. Until the end of the 19th century, rubber was the main export.
There was only a very small market for African slaves as domestic workers in Europe, and as workers on the sugar plantations of the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Portuguese found Muslim traders entrenched along the African coast as far as the [[Bight of Benin]], and Muslim merchants had a high demand for slaves to serve as porters on the [[trans-Saharan route]]s, and to sell in the Islamic Empire.<ref>H. Miner, ''The City in Modern Africa'' – 1967</ref>
[[File:Flag_of_Portuguese_Guinea_(proposal).svg|thumb|Proposed flag for Portuguese Guinea (1965)]]
For most of the period of Portuguese involvement, the people of Portuguese Guinea were [[subsistence agriculture|subsistence farmers]]. By the 19th century, the coastal [[Balanta people]], who lived outside Portuguese control, had developed a sophisticated agricultural system, growing paddy-rice in reclaimed coastal swamps. Much of this rice was exported to surrounding territories, particularly after indigenous rice was replaced by imported varieties. The Balanta also participated in the slave trade in this period.<ref>W Hawthorne, (2003). ''Planting Rice and Harvesting Slaves: Transformations along the Guinea-Bissau coast'', 1400–1900, Portsmouth (NH), pp 184–7.</ref> Another crop developed in this period was peanuts, and peanut exports from Portuguese Guinea began in the mid-19th century. As intensive plantation cultivation led to reduced soil fertility, peanuts were normally grown by peasants in Portuguese-controlled areas, who mixed them with food crops and maintained [[:wikt:fallow|fallow]] periods.<ref>G E Brooks, (1975). Peanuts and Colonialism: Consequences of commercialisation in West Africa, ''Journal of African History'' Vol. 16 No 1 pp 37–42, G E Brooks, (1975). Peanuts and Colonialism: Consequences of Commercialisation in West Africa, ''Journal of African History'' Vol. 16 No 1 pp 37–42</ref>


===As an overseas province===
===Later colonial economy===
[[File:1973Babadinca0048.jpg|thumb|250px|A Portuguese landing craft in Portuguese Guinea, 1973]]
In 1951, when the Portuguese government overhauled the entire colonial system, all Portugal's colonies, including Portuguese Guinea, were renamed Overseas Provinces (''Províncias Ultramarinas''). New infrastructures were built for education, health, agriculture, transportation, commerce, services, and administration. [[Cashew]], [[peanut]], [[rice]], [[timber]], [[livestock]] and fish were the main economic productions. The port of Bissau was one of the main employers and a very important source of taxes for the province's authorities.


Before the Estado Novo period, Portugal was weak internationally and stronger powers forced it to adopt [[free trade]] policies in its colonies. The Estado Novo replaced free trade with [[protectionism]] and state economic intervention. The colonies were to provide Portugal with raw materials, [[foreign exchange]], taxes and labour, and absorb its manufactures and surplus people. Although Guinea produced some rubber at the end of the 19th century, its main exports were vegetable oils and Balanta rice. It had a small domestic market and was unattractive to colonists. Most of its land and people were engaged in food production and it could not generate sufficient exports to support the colonial bureaucracy and the increasing population in Bissau and other towns, nor to promote its peoples’ social welfare.<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', {{nowrap|pp 151–155}}</ref>
====Last days====
[[File:1973Babadinca0048.jpg|thumb|right|Portuguese Landing Craft in Portuguese Guinea, 1973]]
[[File:PAIGC posto de controlo.jpg|thumb|right|[[PAIGC]] guerrillas in 1974]]The conflict started in 1964 in Portuguese Guinea involving the [[PAIGC]] guerrillas and the [[Portuguese Army]] was the most intense and damaging of all [[Portuguese Colonial War]]. Thus, during the 1960s and early 1970s, Portuguese development plans promoting strong economic growth and effective socioeconomic policies, like those applied by the Portuguese in the other two theaters of war ([[Portuguese Angola]] and [[Portuguese Mozambique]]), were not possible. In 1972 [[Amílcar Cabral]] sets up a government in exile in [[Conakry]], the capital of neighbouring [[Guinea]]. It was there, in 1973, that he was assassinated outside his house - just a year before a [[Carnation Revolution|left-wing military coup in Portugal]] dramatically altered the political situation. By 1973 the PAIGC controlled most of the interior of the country, while the coastal and estuary towns, including the main populational and economic centres remained under Portuguese control. The village of [[Madina do Boé]] in the southeasternmost area of the territory, close to the border with neighbouring [[Guinea]], was the location where [[PAIGC]] guerrillas declared the [[independence]] of Guinea-Bissau on September 24, 1973. The war in the colonies was increasingly unpopular in Portugal itself as the people got weary of war and balked at its ever-rising expense. Following the [[Carnation Revolution|coup d'état in Portugal in 1974]], the new [[Movimento das Forças Armadas|left-wing revolutionary government of Portugal]] began to negotiate with the PAIGC and decided to offer independence to all the overseas territories.


