Luísa Diogo (2004–2010) | History of Mozambique

1,000,000,000 BCE – 999

Prehistory & Early Iron Age

Stone Age sites, Khoisan hunter-gatherers, Bantu migrations and the Iron Age farmers of south-eastern Africa.

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c. 2 million years ago Earliest Stone Age toolmakers in south-eastern Africa Long before any kingdom or coastline took its modern shape, early hominins lived and made simple stone tools across eastern and southern Africa.
c. 6000 BCE onward Hunter-gatherer rock art of Mozambique's highlands Across the highlands of Tete, Manica and Niassa and in other granite country, hunter-gatherers painted animals, human figures and abstract signs in red and white pigment on sheltered rock walls.
c. 400 CE Farming community established at Chibuene Archaeological research at Chibuene, a site about five kilometres south of Vilankulo on the Inhambane coast, indicates that a farming community was established there around 400 CE. The villagers grew cereals, kept cattle, sheep, goats and chickens, and relied heavily on shellfish, fish and marine animals for food.
c. 800 CE Islam and Indian Ocean trade begin to shape the Swahili coast From roughly the eighth century, Muslim traders from the Persian Gulf, Arabia and India sailed the monsoon winds to East Africa, founding or joining coastal communities such as Unguja Ukuu, Kilwa and, further south, Chibuene.
10th century (traditional date) Kilwa Sultanate emerges as a Swahili power The Kilwa Chronicle, a later written tradition, attributes the founding of the Kilwa dynasty to Ali ibn al-Hasan, a Shirazi immigrant from Persia, in the late tenth century.

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1000 – 1497

Swahili Coast, Zimbabwe & Mutapa

Sofala and Chibuene, Kilwa links, Mapungubwe, Great Zimbabwe and the rise of Mutapa and Maravi.

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42

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6

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3

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2

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c. 1000 CE K2 settlement and the Leopard's Kopje cattle culture Around 1000 CE, people of the Leopard's Kopje tradition settled at K2, a site on the Limpopo near its confluence with the Shashe, and developed a large cattle-based economy.
c. 1300 CE Mapungubwe declines as trade shifts north Around 1300 the kingdom of Mapungubwe declined and its population dispersed.
c. 1430 Nyatsimba Mutota founds the Mutapa state According to oral tradition, Nyatsimba Mutota, an elephant hunter or chief from Great Zimbabwe's sphere, led his followers northward in search of salt and new land, and founded a kingdom in the Zambezi valley with its capital at Chitako-Changonya hill.
c. 1480s Mutapa taxes Sofala and the Swahili traders By the late fifteenth century, Sofala's Swahili community formally belonged to the Mutapa kingdom's sphere and paid tribute for the right to trade, even though the port was nominally connected to Kilwa.
8 July 1497 Da Gama passes the coast he names Natal On Christmas Day 1497 Vasco da Gama's fleet sighted the coast of what is now KwaZulu-Natal, and he named it Natal in honour of the Nativity.

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1498 – 1700

Portuguese Arrival, Prazos & Mutapa

Da Gama, Sofala and Mozambique Island, Mutapa vassalage, prazos, Dutch attacks and the Rozvi.

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60

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71

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17

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10 January 1498 Da Gama Anchors at Inhambane Sailing north after rounding the Cape of Good Hope, Vasco da Gama's small fleet of four vessels put in on the coast near present-day Inhambane around 10 January 1498.
1558 Construction of Fort São Sebastião Begins In 1558 the Portuguese began constructing the Fortress of São Sebastião at the northern end of Mozambique Island, on the site beside the older chapel.
1599 Lundu Makes Peace with the Portuguese In 1599 Lundu, the ruler of the Maravi state south of Lake Malawi, offered peace to the Portuguese, who accepted.
1631 Caprasine's Rising Against Portuguese Settlements In 1631 an African leader known in Portuguese sources as Caprasine led a widespread rising against Portuguese settlements in the Mutapa region.
13 December 1698 Fall of Fort Jesus to the Omanis On 13 December 1698 Fort Jesus fell to the Omani forces of Saif bin Sultan after a siege of almost three years.

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1701 – 1883

Slave Trade, Mfecane & the Gaza State

Indian Ocean slave trade, Yao and Makua caravans, Nguni invasions, Soshangane and the Gaza state, abolition and Livingstone.

