Acting globally, communicating locally
Mozambique
Mounts, rivers, and the sea!
When Portuguese explorers reached Mozambique in 1498, Arab commercial and slave trading settlements had existed along the coast and outlying islands for several centuries.
From about 1500, Portuguese trading posts and forts became regular ports of call on the new route to the east.
By the early twentieth century the Portuguese had shifted the administration of much of Mozambique to large private companies, which established railroad lines to neighboring countries and supplied cheap – often forced – African labor to the mines and plantations of the nearby British colonies and South Africa.
After a socialist-inspired military coup in Portugal overthrew the dictatorship in 1974, Portugal affirmed its intention to grant independence to its remaining colonies. Mozambique became independent on June 25, 1975.
More than 75% of the population engages in small scale agriculture, which still suffers from inadequate infrastructure, commercial networks, and investment. However, 88% of Mozambique's arable land is still uncultivated.
Mozambican Facts
Capital: Maputo
Official language: Portuguese
Population: 19,792,000 (54th)
GDP (PPP) 2005 estimate
Total $27,013 billion (100th)
HDI (2004) 0.390 (low) (168th)
Currency: Metical