HISTORY
Mozambique's
first inhabitants were San hunter and gatherers, ancestors of
the Khoisani peoples. Between the first and fourth centuries AD,
waves of Bantu-speaking peoples migrated from the north through
the Zambezi River valley and then gradually into the plateau and
coastal areas. The Bantu were farmers and ironworkers.
When Portuguese
explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab-trading settlements
had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries.
From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular
ports of call on the new route to the east. Later, traders and
prospectors penetrated the interior regions seeking gold and slaves.
Although Portuguese influence gradually expanded, its power was
limited and exercised through individual settlers who were granted
extensive autonomy. As a result, investment lagged while Lisbon
devoted itself to the more lucrative trade with India and the
Far East and to the colonization of Brazil.
By the
early 20th century the Portuguese had shifted the administration
of much of the country to large private companies, controlled
and financed mostly by the British, which established railroad
lines to neighboring countries and supplied cheap--often forced--African
labor to the mines and plantations of the nearby British colonies
and South Africa. Because policies were designed to benefit white
settlers and the Portuguese homeland, little attention was paid
to Mozambique's national integration, its economic infrastructure,
or the skills of its population.
After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal clung to the concept that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas provinces of the mother country, and emigration to the colonies soared. Mozambique's Portuguese population at the time of independence was about 250,000. The drive for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. After 10 years of sporadic warfare and major political changes in Portugal, Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975.
The last
30 years of Mozambique's history have reflected political developments
elsewhere in the 20th century. Following the April 1974 coup in
Lisbon, Portuguese colonialism collapsed. In Mozambique, the military
decision to withdraw occurred within the context of a decade of
armed anti-colonial struggle, initially led by American-educated
Eduardo Mondlane, who was assassinated in 1969. When independence
was achieved in 1975, the leaders of FRELIMO's military campaign
rapidly established a one-party state allied to the Soviet bloc
and outlawed rival political activity. FRELIMO eliminated political
pluralism, religious educational institutions, and the role of
traditional authorities.
The new
government gave shelter and support to South African (ANC) and
Zimbabwean (ZANU) liberation movements while the governments of
first Rhodesia and later apartheid South Africa fostered and financed
an armed rebel movement in central Mozambique called the Mozambican
National Resistance (RENAMO). Civil war, sabotage from neighboring
states, and economic collapse characterized the first decade of
Mozambican independence. Also marking this period were the mass
exodus of Portuguese nationals, weak infrastructure, nationalization,
and economic mismanagement. During most of the civil war, the
government was unable to exercise effective control outside of
urban areas, many of which were cut off from the capital. An estimated
1 million Mozambicans perished during the civil war, 1.7 million
took refuge in neighboring states, and several million more were
internally displaced. In the third FRELIMO party congress in 1983,
President Samora Machel conceded the failure of socialism and
the need for major political and economic reforms. He died, along
with several advisers, in a suspicious 1986 plane crash.
His successor,
Joaquim Chissano, continued the reforms and began peace talks
with RENAMO. The new constitution enacted in 1990 provided for
a multi-party political system, market-based economy, and free
elections. The civil war ended in October 1992 with the Rome General
Peace Accords. Under supervision of the ONUMOZ peacekeeping force
of the United Nations, peace returned to Mozambique.
By mid-1995
the more than 1.7 million Mozambican refugees who had sought asylum
in neighboring Malawi, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Zambia, Tanzania,
and South Africa as a result of war and drought had returned,
as part of the largest repatriation witnessed in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Additionally, a further estimated 4 million internally displaced
returned to their areas of origin.