Peanut exports rose from 5,000 tons in 1910 to 20,000 tons in 1925. Under the Estado Novo exports averaged almost 30,000 tons a year in 1939–45, rising to 35,000 tons between 1946 and 1955, but falling in the next decade because of falling prices.<ref>G E Brooks, (1975). ''Peanuts and Colonialism'', pp 37–42,</ref><ref>R E Galli & J Jones (1987). ''Guinea-Bissau'', pp. 29, 41</ref> The peanut export trade improved Guinea's [[balance of payments]] up to the mid-1950s but had little effect on its peoples’ economic or social welfare, as the Estado Novo granted an import and export trade monopoly to a Portuguese conglomerate, [[Companhia União Fabril]].<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', p. 88</ref>
==References==

{{reflist}}
[[File:DC - Foto Serra No 135 - Rua Dr. Oliveira Salazar - Bissau.jpg|thumb|Portuguese Guinea in the 1960s]]
Until 1942 growers received prices at world levels, but they then declined. [[Forced labour]] was rarely used, but Africans were obliged to plant peanuts. However, the Estado Novo lacked sufficient coercive powers to force the peanut production it wanted, if this limited the production of rice for food. The lack of taxable export crops meant that the Portuguese administration remained unable to increase its income or its authority, in a self-limiting cycle.<ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1985). The Impact of the Spanish Civil War and Second World War on Portuguese and Spanish Africa, ''The Journal of African History'' Vol. 26 No. 4 pp 313, 318, 322</ref>

Low prices for exports and a rapid increase in imports after 1958 led to worsening [[trade deficit]]s throughout the 1960s. Exports covered 42% of the cost of imports in 1964, but only 20% in 1968. Growing rice for food expanded in the 1950s and 1960s, reducing the land available for [[cash crop]]s.<ref>J Mettas (1984) La Guineé portugaise au XXe siècle, pp 75–6.</ref><ref>W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). ''The Third Portuguese Empire'', p 153.</ref><ref>R E Galli & J Jones (1987). ''Guinea-Bissau'', p. 51</ref>

Migration of Balanta from northern Guinea to the south to cultivate rice intensified in the 1920s. Balanta rice cultivation greatly increased in the 1930s and 1940s, but the state granted legal title to the pontas to Europeans or Cape Verdeans. These bought rice from the farmers at fixed low prices and exported much of it, so by the 1950s the south of Guinea had a rice shortage.<ref>L Bigman, (1993). ''History and Hunger in West Africa'', pp. 30–2.</ref><ref>R E Galli & J Jones (1987). ''Guinea-Bissau'', pp. 33–4, 42.</ref>

The decade up to 1973 was dominated by the war. In 1953, some 410,000 hectares were cultivated, but only 250,000 hectares in 1972, and many farmers fled from Guinea or to Bissau and other towns.<ref>P. K. Mende, (1994). ''Colonialismo Portuguêse em África: a Tradição de Resistência (1879–1959)'' Bissau 1994, Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa, pp. 320–1</ref> Reduced food production and the loss of many rice paddies led to widespread malnutrition and disease.<ref>L Bigman, (1993). History and Hunger in West Africa, pp. 63, 110–11</ref> An agronomic survey of Guinea by [[Amílcar Cabral]] contained a major critique of Estado Novo policies. He was concerned about the emphasis on peanuts, amounting to virtual [[monoculture]], and abandonment of traditional techniques, but he urged state control and collectivisation, not [[smallholding|smallholder]] farming.<ref>A Cabral (1956) quoted in J McCulloch (1981) Amílcar Cabral: A Theory of Imperialism, ''The Journal of Modern African Studies'' Vol. 19 No. 3 p 506</ref><ref>A Cabral and M H Cabral (1954) quoted in J McCulloch (1981) pp. 507–8.</ref>

