History of Maputo
In 1721, the Dutch East India Company established Fort Lydsaamheid on the bay, but abandoned it due to conflicts with local Africans and the unhealthy environment.
That year, hoping to prevent other European powers from claiming the area in the future, the Portuguese constructed a fortress on the bay, naming it Lourenço Marques.
[7] In March 1721, the Dutch East India Company purchased the land around the bay from Mafumbo and set about reconstructing the old Portuguese fort, which had fallen into ruin.
[8] In addition to trading, the fort was used as the starting point for several expeditions into the Mozambican interior in search of reputed gold mines in Monomatapa, which the Dutch believed was the gold-producing region mentioned as Ophir in the Bible.
[7] Another expedition, this time led by Johannes Monna in the late 1720s, set forth with native guides, but after failed trading attempts and a skirmish with a tribe armed with spears, also turned back.
[7][8] In addition, in 1728, 28 Dutch soldiers abandoned Lydsaamheid and trekked to Inhambane, where the eighteen who survived the journey told the Portuguese there of the mistreatment and diseases they had experienced at the fort.
[8] In 1729, Cape Colony officials received orders from Heeren XVII, the Dutch East India Company's board of directors, to abandon the fort.
[3] Initially, beads, arms, and arraco (a coconut product) were shipped from Madras to Mozambique Island, where Dutch merchant vessels would pick them up and bring them to Delagoa Bay.
[8] By 1780, trade had grown significantly: ships from Bombay, Surat, and Madras frequently arrived with Gujarati textiles and left the bay with ivory, usually stopping in Madagascar to purchase slaves before returning to India.
[8] In addition, shipments sent down the Maputo River brought ivory, rhinoceros horns, hippopotamus teeth, amber, gold, copper, agricultural products, and a small number of slaves.
[9] That year, their first attempt to establish a whaling company in Delagoa Bay failed when their representative alienated a local Tembe chief by neglected to ask permission to use the tribe's land.
[9] Eager for incriminating evidence that could provide Britain an excuse to take the region from Portugal, he wrote that Lourenço Marques had the potential to become a major participant in the slave trade.
Although the Union Jack flew over the area, the United Kingdom had taken no steps to exercise authority over the territory, while the ravages of Zulus confined the Portuguese to the limits of their fort.
[14] The Vatwas, a Nguni-speaking Zulu tribe, had recently migrated to the area, raiding the local villages for food and laying waste to the bay region, with the exception of the southern part.
[5][9][15] After two years without rain, drought was already causing famine, and compounded by the devastating attacks of the Vatwas, the local African population at the time was suffering from social upheaval.
[14] When Zulu warriors arrived on the mainland across from Xefina Island on 6 October, Ribeiro took a boat, planning to stop at Magaia and then go meet the Ndwandwe leader Soshangane, an ally whom he had invited to attack the Zulus.
[14] In addition, Ribeiro's lack of caution in his interactions with the volatile Dingane, who often switched from fighting with or against the Portuguese in the periodic conflicts with other tribes, and the governor's amicable relations with Soshangane, an enemy of the Zulu, were likely contributing factors.
Portuguese authority over the Mozambican interior was not established until some time after the MacMahon decision; nominally, the country south of the Manhissa river was ceded to them by the Matshangana chief Umzila in 1861.
In 1871, the town was described as a poor place, with narrow streets, fairly good flat-roofed houses, grass huts, decayed forts, and a rusty cannon, enclosed by a recently erected wall 1.8 metres (6 ft) high and protected by bastions at intervals.
On 10 November 1887, Lourenço Marques was declared a city by a royal decree by King Luís, who cited the settlement's material improvements and economic potential.
[5] He, based out of Lourenço Marques, resisted British attempts to enter the region, defeated powerful African rulers, and solidified Portuguese military control over southern Mozambique.
In the early 20th century, with a well-equipped seaport, with piers, quays, landing sheds and electric cranes, enabling large vessels to discharge cargoes direct into the rail cars, Lourenço Marques developed under Portuguese rule into an economically important city.
[24][25] During the early and mid-20th century, Lourenço Marques population grew quickly due to a lack of restriction on the internal migration of indigenous blacks, a situation that differed from the apartheid policies of neighboring South Africa.
The first terminal of Lourenço Marques Airport was constructed in 1940, the Art Deco Catholic Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception was built four years later, and Maputo City Hall was completed in 1947.
Until the mid-1970s, thousands of Rhodesian and South African tourists frequented the city, drawn by its scenic beaches, high-quality hotels, restaurants, and lively entertainment scene, including casinos and brothels.
[37] The day the Lusaka Accord was signed, a group of right-wing white dissidents, calling themselves the Movement for a Free Mozambique, challenged the independence deal by attempting to seize control of Lourenço Marques.
[39] In Portugal, Prime Minister Vasco Gonçalves said the Portuguese Armed Forces were not seeking FRELIMO's help in restoring order, and said that he saw the events not as a coup d'état, "but rather a desperate act by a minority which does not understand the historic processes and the ways of the future.
Many were named for socialist and anti-colonial leaders, including Kim Il Sung, Friedrich Engels, Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, and Robert Mugabe.
The city's so-described "parasitic" population, which included jobless and undocumented residents as well as criminals, were forcibly transferred to state-owned communal farms and villages in the rural north of Mozambique.
[31] Maputo's economy today centers around the port, with other industries including brewing, shipbuilding and repair, fish canning, ironwork, and cement and textile manufacturing.
