1582 to 1850 · Africanspan
Luanda ships more people than any other place in Africa
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The Portuguese founded Luanda on the Angolan coast in 1575. After 1620 it embarked more captive Africans than anywhere else in sub Saharan Africa, and it held that position for the better part of three hundred years. Almost nothing about the operation changed. Portuguese ships had the port largely to themselves, and Brazilian ships took over from them, so the same two flags handled the traffic from beginning to end while the rest of the African coast changed hands repeatedly. The supply came from far inland. The Lunda empire, built by Bantu speaking rulers east of the coast, roughly doubled its territory through conquest, and the wars that achieved that sent prisoners toward the sea in a steady flow. Command of the business moved even while the port stayed the same. Lisbon merchants ran it at first, and direction passed to Recife, Salvador da Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, so a Portuguese fort in Africa ended up working chiefly for buyers in South America.
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