[[Image:Colonial building in Buba, Guinea-Bissau.jpg|thumb|Later Colonial house building in Buba]]


==See also==
==See also==
*[[Colonial Heads of Portuguese Guinea]]
*[[List of governors of Portuguese Guinea]]
* [[Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino]] (archives in Lisbon documenting Portuguese Empire, including Guinea)
*[[Estado Novo (Portugal)]]
*[[Portuguese East Africa]]
*[[Portuguese West Africa]]


==References==
{{reflist|2}}

== External links ==
*{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Portuguese Guinea | volume= 22 | pages = 168&ndash;169 |short= 1}}


{{Guinea-Bissau topics}}
{{Portuguese overseas empire}}
{{Portuguese overseas empire}}
{{Historical provinces of Portugal}}

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{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Former Portuguese colonies|Guinea, Portuguese]]
[[Category:History of Guinea-Bissau]]


[[Category:Portuguese Guinea| ]]
[[ja:ポルトガル領ギニア]]
[[Category:Former colonies in Africa]]
[[pl:Gwinea Portugalska]]
[[Category:Portuguese colonisation in Africa]]
[[pt:Guiné Portuguesa]]
[[Category:Colonial states of the Portuguese Empire|Guinea]]
[[fi:Portugalin Guinea]]
[[Category:Former Portuguese colonies|Guinea]]
[[zh:葡屬幾內亞]]
[[Category:History of West Africa]]
[[Category:States and territories disestablished in 1974]]
[[Category:1974 disestablishments in Guinea-Bissau]]
[[Category:States and territories established in 1474]]

Latest revision as of 09:49, 24 December 2024

Overseas Province of Guinea
Província Portuguesa de Guiné (Portuguese)
1588–1974
Anthem: "Hymno Patriótico" (1808–26)
Patriotic Anthem

"Hino da Carta" (1826–1911)
Hymn of the Charter

"A Portuguesa" (1911–74)
The Portuguese
StatusDependency of Portuguese Cape Verde (1588–1879)
Colony of the Portuguese Empire (1879–1951)
Overseas Province of Portugal (1951–1973)
State of the Portuguese Empire (1973–1974)
CapitalBolama (1852–1942)
Bissau (1942–1974)
Common languages
Monarch 
• 1588–1598
Philip I of Portugal
• 1908–1910
Manuel II of Portugal
President 
• 1910–1915
Teófilo Braga
• 1974
António de Spínola
Governor 
• 1615–1619 (first)
Baltasar Pereira de Castelo Branco
• 1974 (last)
Carlos Fabião
Historical eraImperialism
• Founding of Cacheu
1588
• Independence of Guinea-Bissau
10 September 1974
Currency
ISO 3166 codeGN
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Kaabu
British Guinea
Guinea-Bissau
Today part ofGuinea-Bissau

Portuguese Guinea (Portuguese: Guiné Portuguesa), called the Overseas Province of Guinea from 1951 until 1972 and then State of Guinea from 1972 until 1974, was a Portuguese overseas province in West Africa from 1588 until 10 September 1974, when it gained independence as Guinea-Bissau.

Slave trade

[edit]
Flag of the Casa da Guiné, a Portuguese company that traded in several commodities, including slaves, around the Guinea coast beginning in the 15th century
Cacheu Fort

The Portuguese Crown commissioned its navigators to explore the Atlantic coast of West Africa in the 1430s, to find sources of gold. At that time the gold trade was controlled by Morocco. Muslim caravans across the Sahara also carried salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.[1] The navigators first passed the obstruction of Cape Bojador in 1437 and were able to explore the West African coast as far as Sierra Leone by 1460 and colonize the Cape Verde islands beginning in 1456.[2]

The gold ultimately came from the upper reaches of the Niger and Volta Rivers and the Portuguese crown wanted to divert the gold trade to the coast. To control the gold trade, the Portuguese king ordered a castle built, called São Jorge da Mina (now Elmina Castle), on the Portuguese Gold Coast in 1482 along with other trading posts. The Portuguese government founded the Company of Guinea to trade and set the prices of goods,[2] including gold and ivory, Melegueta pepper and slaves. The Atlantic slave trade transported an estimated eleven million people from Africa between 1440 and 1870, including two million from Senegambia and Upper Guinea.[3]