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56

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71

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6

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c. 1720s Yao caravans link the interior to Mozambique Island From the early eighteenth century Yao traders from the highlands east and south of Lake Malawi organised large caravans that walked to the coast carrying ivory, and later captives, to Mozambique Island and Kilwa.
1822–1823 Owen's Delagoa Bay survey and British treaty with Tembe chiefs Captain William Fitzwilliam Owen surveyed the south-east African coast for the Royal Navy and in 1822–23 arrived at Delagoa Bay.
c. 19th century Brazil's Eusébio de Queirós Law ends the transatlantic trade On 4 September 1850 Brazil passed the Eusébio de Queirós Law, which made the import of enslaved Africans a crime and authorised the navy to seize slavers.
1863–1864 Zambezi Expedition recalled In 1863 the British government decided to recall the Zambezi Expedition, and in 1864 Livingstone brought the vessels back down the river.
1883 McMurdo railway concession for Lourenço Marques In 1883 the Portuguese government granted Edward McMurdo, an American entrepreneur, a concession to build a railway from Lourenço Marques to the Transvaal border.

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1884 – 1929

Partition, Companies & Conquest

Berlin Conference, the Pink Map, the 1890 Ultimatum, charter companies, the fall of Gaza and chibalo.

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48

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35

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14

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2

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15 November 1884 Berlin Conference opens On 15 November 1884 delegates from thirteen European states and the United States gathered at Chancellor Bismarck's invitation in Berlin to discuss trade on the Congo and Niger rivers and the rules for claiming African territory.
1895 António Enes appointed Royal Commissioner In 1894-95 the Portuguese government sent the jurist and former minister António Enes to Mozambique as Royal Commissioner, with wide civil and military powers.
29 March 1900 Delagoa Bay railway arbitration award On 29 March 1900 an arbitration tribunal in Berne, composed of Swiss jurists, issued its award in the long-running dispute over the Lourenço Marques railway, which Portugal had seized in 1889.
1918 Influenza pandemic reaches Mozambique In 1918 the influenza pandemic reached Mozambique through ports, railways and returning soldiers and workers.
1929 Niassa Company concession ends In 1929 the Portuguese government ended the concession of the Niassa Company, which had governed Cabo Delgado and Niassa for about three decades.

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1930 – 1959

Estado Novo & Colonial Rule

Indigenato, assimilados, the Colonial Act, cash crops, the Beira Corridor and the overseas province.

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17

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6

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8 July 1930 Colonial Act promulgated On 8 July 1930 the Portuguese government, with Salazar then Minister of Finance and temporarily in charge of the colonies, promulgated the Colonial Act.
1930s Compulsory cotton concession system From the late 1920s and especially after 1938 the Portuguese state organised cotton production in Mozambique through concession companies, each granted monopoly rights over buying cotton from African farmers in a defined zone, with a Cotton Export Board setting prices.
1939-1945 Lourenço Marques as a neutral wartime intelligence hub Because Portugal was neutral, Lourenço Marques became during the Second World War a centre of espionage, smuggling and diplomacy on Africa's south-east coast.
11 June 1951 Mozambique becomes an overseas province On 11 June 1951 Portugal revised its constitution and folded the Colonial Act into it, renaming its colonies, including Mozambique, as overseas provinces.
c. 1956 PIDE political police set up in Mozambique In the mid-1950s the International and State Defence Police, PIDE, established a delegation in Mozambique, with its main base in Lourenço Marques and posts in Beira, Nampula and other centres.

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1960 – 1974

Liberation War

Mueda, FRELIMO, Mondlane, the colonial war, Cahora Bassa, Wiriyamu and the Carnation Revolution.

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51

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9

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6

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2

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1960 Gorongosa becomes a national park In 1960 the Portuguese colonial government upgraded the Gorongosa game reserve in Sofala into a national park.
c. 1965 Nachingwea becomes FRELIMO's southern Tanzania base FRELIMO developed a major military and political training base at Nachingwea in southern Tanzania from the mid-1960s, taking over a former agricultural scheme site.
c. 1970 Samora Machel becomes FRELIMO president In May 1970 FRELIMO's Central Committee elected Samora Machel as president, with Marcelino dos Santos as vice president, after the fall of Uria Simango from the collective leadership.
22 February 1974 Spínola becomes President of Portugal On 15 May 1974 General António de Spínola was sworn in as President of the Portuguese Republic, after leading the National Salvation Junta.
22 February 1974 Cahora Bassa dam wall completed The concrete arch dam at Cahora Bassa in Tete Province was completed around December 1974, creating one of Africa's largest reservoirs along the Zambezi.

