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Portuguese Mozambique or Portuguese East Africa are the common terms by which Mozambique is designated when referring to the historic period when it was a Portuguese overseas territory. Former Portuguese Mozambique constituted a string of Portuguese colonies and later a single Portuguese overseas province along the south-east African coast, which now form the Republic of Mozambique. During its history, Portuguese Mozambique had the following formal designations: "Captaincy of Sofala" (1501-1569), "Captaincy of Mozambique and Sofala" (1570-1676), "Captaincy-General of Mozambique and Rivers of Sofala" (1676-1836), "Province of Mozambique" (1836-1926), "Colony of Mozambique" (1926-1951), "Province of Mozambique" (1951-1972) and "State of Mozambique" (1972-1975). Portuguese trading settlements and, later, colonies were formed along the coast from 1498, when Vasco da Gama first reached the Mozambican coast. Lourenço Marques explored the area that is now Maputo Bay in 1544. He settled permanently in present-day Mozambique, where he spent most of his life, and his work was followed by other Portuguese explorers, sailors and traders. Some of these colonies were handed over in the late 19th century for rule by chartered companies such as the ' and the '. In 1951 the colonies were combined into a single overseas province under the name as an integral part of Portugal. Most of the original colonies have given their names to the modern provinces of Mozambique. Mozambique, according to official policy, was not a colony at all but rather a part of the "pluricontinental and multiracial nation" of Portugal. Portugal sought in Mozambique, as it did in all its colonies, to Europeanise the local population and assimilate them into Portuguese culture. Lisbon also wanted to retain the colonies as trading partners and markets for its goods. African inhabitants of the colony were ultimately supposed to become full citizens with full political rights through a long development process. To that end, segregation in Mozambique was minimal compared to that in neighbouring South Africa. However, paid forced labour, to which all Africans were liable if they failed to pay head taxes, was not abolished until the early 1960s. ==Overview== Until the 20th century the land and peoples of Mozambique were barely affected by the Europeans who came to its shores and entered its major rivers. As the Muslim traders, mostly Swahili, were displaced from their coastal centres and routes to the interior by the Portuguese, migrations of Bantu peoples continued and tribal federations formed and reformed as the relative power of local chiefs changed. For four centuries the Portuguese presence was meagre. Coastal and river trading posts were built, abandoned, and built again. Governors sought personal profits to take back to Portugal, and colonists were not attracted to the distant area with its relatively unattractive climate; those who stayed were traders who married local women and successfully maintained relations with local chiefs. In Portugal, however, Mozambique was considered to be a vital part of a world empire. Periodic recognition of the relative insignificance of the revenues it could produce was tempered by the mystique which developed regarding the mission of the Portuguese to bring their civilization to the African territory. It was believed that through missionary activity and other direct contact between Africans and Europeans, the Africans could be taught to appreciate and participate in Portuguese culture. In the last decade of the 19th century and the first part of the 20th century, integration of Mozambique into the structure of the Portuguese nation was begun. After all of the area of the present province had been recognized by other European powers as belonging to Portugal, pacification of the tribes of the interior was completed and the traditional holders of political power were subordinated to the Portuguese. Civil administration was established throughout the area, the building of an infrastructure was begun, and agreements regarding the transit trade of Mozambique's land-locked neighbours to the west were made. Portugal never officially had a racist policy or sanctioned discrimination based on race. Its concept of what it called a "multiracial society" envisaged complete racial integration, including intermarriage, as well as cultural adaptation. The historically determined position of the Portuguese as conquerors and governors of the Africans, however, resulted in barriers to the formation of this ideal. The fact that most Africans were not "cultivated" in the Portuguese sense, and that many participated in what were considered by the Portuguese to be pagan beliefs and uncivilized behaviour, tended to create a low opinion of Africans as a group. The uneducated Portuguese immigrant peasants in urban areas were frequently in direct competition with Africans for jobs and demonstrated jealousies and prejudices with racial overtones. The society was divided into two peripherally interrelated sectors. The urban-based modern sector, comprising altogether between 2 and 2.5 percent of the population, consisting mostly of Europeans but including a few thousand Europeanised Africans, Indians, and Chinese, was dominant in the economic, political, and social realms. Communication between this sector and the large majority of rural Africans was limited; only a small proportion of the Africans could speak Portuguese, the language of the administration and the modern economic sector. Communication between members of the ten different major ethnolinguistic groups was also difficult. Economically and socially, all but a few educated and Europeanised Africans were at a disadvantage vis-à-vis the Europeans. Access to education above the primary level was limited by lack of means, by age limitations, or by lack of sufficient preparations. Access to economic opportunity was limited by lack of adequate training. Between the modern urban and traditional rural sectors of the society was a steadily increasing group of Africans who were loosening their ties with the village and starting to participate in the money economy, to settle in suburbs, and to adopt new customs. This transitional group included individuals who had acquired a modicum of education or skills and some of the aspirations associated with a modern European way of life. Many of them, especially those who had an education beyond the primary level, were more alert politically than the majority of the population, who are either unaware of or uninterested in political issues. It was members of this group, allied with forward-looking European leaders and intellectuals, who had shown the greatest interest in reforms and benefits for the African population. Some among them left the country to become active participants in the independence movement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Portuguese Mozambique」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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