This area was the source of an estimated 150,000 African slaves transported by the Portuguese before 1500, mainly from Upper Guinea. Some were used to grow cotton and indigo in the previously uninhabited Cape Verde islands.[4] Portuguese traders and exiled criminals penetrated the rivers and creeks of Upper Guinea, forming a mulatto population speaking a Portuguese-based Creole language as a lingua franca. However, after 1500 most Portuguese interest, both for gold and slaves, centered further south in the Gold Coast.[5]

At the beginning of the 17th century, the Portuguese exported slaves from Upper Guinea from Santiago in Cape Verde, and those from the Gulf of Guinea from São Tomé Island. In the 1630s and 1640s, the Dutch drove the Portuguese from most of the Gold Coast. The Portuguese did retain a foothold at São João de Ajuda in Benin, now called Ouidah, since before the 1750s they preferred to acquire slaves from the Gulf of Guinea rather than Upper Guinea. In the 17th century, the French established bases at Saint-Louis, Senegal, the English at Kunta Kinteh Island on the Gambia River and Dutch at Gorée.[6]

The very weak Portuguese position in Upper Guinea was strengthened by the first Marquess of Pombal who promoted the supply of slaves from this area to the provinces of Grão-Pará and Maranhão in northern Brazil. Between 1757 and 1777, over 25,000 slaves were transported from the “Rivers of Guinea”, which approximated Portuguese Guinea and parts of Senegal, even though this area had been largely neglected by the Portuguese for the previous 200 years. Bissau, founded in 1765, became the centre of Portuguese control.[7]

British interest in the area led to a brief attempt in the 1790s to establish a base on the island of Bolama, which showed no evidence of continuous Portuguese presence. The British settlers pulled back in 1793 and the Portuguese officially occupied the island in 1837. Even after the Portuguese claim in 1837, Afro-Portuguese lived and worked there alongside Afro-British from Sierra Leone, since Britain did not relinquish its claim to Bolama until 1870.[8]

The abolition of the slave trade by Britain in 1807 gave the slave traders of Guinea a virtual monopoly over the West Africa slave trade with Brazil. Although the Brazilian and Portuguese governments agreed in the 1830s to stop this traffic, it probably continued at 18th-century levels until after 1850, when the British pressured Brazil to enforce its existing ban on the import of slaves. The last significant consignment of West African slaves reached Brazil in 1852.[9]

Later colonial period

[edit]

Britain's interest in the Upper Guinea region declined with the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and became focused on Sierra Leone after the Boloma Island settlement was abandoned. At the start of the 19th century, the Portuguese felt reasonably secure in Bissau and regarded the neighboring coastline as their own.[10] Their control was tenuous: for much of the 19th century the Portuguese presence in Guinea was mainly limited to the rivers of Guinea, the settlements of Bissau, Cacheu and Ziguinchor (the last now in Senegal). Elsewhere it was preserved, with little official assistance, by local Creole people and Cape Verde islanders, who owned small plantations (Pontus).[11][12]

The existence of plantations run by the French and Senegalese brought a risk of French claims south of the Casamance River. After the Berlin Conference of 1885 introduced the principle of effective occupation, negotiations with France led to the loss of the valuable Casamance region to French West Africa. In exchange, the French agreed to Portuguese Guinea's boundaries.[13][14]

Portugal occupied half a dozen coastal or river bases, controlling some maritime trade, but not much of the population. However, in 1892, Portugal made Guinea a separate military district, to promote its occupation.[15] Had the doctrine of effective occupation been as prominent in 1870 as after 1884, Portugal might also have lost Bolama to Britain. However, Britain and Portugal agreed in 1868 to international arbitration. President Ulysses S. Grant of the United States of America acted as arbiter, and in 1870 awarded the island to Portugal.[16]

Portugal's precarious financial position and military weakness threatened its ability to retain its colonies. In 1891, António José Enes, Minister of Marine and Colonies, rationalized taxes[clarification needed] and granted concessions in Guinea, mainly to foreign companies, to increase its exports.[17] The increased revenue was intended to fund a gradual expansion of control that would give Portugal tax revenue from trade and the indigenous people.[18] The modest increase in government income between 1895 and 1910 did not cover the cost of the troops used to impose the taxes, however. Enes' policies largely failed; resistance continued in the interior, on the islands, and at the coast. However, once military occupation had begun, Portugal persisted, hoping for future benefits.[19][20]

