People's Republic of Angola: Map & History
Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the western coast of Southern Africa.
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Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the western coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country after Brazil in both total area and population and is the seventh-largest country in Africa. It is bordered by Namibia to the south, the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Zambia to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. The Angolan province of Cabinda is an exclave on the Atlantic coast, bordering the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The capital and most populous city is Luanda.
Modern Countries Once Part of People's Republic of Angola
At its mapped extent, People's Republic of Angola covered territory in 2 present-day countries. The period shown is when the mapped borders include that country, and the note says how much of it.
States and Provinces
Largest Present-Day Cities in Its Territory
Each opens on the live map inside People's Republic of Angola's borders of that time.
Derived by testing mapped cities against this polity's dated territorial polygons, so the list is indicative and follows the borders in the source dataset.
People's Republic of Angola in Depth
History
Modern Angola was populated predominantly by nomadic Khoi and San peoples prior to the first Bantu migrations. The Khoi and San peoples were hunter-gatherers, rather than practising pastoralism or cultivation of crops.
In the first millennium BC, they were displaced by Bantu peoples arriving from the north, most of whom likely originated in what is today northwestern Nigeria and southern Niger. Bantu speakers introduced the cultivation of bananas and taro, as well as maintenance of large cattle herds, to Angola's central highlands and the Luanda plain. Due to a number of inhibiting geographic factors throughout the territory of Angola, namely harshly traversable land, hot/humid climate, and a plethora of deadly diseases, intermingling of pre-colonial tribes in Angola had been rare.
Government and politics
The Angolan government is composed of three branches of government: executive, legislative and judicial. Executive authority is exercised by the President with the assistance of the Vice-President and the Council of Ministers.
The legislative branch comprises a 220-seat unicameral legislature, the National Assembly of Angola, elected from multi-member province-wide and nationwide constituencies using party-list proportional representation. For decades, political power has been concentrated in the presidency. After 38 years of rule, in 2017 President dos Santos stepped down from MPLA leadership. The leader of the winning party at the parliamentary elections in August 2017 would become the next president of Angola.
Economy
Angola has diamonds, oil, gold, copper, a rich wildlife (which was dramatically depleted during the civil war), forests, and fossil fuels. Since independence, oil and diamonds have been the most important economic resources. Smallholder and plantation agriculture dramatically dropped during the Angolan Civil War, but began to recover after 2002.
Angola's economy has in recent years moved on from the disarray caused by a quarter-century of Angolan civil war to become the fastest-growing economy in Africa and one of the fastest-growing in the world, with an average GDP growth of 20% between 2005 and 2007. In the period 2001–10, Angola had the world's highest annual average GDP growth, at 11.1%.
Culture
Angolan culture has been heavily influenced by Portuguese culture, especially in language and religion, and the culture of the indigenous ethnic groups of Angola, predominantly Bantu culture.
The diverse ethnic communities—the Ovimbundu, Ambundu, Bakongo, Chokwe, Mbunda and other peoples—to varying degrees maintain their own cultural traits, traditions and languages, but in the cities, where slightly more than half of the population now lives, a mixed culture has been emerging since colonial times; in Luanda, since its foundation in the 16th century.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Angola (CC BY-SA 4.0).
People's Republic of Angola: Key Facts
| Capital | Luanda |
|---|---|
| Official language | Portuguese |
| Form of government | republic, presidential system |
| Currency | kwanza |
| Founded | 25 August 1992 |
Preceded by
- People's Republic of Angola
Facts from Wikidata Q916 (CC0).
People's Republic of Angola Timeline
Key historical inflections from foundation to peak territorial expansion
Expansion to peak recorded area of 1,257,376 km² in 2000 CE.
People's Republic of Angola: Frequently Asked Questions
When did People's Republic of Angola exist?
People's Republic of Angola is dated to 1976 CE – 2024 CE, in the Industrial era.
What was the capital of People's Republic of Angola?
The capital of People's Republic of Angola was Luanda.
How large was People's Republic of Angola at its peak?
At its peak in 2000 People's Republic of Angola covered about 1,257,376 km².
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