Portuguese Africa

State · 1507–1581 CE · at its largest around 1579 CE

The Portuguese trading posts and settlements along the African coast, including holdings in West Africa, Angola and Mozambique, used for trade in gold, ivory and enslaved people.

On its lands while it lasted

Volubilis (400 BCE – 1710 CE): Capital of Mauretania (212 BCE–42), Idrisids (793–974).
Palmyra (c. 261–1929 CE): Capital of Palmyrene Empire (261–269).
Old Dongola (c. 500–1518 CE): Capital of Makuria (500–1414), Makuria Kingdom (1415–1518).
Trans-Saharan trade (c. 700–1600 CE): Camel caravans crossed the Sahara between Morocco and the Niger bend, exchanging North African goods and Saharan salt from mines such as Taghaza for West African gold, enriching the empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai.
Mali Empire (c. 1235–1670 CE): West African empire founded by Sundiata Keita that at its height in the 14th century stretched from the Atlantic coast to the Niger bend and controlled major gold sources.
Mamluk Sultanate (1250–1517 CE): Mamluk slave-soldiers seized power in Egypt, founding a sultanate that ruled Egypt and Syria until the Ottoman conquest.
Kingdom of Kongo (c. 1390–1914 CE): Central African kingdom with its capital at Mbanza Kongo; after Portuguese contact in 1483 its rulers adopted Christianity, and it later became deeply entangled in the Atlantic slave trade.
Kingdom of Mutapa (c. 1430–1760 CE): Shona kingdom between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers that succeeded Great Zimbabwe and traded gold with Swahili and later Portuguese merchants.
Askia Muhammad I (c. 1443 CE – 1538 CE): Emperor of Songhai from 1493 to 1528 who expanded and centralised the empire and promoted Islamic learning in Timbuktu.
Afonso I of Kongo (c. 1456 CE – 1542 CE): King of Kongo (Nzinga Mbemba) who promoted Christianity and wrote to the Portuguese king protesting the abuses of the slave trade.
Songhai Empire (c. 1464–1591 CE): Empire centred on Gao that under Sunni Ali and Askia Muhammad became one of the largest states in African history before falling to a Moroccan invasion in 1591.
Slave trade, Angola to Brazil (c. 1550–1850 CE): The largest single branch of the Atlantic slave trade carried millions of captives from West Central Africa, above all Luanda, directly to Brazilian ports such as Salvador and Rio de Janeiro, until Brazil ended imports in 1850.
Luanda (1576 CE): Founded by the Portuguese Paulo Dias de Novais in 1576, it became one of the largest slave-trading ports of the Atlantic and is now the capital of Angola.
Battle of Alcácer Quibir (1578 CE): A Moroccan army defeated the invading forces of King Sebastian of Portugal, who died along with two rival Moroccan sultans; the battle led to the Iberian Union.