After the Portuguese monarchy fell in 1910, the new republic set up a ministry for colonial administration. Guinea's income increased as peanut prices rose, tax collection improved and its budget showed a surplus.[21] Between 1913 and 1915, João Teixeira Pinto used Askari troops to impose Portuguese rule and crush resistance to the hut tax by destroying villages and seizing cattle, causing many to flee to Senegal or into the forests. The cost of maintaining his forces and the resulting budget deficits led to his recall in 1915.[22][23]

Portuguese Guinea in the 1960s

Although the First World War increased world demand for tropical products and stimulated Guinea's economy, a post-war slump, and frequent political crises created a deep recession. By the 1926 military uprising in Portugal, most of Guinea was occupied, administered, and taxed, but its revenue was not enough to pay for its administration, much less to expand it.[24] When the Estado Novo imposed police on the Bissagos Islands in 1935–36, it completed its control of Guinea.[25]

Between the 1930s and 1960s, the colony was a neglected backwater, whose only economic significance was to supply Portugal with about one-third of its vegetable oil, from peanuts. It was unclear if its population of about 500,000 in 1950 was large enough to grow enough peanuts to pay for its imports and administration, and still grow food for its population.[26][27] In 1951, because of anti-colonialist criticism in the United Nations, the Portuguese government renamed all of Portugal's colonies, including Portuguese Guinea, as overseas provinces (Províncias Ultramarines).[28]

Development was largely neglected before the start of the country's independence war. One paternalistic governor, Sarmento Rodrigues, promised to develop agriculture, infrastructure, and health, but did little to fight the upsurge in sleeping sickness in the 1940s and 1950s. Guinea saw little public investment in the first Portuguese Overseas Development Plan (1953–58), and a second plan (1959–64) concentrated on its towns. Adequate rural health clinics were not provided until General Spínola's program of 1968–73. Public education provided was limited: in 1959 Guinea had some 200 primary schools with 13,500 pupils and 36 post-primary schools, mainly for the children of Portuguese citizens and urban assimilados, with 1,300 pupils.[29][30] These schools were never particularly accessible to native inhabitants, and only around nineteen percent of school-age children attended primary school.[31] Literacy rates suffered, with an estimated 99 percent of the population illiterate in 1950, making Guinea the most illiterate Portuguese territory in Africa.[32]

Ruins from the colonial era on the Bolama island (in recovery)

Independence movement

[edit]
Portuguese-held (green), disputed (yellow) and rebel-held areas (red) in Guinea, 1970

The fight for independence began in 1956, when Amílcar Cabral founded the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC). At first, PAIGC organised a series of strikes by urban workers, especially those working in the port and river transport. But on 3 August 1959, fifty striking dockworkers were killed, and after this, the PAIGC changed strategy, avoiding public demonstrations and concentrating instead on organising the rural peasants. In 1961, after a purely political campaign for independence had made little progress, the PAIGC adopted guerrilla tactics.[33]

While heavily outnumbered by Portuguese troops (approximately 30,000 Portuguese to some 10,000 guerrillas), the PAIGC had safe havens over the border in Senegal and Guinea, both recently independent of French rule. The conflict in Portuguese Guinea between the PAIGC guerrillas and the Portuguese Army was the most intense and damaging of the Portuguese Colonial War, and several communist countries supported the guerrillas with weapons and military training.[33]

In 1972 Cabral set up a government in exile in Conakry, the capital of neighbouring Guinea. He was assassinated there outside his house, on 20 January 1973.[34]

By 1973 the PAIGC controlled most of the interior of the country, while the coastal and estuary towns, including the main population and economic centres remained under Portuguese control. The PAIGC guerrillas declared the independence of Guinea-Bissau on September 24, 1973, in the town of Madina do Boe in the southeasternmost area of the territory, near the border with neighbouring Guinea.[10]

After the Carnation Revolution military coup in Lisbon on 25 April 1974, the new revolutionary leaders of Portugal and the PAIGC signed an accord in Algiers, in which Portugal agreed after a series of diplomatic meetings to remove all troops by the end of October and to officially recognize the government of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau controlled by the PAIGC, on 26 August 1974.[35] Demobilized by the departing Portuguese military authorities after the 1974 Carnation Revolution in Lisbon and the independence of Portuguese Guinea, a total of 7,447 Guinea-Bissauan African soldiers who had served in Portuguese native commando forces and militia were summarily executed by the PAIGC.[35][36][37] Marcelino da Mata, a Portuguese Army officer born in Portuguese Guinea,[38][39] known for bravery and heroism in the Portuguese Colonial War, who had participated in 2412 commando operations and became the most decorated Portuguese military officer in the history of the Portuguese Army,[40] managed to escape this fate only because he was in mainland Portugal for medical care.

