David Birmingham begins this short history of Angola in 1820 with the Portuguese attempt to create a third, African, empire after the virtual loss of Asia and America. In the 19th century the most valuable resource extracted from Angola was agricultural labour. The colony was managed by a few marine officers, white political convicts and black Angolans who had adopted Portuguese language and culture. The hub was the harbour city of Luanda which grew to be a dynamic metropolis of several million people. The export of labour was gradually replaced when an agrarian revolution enabled white Portuguese immigrants to drive black Angolan labourers to produce sugar-cane, cotton, maize and above all coffee. During the 20th century this wealth was supplemented by Congo copper, by gem-quality diamonds, and by off-shore oil. The generation of warfare finally ended in 2002 when national reconstruction could begin on Portuguese colonial foundations.

This is a comprehensive account of the profound changes in Angola's political economy.

The African nation of Angola has faced more than its share of conflict, originally colonized by Portugal in the sixteenth century and then embattled by a civil war that began in 1975 and lasted for almost thirty years. Today, Angola is a combination of African and Portuguese culture, and as the second-largest oil producer in Africa, its economy continues to grow. This comprehensive volume takes readers on a trip through the nation of Angola, delving into its history and exploring its modern culture, economy, government, and natural features and wildlife. It includes maps, colorful photographs, and engaging sidebars to guide readers through this fascinating country.

One of history’s most multifaceted rulers but little known in the West, Queen Njinga rivaled Elizabeth I and Catherine the Great in political cunning and military prowess. Today, she is revered in Angola as a heroine and honored in folk religions. Her complex legacy forms a crucial part of the collective memory of the Afro-Atlantic world.

Angola's civil war was the longest and bloodiest in Africa. Once the battleground for a proxy war between the Cold War superpowers, the country was supposed to become a model for a smooth transition from armed conflict to democracy. The government, previously backed by the Soviet Union and Cuba, and the UNITA rebels, who once enjoyed American and South African support, would exchange bullets for ballots - but it all went wrong ... UNITA's Jonas Savimbi rejected his defeat in the country's first ever free elections and plunged Angola back into war. The international community could only wring its hands, eventually negotiating a fragile new peace agreement. For millions of Angolans, however, the effects of a quarter of a century of violence have proved to be more enduring than the taste of peace.

After graduating from Oxford in 2002 with a degree in Classics Daniel Metcalf spent a year in Tehran, where he worked on the Tehran Times and prepared for a five month journey in Central Asia. Having focused most of his travels in Asia, Scandinavia, and the former Soviet Union, he spent much of last summer in Angola.

This book argues that Angola and Brazil were connected, not separated, by the Atlantic Ocean. Roquinaldo Ferreira focuses on the cultural, religious and social impacts of the slave trade on Angola. Reconstructing biographies of Africans and merchants, he demonstrates how cross-cultural trade, identity formation, religious ties and resistance to slaving were central to the formation of the Atlantic world. By adding to our knowledge of the slaving process, the book powerfully illustrates how Atlantic slaving transformed key African institutions, such as local regimes of forced labor that predated and coexisted with Atlantic slaving and made them fundamental features of the Atlantic world's social fabric.