When was guinea bissau colonized

Bissau was founded by Portuguese traders in on land originally belonging to the Papei people. After the end of the legal slave trade in the s, the economy of Bissau plummeted and the city was nearly abandoned. In Bissau replaced Bolama as the capital of Portuguese Guinea and the population once again began to climb.

After Portuguese Guinea achieved independence in and became Guinea-Bissau it retained Bissau as its capital. Bissau became the capital of a nation ravaged by a short war of independence.

At the end of , however, a military coup in Portugal led to the independence of that nation and other Portuguese colonies such as Angola and Mozambique whose pro-independence guerrillas had been fighting longer conflicts against the Portuguese. Bissau resembles Portuguese towns in its architecture and the official language of the city and the country is still Portuguese although few Europeans live there today.

So Portugal's main rivals are the French, their energetic colonial neighbours along the coast on both sides - in Senegal and in the region which now becomes French Guinea. The Portuguese presence in Guinea is not disputed by the French.

The only point at issue is the precise line of the borders. This is established by agreement between the two colonial powers in two series of negotiations, in and As with the other Portuguese territories in Africa Angola and Mozambique , Portugal exercises control over only a small coastal area of Portuguese Guinea when first laying claim to the whole region as a colony. For the next three decades there are costly and continuous campaigns to suppress the local African rulers.

By this process is complete, enabling Portuguese colonial rule to progress in a relatively unruffled state - until the emergence of nationalist movements all over Africa in the s.

In , when a purely political campaign for independence has made predictably little progress, the PAIGC adopts guerrilla tactics. Although heavily outnumbered by Portuguese troops approximately 30, Portuguese to some 10, guerrillas , the PAIGC has the great advantage of safe havens over the border in Senegal and Guinea, both recently independent of French rule.

By the PAIGC controls most of the interior of the country, confining the Portuguese to the coastal and estuary towns. In Cabral sets up a government in exile in Conakry, the capital of neighbouring Guinea.

Here, in , he is assassinated outside his house - just a year before a coup in Portugal dramatically alters the political situation. The new government in Lisbon is disinclined to prop up Portugal's collapsing and by now very expensive empire.

All the Portuguese colonies in Africa are rapidly granted their independence. Portuguese Guinea is the first, in September Opposition casts doubt on allegations. Prime Minister Faustino Imbali is sacked for "failing to meet expectations".

The move comes amid a long-running row with his prime minister. Civilian administration headed by interim President Henrique Rosa and interim Prime Minister Antonio Artur Rosa is sworn in after military and political parties agree to hold parliamentary and presidential elections. He stages a brief occupation of the presidency building. Martinho Ndafa Kabi is appointed as consensus prime minister.

US names two top military officials as international drugs traffickers and freezes their US assets. National Assembly head Raimundo Pereira becomes interim president. A transitional government led by Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo is formed.