Economy

[edit]

Early colonial economy

[edit]

In the 1430s trade from West Africa was controlled by Muslim states on Africa's northern coast. Muslim trade routes across the Sahara, which had existed for centuries, transported salt, kola, textiles, fish, grain, and slaves.[41]

As the Portuguese extended their influence along the coasts of Mauritania, Senegambia by 1445 and Guinea, they created trading posts. Rather than directly competing with the Muslim traders, they increased trade across the Sahara.[42]

Proposed flag for Portuguese Guinea (1932)

There was only a very small market for African slaves as domestic workers in Europe, and as workers on the sugar plantations of the Mediterranean. However, the Portuguese found they could make considerable amounts of gold transporting slaves from one trading post to another along the Atlantic coast of Africa. The Portuguese found Muslim traders entrenched along the African coast as far as the Bight of Benin, and Muslim merchants had a high demand for slaves to serve as porters on the trans-Saharan routes, and to sell in the Islamic Empire.[43]

Proposed flag for Portuguese Guinea (1965)

For most of the period of Portuguese involvement, the people of Portuguese Guinea were subsistence farmers. By the 19th century, the coastal Balanta people, who lived outside Portuguese control, had developed a sophisticated agricultural system, growing paddy-rice in reclaimed coastal swamps. Much of this rice was exported to surrounding territories, particularly after indigenous rice was replaced by imported varieties. The Balanta also participated in the slave trade in this period.[44] Another crop developed in this period was peanuts, and peanut exports from Portuguese Guinea began in the mid-19th century. As intensive plantation cultivation led to reduced soil fertility, peanuts were normally grown by peasants in Portuguese-controlled areas, who mixed them with food crops and maintained fallow periods.[45]

Later colonial economy

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A Portuguese landing craft in Portuguese Guinea, 1973

Before the Estado Novo period, Portugal was weak internationally and stronger powers forced it to adopt free trade policies in its colonies. The Estado Novo replaced free trade with protectionism and state economic intervention. The colonies were to provide Portugal with raw materials, foreign exchange, taxes and labour, and absorb its manufactures and surplus people. Although Guinea produced some rubber at the end of the 19th century, its main exports were vegetable oils and Balanta rice. It had a small domestic market and was unattractive to colonists. Most of its land and people were engaged in food production and it could not generate sufficient exports to support the colonial bureaucracy and the increasing population in Bissau and other towns, nor to promote its peoples’ social welfare.[46]

Peanut exports rose from 5,000 tons in 1910 to 20,000 tons in 1925. Under the Estado Novo exports averaged almost 30,000 tons a year in 1939–45, rising to 35,000 tons between 1946 and 1955, but falling in the next decade because of falling prices.[47][48] The peanut export trade improved Guinea's balance of payments up to the mid-1950s but had little effect on its peoples’ economic or social welfare, as the Estado Novo granted an import and export trade monopoly to a Portuguese conglomerate, Companhia União Fabril.[49]

Portuguese Guinea in the 1960s

Until 1942 growers received prices at world levels, but they then declined. Forced labour was rarely used, but Africans were obliged to plant peanuts. However, the Estado Novo lacked sufficient coercive powers to force the peanut production it wanted, if this limited the production of rice for food. The lack of taxable export crops meant that the Portuguese administration remained unable to increase its income or its authority, in a self-limiting cycle.[50]

Low prices for exports and a rapid increase in imports after 1958 led to worsening trade deficits throughout the 1960s. Exports covered 42% of the cost of imports in 1964, but only 20% in 1968. Growing rice for food expanded in the 1950s and 1960s, reducing the land available for cash crops.[51][52][53]

