Portuguese Expansion and Consolidation of the Slave Trade in Angola in the 1620s

Timeline

1. 1621–1623Luanda and the mouth of the Kwanza River · AngolaIn 1621 Dom João de Sousa Coutinho became governor of Angola, reorganizing colonial defenses shaken by the Jaga invasions of 1617–1621, strengthening the Luanda fort and Jesuit mission stations, and continuing to press into the Ndongo interior with Imbangala mercenaries as the vanguard.
2. 1624–1629Kwanza River basin · AngolaIn the mid-to-late 1620s, Portuguese forces and allies continued attacking the remnants of Ndongo king Mbande Ngola and penetrated to the Matamba frontier; Njinga Mbande went into exile around 1624 and turned to dealing with Portugal, while regional warfare and captive-taking intensified in parallel.
3. 1621–1630Port of Luanda · LuandaIn the 1620s Luanda became a major port for slave imports into Portuguese America (especially Bahia and Pernambuco in Brazil); war captives and Imbangala raid captives were transshipped through it, and export volumes rose markedly in the 1620s, with colonial expansion and the slave trade forming mutually reinforcing structures.