Angola is located in southwest Africa, bordering the Democratic Republic of the Congo, CongoBu, Zambia and Namibia, with a total area of about 1.246 million square kilometers and a coastline of about 1650 kilometers.
Angola's vast territory and long coastline have nearly landlocked the neighbouring Drc. Congo. The Democratic Republic of the Congo refers to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, located in central Africa, with its capital in Kinshasa. There is also a Republic of the Congo in the north of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the capital is Brazzaville, and in order to distinguish the two Congos, according to the name of the capital, it is customary to refer to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo to CongoBu.
The Dr. Congo is a large territory with a total area of 2.34 million square kilometers, but the coastline of the Dr. Congo is very short, only about 37 kilometers, which is a serious mismatch with the territory of the Dr. Congo. This short 37 km coastline is located between two territories of Angola, with the Angolan enclave of Cabinda in the north and the Angolan mainland in the south. Angola's two territories are very close, almost blocking the 2.34 million square kilometers of the Dr. Congo into a landlocked country, so how did the Angolan enclave Cabinda come into being?
This is mainly related to the struggle between Belgium and Portugal. After the beginning of the Age of Discovery, European countries began to expand their colonies around the world, of which Spain and Portugal were the first European countries to carry out colonization activities.
Portugal is a small country located on the Iberian Peninsula in Europe, with a total area of only about 92,000 square kilometers, but after the beginning of the colonial era, Portugal seized a large number of colonies around the world. As early as 1475, portugal discovered the coast of Angola, erecting a monument in the southern part of the Congo estuary. However, Portugal was still very weak at the time, and its control was limited to the coastal areas, and after about two hundred years, it was not until around 1675 that Portugal completely controlled the Angolan mainland. Since then, Portugal's colonization of the Congo River has come to a temporary end.
By the 19th century, France and Belgium began to colonize the Congo River Valley region, and seeing france and Belgium expanding in the Congo River region, Portugal immediately joined the competition. Based in Angola, the Portuguese expanded northward and controlled a piece of land north of the Congo River, which was the Cabinda region, then known as the Portuguese Congo.
By the mid-19th century, the Congo had been partitioned into French Congo, the Belgian Congo and the Portuguese Congo. At that time, the Portuguese Congo was very close to Portuguese Angola, and Portugal was very eager to connect the two colonies into one, but if Portugal achieved its goal, the Belgian Congo would completely lose its coastline, so the contradictions between the two countries continued to intensify.
By 1884, the European countries had convened the Berlin Conference to divide Africa, which was attended by a total of 15 European countries. At the Berlin Conference, Portugal said that they were the first to discover the Congo estuary, which had Portuguese Angola and Portuguese Congo, so the northern part of the Congo River should belong to Portugal, so that the two Portuguese colonies could be connected. But Belgium has always insisted that the northern part of the Congo River belongs to the Belgian Congo, and if this land is lost, the Belgian Congo will lose its access to the sea.
Belgium was very weak compared to Portugal's colonial territory, so most European countries chose to support Belgium and put pressure on Portugal to abandon the northern part of the Congo River.
After the Berlin Conference, Belgium and Portugal demarcated the borders of the Belgian Congo, the Portuguese Congo, and Portuguese Angola. At that time, the Portuguese Congo and Portuguese Angola belonged to the same level of relations, but in 1956, Portugal abolished the Portuguese Congo and incorporated the colony into Portuguese Angola, after which the Cabinda region became part of Angola, and in 1975, after the independence of Angola, Cabinda officially became the territory of Angola.