Migration of Balanta from northern Guinea to the south to cultivate rice intensified in the 1920s. Balanta rice cultivation greatly increased in the 1930s and 1940s, but the state granted legal title to the pontas to Europeans or Cape Verdeans. These bought rice from the farmers at fixed low prices and exported much of it, so by the 1950s the south of Guinea had a rice shortage.[54][55]

The decade up to 1973 was dominated by the war. In 1953, some 410,000 hectares were cultivated, but only 250,000 hectares in 1972, and many farmers fled from Guinea or to Bissau and other towns.[56] Reduced food production and the loss of many rice paddies led to widespread malnutrition and disease.[57] An agronomic survey of Guinea by Amílcar Cabral contained a major critique of Estado Novo policies. He was concerned about the emphasis on peanuts, amounting to virtual monoculture, and abandonment of traditional techniques, but he urged state control and collectivisation, not smallholder farming.[58][59]

Later Colonial house building in Buba

See also

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References

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  1. ^ A.L. Epstein, Urban Communities in Africa – Closed Systems and Open Minds, 1964.
  2. ^ a b C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, 1415–1825, pp. 26–7, 30 London, Hutchinson & Co. ISBN 0-09131-071-7
  3. ^ H Thomas, (1997). The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade 1440–1870, pp. 804–5, New York (NY), Simon and Schuster, ISBN 0-684-81063-8
  4. ^ Bamber Gascoigne (2001). "History of Guinea-Bissau". HistoryWorld.
  5. ^ C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, pp. 30–1
  6. ^ C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, pp. 97, 112, 170–2
  7. ^ C.R. Boxer, (1977). The Portuguese seaborne empire, pp. 192
  8. ^ P. E. H. Hair, (1997). '"Elephants for Want of Towns": The Interethnic and International History of Bulama Island, 1456–1870', History in Africa, Vol. 24, pp. 183, 186
  9. ^ W. G. Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, 1825–1975, Manchester University Press, pp. 30–1
  10. ^ a b B Gascoigne, (From 2001, ongoing). “History of Portuguese Guinea”, HistoryWorld
  11. ^ J. L Bowman (1987) “Legitimate Commerce” and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea 1840s–1880s, The Journal of African History Vol. 28 No. 1, pp 89, 96.
  12. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, p 22
  13. ^ J. L Bowman (1987) “Legitimate Commerce” and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea 1840s–1880s, The Journal of African History Vol. 28 No1 pp 89, 96.
  14. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, p 22
  15. ^ J Barreto, (1938). História da Guiné 1418–1918, Lisbon, Published by the author, p 316
  16. ^ P. E. H. Hair, (1997). "Elephants for Want of Towns", p. 186.
  17. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, pp. 82–3, 85
  18. ^ J L Bowman, (1987). "Legitimate Commerce and peanut production in Portuguese Guinea", pp. 98–99
  19. ^ R Pélissier, (1989). História da Guiné: portugueses e africanos na senegambia 1841–1936 Volume II, Lisbon, Imprensa Universitária pp 25–6, 62–4.
  20. ^ R E Galli & J Jones (1987). Guinea-Bissau: Politics, economics, and society, London, Pinter pp. 28–9.
  21. ^ R Pélissier, (1989). História da Guiné, pp. 140–1
  22. ^ J Barreto, (1938). História da Guiné, pp. 374–6, 379–82.
  23. ^ J Teixeira Pinto A occupação militar da Guiné Lisbon 1936, Agência Geral das Colónias pp 85–6, 120
  24. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, pp 114–7
  25. ^ R Pélissier, (1989). História da Guiné, pp 229–30, 251–61
  26. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, pp 151–2
  27. ^ J Mettas (1984) La Guineé portugaise au XXe siècle, Paris, Académie des sciences d'outre-mer. p 19
  28. ^ G. J. Bender (1978), Angola Under the Portuguese: The Myth and the Reality, Berkeley, University of California Press p.xx. ISBN 0-520-03221-7
  29. ^ L Bigman, (1993). History and Hunger in West Africa: Food Production and Entitlement in Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde, Westport (Conn), Greenwood Press pp 30–2. p 20.