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1975 – 1992

Independence, Socialism & Civil War

Independence under Machel, nationalisations, RENAMO, the civil war, Nkomati and the Rome Accord.

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43

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3

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7

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2

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1975 Exodus of the Portuguese settlers Over the course of 1975 the large Portuguese settler community, estimated at roughly a quarter of a million people, left Mozambique by air, sea and road for Portugal, South Africa and Brazil.
17 October 1979 Death of André Matsangaissa On 17 October 1979 André Matsangaissa, a former FRELIMO soldier who had become RENAMO's military commander, was fatally wounded in an assault on the Gorongosa district town in Sofala Province.
1983-1984 Nkomati Accord On 16 March 1984 Samora Machel and South African prime minister P. W. Botha signed the Nkomati Accord at the Komatipoort border crossing.
24-30 July 1989 FRELIMO Fifth Congress abandons Marxism-Leninism At its Fifth Congress in Maputo in July 1989, FRELIMO dropped its identification as a Marxist-Leninist party and approved a draft constitution that paved the way for a multiparty system.
1991-1992 United Nations Operation in Mozambique established In December 1992 the UN Security Council established the United Nations Operation in Mozambique (ONUMOZ, also UNOMOZ) to monitor the ceasefire, oversee demobilisation, support the formation of a unified army and help organise elections.

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1993 – 2016

Multiparty Mozambique

UNOMOZ, elections, floods, gas, Guebuza and the hidden debts scandal.

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34

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2

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1

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1993 HALO Trust begins demining in Mozambique In 1993 the HALO Trust, a British demining charity, began clearing landmines in Mozambique after the peace accord, according to the Wikipedia civil war article.
1996 Founding of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries On 17 July 1996 the leaders of Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau and São Tomé and Príncipe founded the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) at a summit in Lisbon.
February-March 2000 Murder of journalist Carlos Cardoso Carlos Cardoso, founder of the independent daily Metical and one of Mozambique's leading investigative journalists, was shot dead in a Maputo street on 22 November 2000.
28 October 2009 Guebuza re-elected as Frelimo dominates Mozambique held presidential, parliamentary and provincial elections on 28 October 2009.
April 2016 Hidden debts revealed In April 2016 the Mozambican government admitted that state-guaranteed loans of roughly 1.4 billion dollars to the security-linked firms Proindicus and MAM, arranged in 2013 and 2014 without parliamentary approval or public disclosure, existed.

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2017 – present

Cabo Delgado, Cyclones & the Present

The insurgency, Palma, LNG, Idai and Freddy, the 2024 election crisis and the Chapo government.

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41

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1

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4

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5 October 2017 Insurgents attack Mocimboa da Praia On 5 October 2017 a group of armed men attacked three police stations in the northern port town of Mocimboa da Praia in Cabo Delgado Province, killing about 17 people, including police officers and civilians.
11 February 2021 Death of Daviz Simango Daviz Simango, the founder and president of the Democratic Movement of Mozambique and mayor of Beira since 2003, died in a hospital in Maputo on 11 February 2021 from COVID-19.
9 October 2024 General election of 9 October 2024 Mozambique voted on 9 October 2024 for the president, parliament and provincial assemblies.
15 January 2025 Maputo National Park joins World Heritage On 13 July 2025 UNESCO's World Heritage Committee approved an extension of South Africa's iSimangaliso Wetland Park to include Maputo National Park in southern Mozambique, creating a transboundary site along the Indian Ocean coast.
16 January 2026 Exxon nears decision on Rovuma LNG In August 2026 ExxonMobil reaffirmed to President Chapo in Maputo that it intended to reach a final investment decision on the Rovuma LNG project before the end of 2026.

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Ruler at the Time

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Prehistory & Early Iron Age

Swahili Coast, Zimbabwe & Mutapa

Portuguese Arrival, Prazos & Mutapa

Slave Trade, Mfecane & the Gaza State

Partition, Companies & Conquest

Estado Novo & Colonial Rule

Liberation War

Independence, Socialism & Civil War

Multiparty Mozambique

Cabo Delgado, Cyclones & the Present

Mozambique Through Time

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