  30. ^ R J Hammond, (1962). Portugal's African Problem: Some Economic Facets, New York 1962, Carnegie Endowment for Peace Occasional Paper No 2 pp 29–33
  31. ^ Mendy, Peter Karibe (2003). "Portugal's Civilizing Mission in Colonial Guinea-Bissau: Rhetoric and Reality". The International Journal of African Historical Studies. 36 (1): 35–58. doi:10.2307/3559318. ISSN 0361-7882. JSTOR 3559318.
  32. ^ Ferreira, Eduardo de Sousa (1974). Portuguese colonialism in Africa : the end of an era : the effects of Portuguese colonialism on education, science, culture and information. The Unesco Press. ISBN 92-3-101163-4. OCLC 780700141.
  33. ^ a b R H Chilcote, (1977). Guinea-Bissau's Struggle: Past and Present, Africa Today, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 33–4.
  34. ^ G. Houser and L. W. Henderson, (1973) In Memory of Amilcar Cabral: Two Statements, Africa Today Vol. 20, No. 1, p. 3.
  35. ^ a b Lloyd-Jones, Stewart, and Costa Pinto, António (2003), The last empire: thirty years of Portuguese decolonization, Portland, Oregon: Intellect Books, ISBN 1-84150-109-3, p. 22
  36. ^ PAIGC, Jornal Nô Pintcha, 29 November 1980: In a statement in the party newspaper Nô Pintcha (In the Vanguard), a spokesman for the PAIGC revealed that many of the ex-Portuguese indigenous African soldiers that were executed after cessation of hostilities were buried in unmarked collective graves in the woods of Cumerá, Portogole, and Mansabá.
  37. ^ Munslow, Barry, The 1980 Coup in Guinea-Bissau, Review of African Political Economy, No. 21 (May–Sep., 1981), pp. 109–113
  38. ^ "Marcelino da Mata. "As memórias foram enterradas vivas e nunca foi feito o funeral"". www.dn.pt.
  39. ^ "Marcelo e várias patentes militares no funeral de Marcelino da Mata". www.dn.pt.
  40. ^ "Dos Combatentes do Ultramar". Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 2009-11-06.
  41. ^ A.L. Epstein, Urban Communities in Africa – Closed Systems and Open Minds, 1964
  42. ^ B.W. Hodder, Some Comments on the Origins of Traditional Markets in Africa South of the Sahara – Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 1965 – JSTOR
  43. ^ H. Miner, The City in Modern Africa – 1967
  44. ^ W Hawthorne, (2003). Planting Rice and Harvesting Slaves: Transformations along the Guinea-Bissau coast, 1400–1900, Portsmouth (NH), pp 184–7.
  45. ^ G E Brooks, (1975). Peanuts and Colonialism: Consequences of commercialisation in West Africa, Journal of African History Vol. 16 No 1 pp 37–42, G E Brooks, (1975). Peanuts and Colonialism: Consequences of Commercialisation in West Africa, Journal of African History Vol. 16 No 1 pp 37–42
  46. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, pp 151–155
  47. ^ G E Brooks, (1975). Peanuts and Colonialism, pp 37–42,
  48. ^ R E Galli & J Jones (1987). Guinea-Bissau, pp. 29, 41
  49. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, p. 88
  50. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1985). The Impact of the Spanish Civil War and Second World War on Portuguese and Spanish Africa, The Journal of African History Vol. 26 No. 4 pp 313, 318, 322
  51. ^ J Mettas (1984) La Guineé portugaise au XXe siècle, pp 75–6.
  52. ^ W G Clarence-Smith, (1975). The Third Portuguese Empire, p 153.
  53. ^ R E Galli & J Jones (1987). Guinea-Bissau, p. 51
  54. ^ L Bigman, (1993). History and Hunger in West Africa, pp. 30–2.
  55. ^ R E Galli & J Jones (1987). Guinea-Bissau, pp. 33–4, 42.
  56. ^ P. K. Mende, (1994). Colonialismo Portuguêse em África: a Tradição de Resistência (1879–1959) Bissau 1994, Instituto Nacional de Estudos e Pesquisa, pp. 320–1
  57. ^ L Bigman, (1993). History and Hunger in West Africa, pp. 63, 110–11
  58. ^ A Cabral (1956) quoted in J McCulloch (1981) Amílcar Cabral: A Theory of Imperialism, The Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 19 No. 3 p 506
  59. ^ A Cabral and M H Cabral (1954) quoted in J McCulloch (1981) pp. 507–8.
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2°11′N 102°23′E / 2.183°N 102.383°E / 2.183; 102.383